Lapua Brass - what prep steps?

[Luke_NL]

Hi guys,

Question for the long range enthousiasts; What prep steps do you omit from the full match work-up (great article btw) if any when spoiled with two boxes of shiny new lapua brass?

I've run them through with flashhole-deburr, actually surprised at the burrs I did catch. I want to chamfer them lightly, but should probably size the necks first right? If so, would I be wise to re-adjust the tension given the slightly thicker necks of Lapua compared to say RWS?

I've found the brass eerily similar in dimension, should I just load up and shoot them all? I have a long range trip coming up but little time to spare beforehand... So I'm kind of hoping the correct answer is "you're GTG as is", but I fear I should at least fire them once, size, trim, rechamfer & deburr and then weigh... Will be bringing my kit to the range anyway, as its a five day trip

thanks, Luke

 

[watercam]

You did not mention which caliber. For conventional Long Range I am shooting .308 Palma brass and .243. While their brass is very good I still outside turn the necks about 70%. Every so often you will find some with a tad extra overall thickness. Even though they are fairly uniform, I still follow the advice of a fellow LR competitor and sort the loaded rounds by weight. That sort of covers the ground of sorting individual components by weight. I do not sort bullets nor keep brass sorted by weight. By weighing loaded rounds the overall effect is similar. Think about it. If a case is a tad heavy but has the same powder charge, pressure will be a tad higher. If a bullet is a tad heavy, pressure will be a tad higher. If both are a tad heavy, pressure will be that much higher. It seems to even out elevation differences between like weighted cartridges.
However, if you are shooting F-Class, you can not do enough of any and all prep. The elevation requirements for that game are extreme.

 

[dboyles]

I'd size the necks and chamfer the mouths and call it good, if the cases measure as close to each other as you say. Maybe I'd hit the primer pockets with a uniformer if it would take anything off. That's just me, though, and I don't do any fireforming and neck turning type of stuff.

 

[savageshooter86]

some info that might be worth looking at. It is a thread I started a few months back about what to do with Lapua brass.

http://forum.accurateshooter.com/index.php?topic=3814563.msg36222655#msg36222655

 

[Turbulent Turtle]

The only thing I do to virgin Lapua brass is to run a mandrel through the case mouths to uniform them. Then I primer them, load and go shoot.