New Lapua brass oversized?

[B23]

I'm not sure if I'm OCD, old school, or I just keep doing what I've always been told because I don't know any better, but I always run new brass through a KM expander mandrel then FL size them in a FL bushing die with the button removed. My thinking on FL sizing new brass is that way they all start out equally the same size.

 

[butchlambert]

I have some that is about .002 oversize at the base and have found that my die wont go down that far to tighten it up and I have a tight closing bolt. A spare new box measures .468 and these measure .470. Thought about trying a few in my "small base" 308 die to see if it would size them down.

Take a full length sizing die and cut about .100" off the bottom of the die and then run a drill that is about .010" larger in diameter than the shoulder. Now you can size to the shell holder to a smaller diameter.

 

[HTSmith]

This is what I have done in the past. My first experience with neck turning was creating 6PPC from 220 Russian, so there wasn’t any choice. Pop it up to 6 on the mandrel, then turn to spec. for the chamber.

My question is, what is a few out of how many? I have 300 new cases here for my first 6br. I believe I'm going to load and shoot. This barrel is for banging steel.

Don Dunlap

All I've ever done is run the new ones over a Lee .241 mandrel, then load and shoot. The necks can be awful tight if you don't. Never any problem. With this report maybe I ought to start making sure they'll chamber in the future

 

[gme]

I loaded some new blue box Lapua 6BR brass and noticed a few were tough to close the bolt on. At first, I thought I seated the bullet too far, but then put the rounds in my Whidden case gage and realized the new cases were +0.004 to =0.005 over SAAMI 0!

Have any of you experienced this?

I was not expecting to have to resize brand new Lapua brass...

never had the issue with the old gold box brass but I have heard that some guys needed to run the blue box through a sizing die first.

 

[Lefty Trigger]

Take a full length sizing die and cut about .100" off the bottom of the die and then run a drill that is about .010" larger in diameter than the shoulder. Now you can size to the shell holder to a smaller diameter.

Like an old 308 full length die?

 

[SmokinJoe]

Anytime you are dealing with custom chambered rifles it is a good idea to process new brass to the rifle before loading to FF. Many gunsmiths like to cut really tight chambers so you are working to the minimum end of brass manufacturing tolerances. You may have gotten some brass that ran to the high side of manufacturing tolerances. Actually I would prefer sorta fat brass because you can then make it what you want.

 

[tomswede]

As an Engineer I don’t understand why build rifles to or even below min to “ save the brass”. Build to nominal, everything will fit ( should actually fit on the min also), then size to fit the chamber. I’m sure that new Lapua brass will fit any chamber that is actually within spec ( never had an issue myself, but my sample is to small to be valid). This applies to headspace.

 

[butchlambert]

Like an old 308 full length die?

You could make a 308 work if you cut and drilled properly for the BR brass.

 

[L W P]

I can't speak for 6BR Lapua brass, because I haven't loaded any in a while, but my 6 and 6.5 Creedmoor Lapua brass have been very tight on the necks. So tight that I use an oversized mandrel with Imperial Dry Lube on both calibers. Then the spring back gives me the correct tension, with the virgin brass.

 

[David101]

I had exactly the same with 308 Palma brass. I was not impressed we pay the extra for Lapua expecting the extra. Sent an email off to them. The reply was that they have sent it to production or some department no further information. I bought 4 boxs all the same lot all over the place not so impressed.