As they're growing, and somewhat showing that their brass is really durable, will they become the U.S. Lapua?
Will Alpha Dethrone Lapua As The Best Brass Around?
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At least it’s clear how to pronounce “alpha” 
I don't think there is a throne, but a grade. Yea, they can join the short list of excellent brass makers.
Sometimes there is, like it is obvious the very best pistol caliber is .......
Better than, has to be by more than a C hair. When nobody is winning matches unless they use Alpha, there will be a clear argument. Until then just bitchy fanboys and endless debate.
Right now, Lapua is the really the only brass people use for benchrest and F open. I feel Alpha can change that.
Will be interested to see if they replace Lapua, join them or fall short.
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I can’t see them replacing Lopwah, I have both and know that Alpha works as well. Right now, they are smartly using the opening Lapua has left (while they are minimizing their offerings and not bringing out new ones) by providing quality brass for some of the latest and greatest in the market. Like all of the PRC offerings, as an example.
At least it’s clear how to pronounce “alpha”
Foreign names are pronounced in American.
Never saw this caliber before. 
6.5 Epstein Didn’t Kill Himself
Had some 6.5 Alpha brass years back, lasted 3 reloads and they were toast. I hear the new stuff is a lot better now. At least I have a nice to case to use as a consolation prize. Lapua has run the same load for years. But given the choice between the 2 with the same caliber, Lapua all day.
And this is why I said that alpha won’t replace Lapua for most people. Brand loyalty for whatever reasons. And there’s nothing wrong with that. It’s nice to have three players in the premium case business.
At least it’s clear how to pronounce “alpha”
I still get a kick out of the good 'ol boys on YouTube, and their "La-pooah" rifles.
Now do Scenar [Sken-ar].
Scenar: I Scenar down by the river wid dat no good bubba.I still get a kick out of the good 'ol boys on YouTube, and their "La-pooah" rifles.
Now do Scenar [Sken-ar].
There's a good old boy on YouTube who has a decent channel. He did a video over one of his builds once with a "Lee-you-pold" scope, "Tim-in-knee" trigger, "La-pooah" brass and the "La-pooah Seen-arr" bullet.
That made my day
.*****************
To come back on track, I have both Alpha and Lapua brass. I love both, and I will continue to use whichever I can find in the quantity that I want for a more competitive price.
I wouldn't say I'm super loyal. But same thing just happened again with triggers. I usually always run Geissele triggers on my ARs. Fell for the trap and got a Triggertech 2 Stage diamond. As soon as I got it, I hated it, Trigger bow was not comfortable on the finger, and to top it off the disconnector broke. TT warrantied it and sent me a new trigger. Never even installed it, sold it off and got another Geissele.
I don't think Lapua will ever be dethroned unless their quality changes. I don't see that happening. Can they be joined....yeah. I have just had my first experience with Alpha because LP 6 Creedmoor Lapua was unobtanium. I have found it very good. Nice tolerances and consistency and I have pushed it hard with hotter 6 Creedmoor loads. It has done very well and I'll buy more. Like most folks though, without a need to change I won't and I stay with the brand the load is developed with....which has always been Lapua if available. So while I tried Alpha and will continue to use it, had I not gotten a new caliber barrel and Lapua wasn't available I would not have tried it.
And let’s not forget that Lapua is a global company with perhaps more sales outside the U.S. than inside.
I have used both and find them to be comparable in quality, consistency, and results. One is clearly not a step above or below the other and, honestly, not going to make a bit of difference for me downrange.
This whole idea that there always has to be a "Best" is a pathetic flaw in our culture but it sells a lot of "Top 10..." or "Best of...) lists that we swallow like a bunch of retreads.
Now put your helmets back on, stop licking the windows, and load up some rounds!
This whole idea that there always has to be a "Best" is a pathetic flaw in our culture but it sells a lot of "Top 10..." or "Best of...) lists that we swallow like a bunch of retreads.
Now put your helmets back on, stop licking the windows, and load up some rounds!
The reason I brought this up was for 3 reasons. 1. Speedy Gonzales tried some of their PPC brass, and he approved. Now I know how you guys view benchrest shooters, but you cant argue with someone in the benchrest hall of fame; if that guy measures the brass and tries it for consistency and it passes, then you know its good. The only brass to get their stamp of approval in the past was the Lapua. 2. Lapua decided to help fund the Ukraine instead of delivering to their civilian base. Now I know they probably have tons of defense contracts and why wouldnt they? But, in their absence, an AMERICAN company that doesnt have that problem stepped in and helped provide excellent brass. For a lot of shooters, that void was filled permanently; they're not going back. And 3. The Ultimate Reloader torture tested their 308 cases and they came out quite well! I'd say outstanding. You know how many people run 308 ARs hard, that beat down their brass, and now have a great alternative to lake city range pickup? If you didnt run it hard, this brass could you last WAY longer, AND sometimes its CHEAPER than the foreign Lapua, yet another plus.
I feel Alpha showed up at the best possible time, and edged out Lapua. This is just my personal opinion so I wanted to see how others felt. It's true, Lapua makes excellent shit, but their availability (due to the war is what they told me) is spotty, they're expensive, and not U.S. made. Up until this point, there was no U.S. made brass that had their out of the box consistency-now there is, and I think they're going to 'be the best'. Yea, I know there doesnt always HAVE to be the best, but, there still is in a lot of subjects.
