New Lapua brass

[Mr Barrel’s wingman]

A little helpful experience from you folks regarding new Lapua cases being formed to a chamber is requested. How many firings can be expected before there’s consistent forming?

 

[Straightshooter1]

A lot depends on the caliber of brass, chamber configuration and how hot the load might be. 2 firings is enough for many, though for some, 1 firing could be enough. And if you really want to be sure, 3 will do it.

 

[Ledd Slinger]

Internal capacity seems to be more consistent after about 2-3 firings. But I still test loads on the first firing. No sense in wasting components. I’ve shot some great groups on first fireforming rounds that remained consistent on consecutive firings. And I’m not just talking about something super simple like firing a 308 round in a 308 chamber or something like that.
Ive had great groups on first firings with drastic fireforming of wildcats where the shoulder angle and position changes as well as amount of body taper.

 

[Sandstorm]

I Fireform mine on the line in Competition ...generally not in a Big Match,
but they shoot real good...Good enough to be competitive.

 

[1shot]

I've had the same experience that @Ledd Slinger spoke of. shot several 197-199 scores at 1K with virgin brass forming GWI cases from 6.5-55 Swede Lapua brass.
I hope this helps,

Lloyd

 

[Mr Barrel’s wingman]

Thanks for your input guys, with the scarcity and the cost now of components I’ll forge ahead without the fret.

 

[searcher]

There are a few alternatives if you want to forego the possibility of three or more firings. One would be to seat your bullet long (if your normal load is rebated from the throat), thus allowing the case to better be supported to "blow out" more fully on the first firing. Downside is any major seating depth change will possibly take away the accuracy of the load. The plus is being able to use cheap bullets to do the job - such as factory seconds or whatever. The other way is using a hydraulic former. Not as good - but will blow the shoulder forward as much as a firing or two. If you use a fast powder and heavy bullet - that will speed it up as well. I use a soft seat load as an accuracy load in my rifles which seems to create less noticeable change after fireforming as opposed to an "unsupported" load. A load that is light, with a light bullet and an unsupported case tend to take the most firings.

 

[Mr Barrel’s wingman]

There are a few alternatives if you want to forego the possibility of three or more firings. One would be to seat your bullet long (if your normal load is rebated from the throat), thus allowing the case to better be supported to "blow out" more fully on the first firing. Downside is any major seating depth change will possibly take away the accuracy of the load. The plus is being able to use cheap bullets to do the job - such as factory seconds or whatever. The other way is using a hydraulic former. Not as good - but will blow the shoulder forward as much as a firing or two. If you use a fast powder and heavy bullet - that will speed it up as well. I use a soft seat load as an accuracy load in my rifles which seems to create less noticeable change after fireforming as opposed to an "unsupported" load. A load that is light, with a light bullet and an unsupported case tend to take the most firings.

There are a few alternatives if you want to forego the possibility of three or more firings. One would be to seat your bullet long (if your normal load is rebated from the throat), thus allowing the case to better be supported to "blow out" more fully on the first firing. Downside is any major seating depth change will possibly take away the accuracy of the load. The plus is being able to use cheap bullets to do the job - such as factory seconds or whatever. The other way is using a hydraulic former. Not as good - but will blow the shoulder forward as much as a firing or two. If you use a fast powder and heavy bullet - that will speed it up as well. I use a soft seat load as an accuracy load in my rifles which seems to create less noticeable change after fireforming as opposed to an "unsupported" load. A load that is light, with a light bullet and an unsupported case tend to take the most firings.

Thank you, I did purchase cheap bullets for the task initially and probably will buy more now that I’ve gotten your prospective

 

[WindSurgeon]

I shot this at 200 with the new Lapua .284 brass (180 Hybrids -54 grains of H4831SC) in a new rifle last week. Not sure how much will be gained without some load tuning. Going to just go out and shoot at 600 without fireforming any of the brass. Happy with Lapua out of the box.

 

[Mr Barrel’s wingman]

Very impressive Windsurgen, thanks for your input.

 

[Bill Norris]

Mighty fine shooting no doubt.

 

[D-4297]

I shot this at 200 with the new Lapua .284 brass (180 Hybrids -54 grains of H4831SC) in a new rifle last week. Not sure how much will be gained without some load tuning. Going to just go out and shoot at 600 without fireforming any of the brass. Happy with Lapua out of the box.

Think I'd leave that alone for now . At least till it shows me a reason to "fix" it .

 

[Ned Ludd]

I have used loads in virgin Lapua brass (.223 Rem and .308 Win) to shoot in local F-TR matches for years. Properly prepped, it shoots very well, indeed. I resize first with a FL sizing die and the appropriate bushing to size the necks down to approximately .003" below bullet diameter, then open the necks back up with a mandrel that will yield ~.002" neck tension (interference fit). For example, with .308 Win Lapua Palma brass, I would use a 0.335" bushing, followed by a 0.3065" mandrel. In my hands, if the sizing die has been set appropriately from fire-formed brass for a given rifle chamber, the shoulders of virgin Lapua brass will not be bumped back at all.

Because I am generally running full pressure loads in this brass (i.e. ~59-61K psi), I do not generally observe a significant increase in case water volume after the first firing. Although prepped virgin brass shoots very well in my hands, I do use fire-formed brass for "important" matches. I cannot really state with any certainty that the fire-formed brass shoots noticeably better than prepped virgin brass, it's simply a "peace of mind" thing. After the virgin brass has all been fire-formed, the load will generally need to be tweaked to account for the slight amount of energy that went into expanding the prepped virgin brass. In my hands, this most often involves a slight adjustment of charge weight to reproduce the original velocity obtained in the virgin brass load. Although I also always do another seating depth test with the fire-formed brass, the new optimal seating depth with the fire-formed brass is usually spot on with that obtained using the original prepped virgin brass once the original velocity has been reproduced.

To best answer questions such as these, it is generally advisable to take and record measurements every time you prep brass. I randomly select 10 pieces of brass from every prep and record various measurements including base-to-shoulder, neck diameter, etc., both before and after the re-sizing/mandrel steps. Such measurements are useful not only to ensure that the re-sizing steps performed as expected, but also for trouble-shooting if something is off. I also generally determine case weight and water volume for 10 newly fired rounds after a new brass prep. That allows for adjustment of QuickLoad files if the brass wasn't fully expanded on the previous firing, as well as just being a part of good analysis and record-keeping. During many years of working in a laboratory, I learned the hard way that the one piece of information I didn't record was the one I would badly want to have later. Recording everything is not a bad habit to acquire.

 

[Mr Barrel’s wingman]

Thank you Ned, much appreciated regarding your input.