Lapua brass ?

[rebs]

Is Lapua brass in 223 cal worth the price ?

 

[watercam]

I have been shooting 400 rounds of Lapua .223 brass in hundred-count boxes kept carefully away from each other. They all seem to be wearing the same. I anneal every 4th firing and coming up on my 10th firing with all of them. No complaints.
That said, Winchester brass has held up pretty much the same up to 8-10 loadings.
Will keep at it until primers won't stay in the pockets and report back. I am sure there are a few with more info to share...

 

[338 dude]

Is Lapua brass in 223 cal worth the price ?

Lapua brass is always worth the price, it will pay you back overtime

 

[rebs]

accuracy wise will Lapua shoot better than LC fully prepped brass ?

 

[jepp2]

Is Lapua brass in 223 cal worth the price ?

The main benefit of Lapua and other premium brass is that the case necks are more consistent in thickness. 223 Lapua brass isn't very expensive, so yes, I think it is. I bought 600 rounds of loaded Lapua 223 ammo for nearly the price of the brass a few years ago.

I ran a case life test to find out how long LC range pick up once fired brass would last in my AR. Kept reading where folks toss it after 5 loadings. Some of the pickup brass had loose primer pockets. I started with 20 cases, kept loading and shooting them. I annealed every 5'th firing. I wanted to see how long they would last and how they would fail. First case failure came on the 24'th firing. Had the last failure on the 37'th firing. None failed from stretching due to repeated AR firing and sizing. Nearly all failed due to cracks in the case neck from gouges due to the barrel extension. It was in a newly rebarreled AR. I now stone the points on the 2 offending barrel extension lugs.

 

[jepp2]

accuracy wise will Lapua shoot better than LC fully prepped brass ?

I have a mixed experience on that. I thought it did in my AR with neck turned Lapua, but not in my 40XBR in 222. Winchester brass out shot the Lapua in that one.

 

[1K6BRA]

 

[dnellans]

Timely thread - as I recently just bought 1000 223 lapua for a new bolt gun.

I’ll start by saying that I’m a lapua fan, it’s consistently been the best brass I’ve tried, across any caliber they make…. until now.

This 223 brass is not just below the standards I’ve seen in their other calibers, I would say it’s actually bad. Roughly 1/10 pieces have brass obstructing the flash hole and there is 8 grains of weigh spread across the 1000, with no tight bell curve - about 200 pieces in each grain bin.

Contrast that to 1000 pieces of BR brass that all fell within a 2 grain window and zero flash hole issues

I bought lapua because I didn’t want to weight sort, or neck turn for a fun gun but now I’m stuck. I have yet to be able to get SD/ES below about 18/40 for 5 shot groups using my same process as my BRA which is single digits for both.

So right now my personal opinion is that their 223 brass is no better than anything else, which is frustrating.

 

[Liven The Dream]

I run two .284 F/Class Rifles these days. Lapua is hard to beat .......
Now as a I told you so. I found 50 pcs. of New Winchester Bass ?? The Flash holes are Key Holes .....
That Winchester Brass gave me the lowest SD 2.79 ????????? It also has less Volume .
I will still use Lapua at $1.34 ea.

 

[Twicepop]

Years back Precision Shooting did a brass longevity test on five different brands of rifle brass. They were Federal. Lapua, Norma, Remington and Winchester all new unfired brass at the start of the test. By the twelfth load cycle all three brands of the American made brass had failed due to s combination of body/neck splits and case head separations. By the 30th load cycle, the Norma brass had also failed for many of the same reasons. At the 50th load cycle the test was call off, the author of the story said this was done only because the Lapua brass had work hardened but had not failed. He also said that he felt the brass could have been annealed and the test continued but did not, at least for the article. No I do not remember what rifle it was shot in or the caliber of that rifle.

 

[Ned Ludd]

My response to the OP's question would hinge on the intended use and expectations for the brass. I've used Lapua .223 Rem brass for years in F-TR bolt rifles, and it is certainly very good brass. However, the .223 Rem loads with heavy (85-90 gr+) bullets we typically use are pretty hard on brass, unless one chooses to hit a lower pressure (slower) node, with a commensurate decrease in performance. In my hands, Lapua brass with my competition 90 VLD loads is lucky to give more than 4 firings before the primer pockets are too loose to use further. That is fine and I have accepted that brass life will be poor by choosing to run such loads. Nonetheless, Lapua brass is pretty pricey to get only four firings. I've tried a couple lesser cost brands, but the precision simply wasn't the same. So the intended use and expectations for the brass are important information in terms of making a decision on what brand to use. What type of shooting will it be used for? What kind of precision is expected? How hot will the loads be (i.e. brass life)?

