lapua Factory ammo brass

[swadiver]

Is the brass used in Lapua's factory loaded .308 ammo the same large rifle primer brass we buy in bulk to reload? pretty sure the factory loaded stuff has a crimped primer, correct?

 

[Comrade Terry]

Is the brass used in Lapua's factory loaded .308 ammo the same large rifle primer brass we buy in bulk to reload? pretty sure the factory loaded stuff has a crimped primer, correct?

No crimped primer.

 

[swadiver]

i see three detents spaced around the primer pockets that i don't see in the bulk brass. also, i weighed them last night and they are quite a bit lighter than the bulk as well? what gives?

 

[Comrade Terry]

i see three detents spaced around the primer pockets that i don't see in the bulk brass. also, i weighed them last night and they are quite a bit lighter than the bulk as well? what gives?

I don't know what to tell you. The last box of Lapua .308 Win I had didn't have crimped primers. That was 3 or 4 years ago, and things may have changed. Or, you may have a different product than I had. I still have that brass.

 

[rkittine]

How old is the Factory Ammo you have? I have 9 Boxes of Lapua 6mmBR Norma. The boxes are Red and Black and I have been told that they were made with the older Gold Box Brass. I have a couple of boxes of Lapua Factory Blue Box Ammo in the same caliber and they seem to be identical. I will know when I fire off some of the new ammo and compare the empties.

I have some Blue Box .308 Lapua Factory ammo and it does not appear to have crimped primer pockets. I have not had any of their older .308s or Palma assuming they make that.

Bob

 

[Laurie]

Bear in mind that Lapua is a large scale supplier of 7.62/308 for police and military contracts and their loadings / components may have varied for these customers over the years. If intended for automatic weapons or required to comply with the appropriate Nato Stanag, a crimp will be necessary. I've used the occasional carton of the company's 308 Win match ammo loaded with Scenars over the last 20 years or so and the brass has always been indistinguishable from that sold to handloaders. In the days when Boxer primed 308 brass was like hen's teeth in Europe and a lot of handloading done with 'once-fired' brass, I've also seen different Lapua 308s, some headstamped '7.62X51'.

 

[swadiver]

Thanks for the inputs. I bought this brass from a forum member here who said it was twice fired factory original ammo. Fired in a bolt action rifle. I bought it about 5 months ago. It appears fine, but the weight difference is is of some concern. A quick test showed a small amount additional water volume in this brass. Will have to retest my Juggernaut loads in this brass. I will try to post a pic of the primer pocket area

 

[geraldgee]

I have used both 6.5x47L and 6BR ammo and found no crimps
.

 

[swadiver]

Here is a pic of the brass in question. note the indents around the primer pocket. none of my bulk Lapua brass purchases have that

 

[geraldgee]

I've not seen Lapua brass like that before. It has an odd looking primer strike as well, unless you enhanced it for the picture.

Gerald

 

[expiper]

I've not seen Lapua brass like that before. It has an odd looking primer strike as well, unless you enhanced it for the picture.

Gerald

there is no primer in the ctg. above....Roger

 

[M-61]

Interesting how a picture can be interpreted. Blown primer, regular primer strike, and no primer.

 

[swadiver]

there is no primer. fresh from decapping and stainless steel media tumbling

 

[jlow]

The one thing to know about getting brass from loaded ammo is regardless of the source, you are likely to be getting brass from multiple unrelated batches simply because of the size of the run at the factory - I know this from personal experience (NOT with Lapua ammo). Because of this, it's a bit like buying brass potentially at different time points and with different batch numbers. I find that this tends to increase your chance that you will have a wider range of case weight/volume.

That stuff is crimped.

 

[geraldgee]

My bad on the primer comment - I looked at it on my phone at work and told myself it was an odd primer strike.

 

[swadiver]

work makes you see strange things.

 

[swadiver]

The one thing to know about getting brass from loaded ammo is regardless of the source, you are likely to be getting brass from multiple unrelated batches simply because of the size of the run at the factory - I know this from personal experience (NOT with Lapua ammo). Because of this, it's a bit like buying brass potentially at different time points and with different batch numbers. I find that this tends to increase your chance that you will have a wider range of case weight/volume.

That stuff is crimped.

understand that, but this stuff is all about 1.5 to 2 grains lighter than my bulk blue box brass. it is very consistent in that weight range

 

[jlow]

understand that, but this stuff is all about 1.5 to 2 grains lighter than my bulk blue box brass. it is very consistent in that weight range

I would count yourself lucky as my blue box varies more like 3.4 grains. I would just keep them together and shoot them together.

BTW, my last batch average 173.0 gains.

 

[swadiver]

I would count yourself lucky as my blue box varies more like 3.4 grains. I would just keep them together and shoot them together.

BTW, my last batch average 173.0 gains.

that's my plan. just trying to figure out why it is so much lighter than all my Blue Box. definitely, the primer pockets had been crimped. seating the primers is a bit more difficult with this brass

 

[Rsadams]

I've not seen Lapua brass like that before. It has an odd looking primer strike as well, unless you enhanced it for the picture.

Gerald

LOL, I thought the same thing ... I thought it had a pierced primmer..