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LAPUA BLUE IS NOT GOLD even though it costs that much!!

wang243

Silver $$ Contributor
Got in my long awaited first order of 6MM Norma brass in the BLUE box today and I am not a Happy Camper >:( What happened to the quality of the now hard to get and expansive Lapua brass?

Out of the 500 cases I found 120 that had bent necks!!! For years when I purchased Lapua brass in the gold boxes I maybe found maybe 4 or 5 per 100 with problem necks and most of the time little or nothing had to be done to the rest of the cases before they could be loaded. Now almost all of them will need some attention before I can do anything with them.

Is anyone else seeing this or did I just get Lucky :-[

I will now have to purchase a 6MM expander mandrel before I can even start to form them into 30BR cases, so does anybody have a 6MM K&M expander mandrel for sale?

Warren

P.S. Guard those gold boxes with your life!!! :)
 
Have a talk with Kevin Thomas, he will get things straightened out with you. He is on this forum so if you search for him you should find him, although I'm sure he will be in this thread shortly.
 
I bought 400 blue box, 6mmBR cases a couple of months ago and not a single dinged case in the lot. I do run them through a 6mm expander per the recommendation in the cartridge guide. Sorry for your problems, but I'm a very happy camper. Maybe the problem is with the shipper?
 
I've bought several box's of the blue plastic boxed 6BR, and 220 Russian also, and have no complaints. I've, in fact, had my chambering reamer reground to meet the new neck thickness requirements. I'm actually seeing a little less variation in neck wall thickness, compared to the gold cardboard box. Did not have to straighten a single case neck/ no dents.
 
I have read that they are working on the problem. It has to do with the blue box having to much room inside for the loose cases. they need to put some sort of packing in the box to keep them form getting beat up.
 
I know that is disappointing, but the cure is to just run a 6mm expander down the neck. We recommend this process for all Lapua brass prior to the first loading. Running the expander down the necks reduces neck tension and ensures that the brass is more consistent. Bent necks are ugly but they should "iron out" with the expander.
 
jkohler said:
I have read that they are working on the problem. It has to do with the blue box having to much room inside for the loose cases. they need to put some sort of packing in the box to keep them form getting beat up.

I agree! There was tons of room for them to bounce around in my 6.5x47 blue boxes and with the way freight gets tossed, I am not surprised. A little foam would do the trick. I run mine through the sizer anyway.
 
wang243 said:
Got in my long awaited first order of 6MM Norma brass in the BLUE box today and I am not a Happy Camper >:( What happened to the quality of the now hard to get and expansive Lapua brass?

Out of the 500 cases I found 120 that had bent necks!!! For years when I purchased Lapua brass in the gold boxes I maybe found maybe 4 or 5 per 100 with problem necks and most of the time little or nothing had to be done to the rest of the cases before they could be loaded. Now almost all of them will need some attention before I can do anything with them.

Is anyone else seeing this or did I just get Lucky :-[

I will now have to purchase a 6MM expander mandrel before I can even start to form them into 30BR cases, so does anybody have a 6MM K&M expander mandrel for sale?

Warren

P.S. Guard those gold boxes with your life!!! :)
Warren,
DO NOT BUY A EXPANDER MANDREL!! I will send you the one I bought from you and you can send it back when done, whenever that may be, probably $1.39 ea way send me your address again and I will mail it to you.
Wayne.
 
Warren,
No problem, if you run into something else, I have doubles and triples of everything, don't hesitate to P.M or call me.
waynebezona@cpcinternet.com
I know that's a bummer on the brass but think of the smile you will have when you see that first ragged hole ;D and it will only get better from there ;)
Wayne.
 
If you are making 30BR brass, and plan on using a mandrel to neck up, whats the issue? You should ALWAYS run brand new brass in a mandrel before you load them no matter what brass it is. You needs those necks uniform, then you can size them with a bushing to ensure proper neck tension.

If you do decide to neck those up to a 30BR using the K&M mandrel, go slow and easy. Those necks seem to split a little easier. I would also check the shoulders for a slight "CREASED DENT". That little dent will work it's way from the sholder to the neck when sizing up, and (IMO) may cause neck spliting when shot.
 
I also had a recent lot of 6.5x47 blue box brass come in and about 15+ casses had bad flats/dings in them. I never saw so many messed up casses in a lot of 100 before. My old 6BR brass (300) maybe had 2 per 100 issues. Not sure what the QC is like anymore but something there has changed, I'm guessing suply and demand... I run them through an expander before turning them but it still makes you wonder. They should throw a few foam peanuts in the box to keep thigs from rattling around so much for the money. My buddy buys Nolsler custom comp. brass in 7-08 and it comes mint every time. Might be something to try out?
 
I have to defend Lapua. The 6br cases I recently purchased were expanded, turned ,they were not weight sorted, nor primer pocket uniformed, and they proceeded to win two matches in a row for a rookie shooter in 600 yrd F-class. That is golden!
 
Bozo if you have triples of everything,could you send me a bat actioned 6 br I could borrow for a couple years,LOL!
 
jonbearman said:
Bozo if you have triples of everything,could you send me a bat actioned 6 br I could borrow for a couple years,LOL!
Jon,
I am sitting here LMAO :D Abosolutely my friend, sky is the limit for you. I bought a 6br and everything it takes to load and shoot one with precision from Warren about a year ago, since then I have bought two or three more of everything for it, he is a great guy that gave us a great deal and wanted to return the favor if he could use anything to get back into the shooting world.
Wayne.
 