In an attempt to find .223 Rem brass that had the precision I was looking for, but wasn't quite so expensive, I recently purchased some bulk Norma .223 Rem brass from Midsouth Shooters:

https://www.midsouthshooterssupply.com/item/0001320257213b250/223-remington-unprimed-new-rifle-brass-bulk-250-count

I cannot yet make any statement on the life of the brass. However, the precision has been every bit as good as Lapua. The average case volume is slightly larger (+0.3 - 0.4 gr), and the cases need a little more attention around the flash holes than Lapua. Nonetheless, I am so far very impressed with the results I'm getting using the Norma brass. It is basically half the cost of Lapua .223 Rem brass. It might be worth consideration as a slightly lower-cost alternative.

 

[RegionRat]

In my situation the use of Lapua is worth the price in bolt guns, but I don't typically run it in an AR unless I don't have anything else. An AR platform is hard on brass whether you are chasing scores or just blasting.

The characteristics that drive that trade off for me, is what you think your time is worth both when you plan to use-as-is, or when you plan to invest time in more sophisticated sorting and prep.

The up front cost on the box is easy to know. The cost of working with any brand after you have prepped 500 pieces is a different accounting. Do this enough times in your life with the goal of accuracy, and the cost difference of the box at the start stops being so important.

 

[Link]

If you have a completive rifle and are going to shoot serious targets then yes Lauaua.
If you are just going down the rabbit hole 1/2 way and can find range brass go on the cheep;}
Is your rig as good as your brass?

 

[Rset]

In a Bolt Gun, Lapua
In a Gas gun, NO.
An AR is hard on brass and you will see not appreciable benefit in paying the higher price for Lapua in that platform.

 

[mikecr]

I use brown box Lapua in 223 & 6br. No blue box.
And I'm not a brand hugger.
For me, the economics of it comes down to how much life you get out of it, and how much work you'll need to put into it to reach and manage intent.

I used norma for a bit with 223 and it was definitely better made, and way more consistent than Lapua.
But the alloy was soft, primer pockets opened pretty quick, and it ended up a bad deal for me.
Went to Lapua, and none has ever needed replacement for me.

Now there is 'blue box' and I suspect it's alloy is no longer brown box.
I'm in no way motivated to go down a soft alloy path again, so new Lapua is not in my future until I find out otherwise about it.

 

[Metal God]

Is Lapua brass in 223 cal worth the price ?

That depends on the price I guess . It's really good brass and worth the price they were 2 years ago . Not sure how much it's going for now . I recently had been looking for starling 44mag brass and saw some for $300 for a 500ct bag and almost bought it until I found a 500ct bag for something like $150 . I ended up buying 700 at right around $200 shipped . Point being , what is the price you are asking if they are worth it for ? They may very well not be worth the price at this time .

I'd also ask do you or whom ever have a rifle and the ability to shoot well enough to see the difference between LC and Lapua brass on paper ? That answer may very well answer if they are worth it .

 

[barefooter56]

I use brown box Lapua in 223 & 6br. No blue box.
And I'm not a brand hugger.
For me, the economics of it comes down to how much life you get out of it, and how much work you'll need to put into it to reach and manage intent.

I used norma for a bit with 223 and it was definitely better made, and way more consistent than Lapua.
But the alloy was soft, primer pockets opened pretty quick, and it ended up a bad deal for me.
Went to Lapua, and none has ever needed replacement for me.

Now there is 'blue box' and I suspect it's alloy is no longer brown box.
I'm in no way motivated to go down a soft alloy path again, so new Lapua is not in my future until I find out otherwise about it.

Box changed. Brass did not. There is another packaging change coming to help reduce / eliminate damage of cartridge cases during shipping in 2022.

 

[barefooter56]

Timely thread - as I recently just bought 1000 223 lapua for a new bolt gun.

I’ll start by saying that I’m a lapua fan, it’s consistently been the best brass I’ve tried, across any caliber they make…. until now.

This 223 brass is not just below the standards I’ve seen in their other calibers, I would say it’s actually bad. Roughly 1/10 pieces have brass obstructing the flash hole and there is 8 grains of weigh spread across the 1000, with no tight bell curve - about 200 pieces in each grain bin.

Contrast that to 1000 pieces of BR brass that all fell within a 2 grain window and zero flash hole issues

I bought lapua because I didn’t want to weight sort, or neck turn for a fun gun but now I’m stuck. I have yet to be able to get SD/ES below about 18/40 for 5 shot groups using my same process as my BRA which is single digits for both.

So right now my personal opinion is that their 223 brass is no better than anything else, which is frustrating.

Please contact us on this issue at : support@capstonepg.com . Any one of us can help you with your questions on this. Thank you.

 

[DocDoc]

I remember seeing a slight difference in the composition listed for brown and blue box lapua brass.

 

[fkimble@charter.net]

A few years back, it was mentioned that 223 Lapua brass was not made by Lapua but farmed out to a vendor. Is that still the case?

Frank