Yes I agree Lapua use to be of the highest quality but the new thinner brass that I purchased earlier this year wasn't up to par. There's absolutely no excuse for the company's failure to properly package their product. Since they went to the new blue box packaging I've purchased 500 pieces of 6.5x47 which had close to 10% of the cases necks dented. I also purchased 800 pieces of 6br brass on two different occasions and found badly dented necks on close to 10% on the first order of 300 but the last 500 pieces had 10% badly dented with a addition 10% having smaller dents. One box of 6br actually had 8 cases that were flawed with a deep forming crease that extended from the shoulder junction half way up the neck and had to be discarded. I for one find that inexcusable. You'll have a hard time convincing me that their QC hasn't slipped considerably.

RJ
 
RJinTexas said:
Yes I agree Lapua use to be of the highest quality but the new thinner brass that I purchased earlier this year wasn't up to par. There's absolutely no excuse for the company's failure to properly package their product. Since they went to the new blue box packaging I've purchased 500 pieces of 6.5x47 which had close to 10% of the cases necks dented. I also purchased 800 pieces of 6br brass on two different occasions and found badly dented necks on close to 10% on the first order of 300 but the last 500 pieces had 10% badly dented with a addition 10% having smaller dents. One box of 6br actually had 8 cases that were flawed with a deep forming crease that extended from the shoulder junction half way up the neck and had to be discarded. I for one find that inexcusable. You'll have a hard time convincing me that their QC hasn't slipped considerably.

RJ
RJ,
I remember a topic not to long back talking about the crease in the neck/shoulder junction on Lapua brass, I had one of the 300 or so 6br's I bought the last time, I can accept that once in a while, but 8 is unacceptable, and inexcusable.
Wayne.
 
Warren and RJ,

Sorry to hear that you've had problems with the new brass, but both of the problems you've described are ones that we're aware of and are currently working on. The switch to the new plastic boxes has resulted in an increase in case neck dings and dents. This, as has already been pointed out by others here, is due to the empty space that allows the product to shift, bounce and tumble during transport and handling. We're aware of the problem now, and are working on finding a suitable packing filler to eliminate this. Unfortunately, this takes awhile as there are time studys to ensure that the filler material doesn't react with the brass and cause discoloration. Yeah, that's a behind the scenes peek at commercial production and shipping travails we all deal with. It'll be fixed, sooner rather than later. In the meantime, as has been suggested, we recommend running new brass (not just ours, but any new brass either over an expander mandral at least, or through a neck die. Many don't want to hear that, but it's just good reloading practice. Call it the handloader's "due diligence." Until then, all I can ask is that you bear with us. If there are any cases that are truly damaged beyond being salvaged, by all means, give me a shout and we'll make it right. We want happy, satisfied customers.

As for the case shoulder wrinkles, this is one that we've had some issues with recently, specifically in the 6mmBR and 6.5x284 cases. It's a result of using hard brass (which we traditionally always have) and it's not forming correctly during the necking process. When the brass is just a bit too hard, it will wrinkle rather than form, especially with fairly sharp-shouldered designs. We have a monitoring system in place to catch these, but we've had a number of them come through recently. The production crew has been notified as have the QC folks, and we're now trying to clean up the fallout from this. In these instances, please, drop me a line and let me know about them. A quick photo over email is enough, and I'll be happy to replace them. Be helpful if you've got the lot number, so we can record this into the file. We're an ISO9001 certified company, which means that we're required to have a set program for dealing with and resolving customer complaints. Our ulitmate goal is to keep you, the customer, satisfied with our products. Just let me know, and we'll make that happen.

If you don't see me on the boards from time to time, or can't reach me at the office, just be aware that I do spend a fair amount of time on the road. I was up in Lodi for the Midwest Palma last week, and we have several other trips coming up shortly. But drop me a line at ksthomas@lapua.us, or call the office at (660) 826-3232 and we'll get it taken care of.
 
Warren, RJ, and others,
I work in the ammunition's business and all the fiber optic sensors, cameras, and light curtains and even the best personnel won't catch every piece of bad brass, or whatever your manufacturing on that large of scale, I am unaware of Lapua's exact process but it can't be that much different then ours, they have huge roll of brass wire and as Kevin stated that is key, if the wire that is purchased is faulty, too hard,soft,air pockets or any number of things that can go wrong in the making of wire it WILL cause defective cases, it is usually caught by the person running the piece of equipment making the cases, if not there are several steps and usually it gets caught in one of the processes before it gets in the shipping box, however sometimes a bad one gets through, I admit 8 is a lot and a mystery as to why, but remember these huge rolls of wire are being ate up in big machines that will produce literally thousands upon thousands of cases per shift. As Kevin stated lot # can be key in helping Lapua as well as other would be customers as they store them in lots and with the lot # they will pull crates of brass and overtime employees will go through it all and if there is a problem it will be found and fixed, what most people don't realize is this happens usually before it ever gets to the streets, sometime's whole lots are scrapped at a huge loss to the company so you don't get any bad cases, and depending on the circums tance it don't always take very many bad ones to get the lot scrapped. The big difference is Lapua most generally puts out a top winning product, the really BIG difference is you don't see other manufacturers having a representative out here taking care of the customers like Kevin is doing, Remington is having problems but I don't see one of there guy's out here. Sometimes change is good and sometimes it doesn't pan out, the new blue box is neat and useful but after the fact is damaging cases, at least Lapua acknowledges the problem and is working on a solution that's better than we can say for Redding and there crappy die boxes ??? or Remigtons off centered flash holes ??? I say thanks to Lapua and Kevin Thomas for at least listening to the customers and taking care of them when there is a problem, that's customer service at its finest.
Wayne.
 

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