I feel Alpha showed up at the best possible time, and edged out Lapua. This is just my personal opinion so I wanted to see how others felt. It's true, Lapua makes excellent shit, but their availability (due to the war is what they told me) is spotty, they're expensive, and not U.S. made. Up until this point, there was no U.S. made brass that had their out of the box consistency-now there is, and I think they're going to 'be the best'. Yea, I know there doesnt always HAVE to be the best, but, there still is in a lot of subjects.
I’ve been using Peterson for quite some time. Super good
Haven’t used alpha and I do have a bunch of lapua
Why would I get anything else of it is all
Working?
Haven’t used alpha and I do have a bunch of lapua
Why would I get anything else of it is all
Working?
Well, you wouldn't. If you have your stuff set up to perfection, and it works for your application then you're good. Not everyone participates in the same discipline. I personally, just like the challenge of seeing how small I can make my shot groups, so for me, brass consistency is a major factor. Just something I do to de-stress / unwind.
I'd be curious to see a head to head comparison between Alpha and Lapua for any given chambering to see what the measurable performance difference is, if any. Maybe it's been done, but I'm not sifting through the depths of the internet anecdotes to find it.
Also, Alpha doesn't make brass for the larger magnums (yet) whereas Lapua does. Seems like there's slight difference in their target markets with a significant overlap in the more common chamberings and PRS type stuff.
Also, Alpha doesn't make brass for the larger magnums (yet) whereas Lapua does. Seems like there's slight difference in their target markets with a significant overlap in the more common chamberings and PRS type stuff.
Yeah I can see that
I am curious and certainly hav heard nothing but good from alpha
Also
Starling brass too
Heard good things there as well
Hey
We are spoiled ! Hah
I just picked up 300 pieces of Alpha SRP 6 CM brass. It looks fantastic. I plan on testing it against the Peterson I have which has been solid. I use Peterson for my 308 bolt gun as well. I do use Lapua in my 300 PRC, and its been great.
As far as is there a market for Alpha? Absolutely. Lapua has a great product, and they have been at the top for a long time. If Alpha can produce a quality product and make it available, they will have no problem getting business when Lapua is slow rolling production and you just cant find it. The same can be said for Peterson. Is it the absolute equal to others? No idea. Reality? It gets me single digit SDs, and Im probably not a good enough shooter that the brass itself once you get to that point will determine a meaningful smaller group.
As far as is there a market for Alpha? Absolutely. Lapua has a great product, and they have been at the top for a long time. If Alpha can produce a quality product and make it available, they will have no problem getting business when Lapua is slow rolling production and you just cant find it. The same can be said for Peterson. Is it the absolute equal to others? No idea. Reality? It gets me single digit SDs, and Im probably not a good enough shooter that the brass itself once you get to that point will determine a meaningful smaller group.
If Alpha and Peterson can increase production by a few magnitudes, then maybe. I like the idea that the Alpha cases have harder brass in the case head. That alone would put them in the top spot provided they can scale production without sacrificing quality.
Okay then, what about ADG brass? I’m a fan so far. Very consistent and hard in the case head region.
I do wonder if Lapua brass prices will be affected by the new import taxes. Wouldn’t surprise me.
I run Alpha for my 25 Creedmoor and love it. Something i found interesting is that they will try and match the case weight to the lot that you originally ordered from. I doubt they're very far apart weight wise, but thought it was cool they do that.
I have some Alpha brass for 6mm GT that won’t chamber out of the box. Have to run 500 pcs through the sizing die before I get started. Not the end of the world, but annoying. I’m sure after I get it all ready to go that it will be the bees knees, as I’ve only heard amazing things.
So is that due to it actually being out of spec or does it just not fit your chamber? Did you measure?
Not sure exactly. It's a prefit spun up by Straight Jacket. My go gauge wouldn't close, and the brass wouldn't chamber so I sent it back. They facetimed me and showed me their go gauge went, and my go acts exactly like their no go. They had a loaded round for their GT, also Alpha, that chambered, and they showed me that my brass wouldn't chamber in another rifle. They resized the piece of brass I sent them and it chambered. They loaded it, and fired it to test. Everything checked out. They are sending the fireformed brass back for me to set up my dies. I resized a few pieces out of curiosity prior to getting the fireformed brass back, and it's hard to get a good place to measure, but it appears to have squeezed the diameter of the case by .0015 to .002. Honestly, if they wouldn't have gotten me on facetime and spent a half hour showing me everything I would have had a hard time believing them that my gauge wasn't right and the brass was oversized. And the brass was getting stuck well before the shoulder made contact, and there were marks on the body of the brass from the chamber. Maybe the chamber is just tight, but FL resized brass drops right in.
Anyways, I’ll get it back next week, resize the brass and see if it chambers and I’ll go from there. I’ll report back it a couple weeks on how it goes.
I've found the "What The Pro's Use" write-ups at PRB.com pretty interesting.
I'm assuming the Hornady brass users are just shooting factory ammo.
I'm assuming the Hornady brass users are just shooting factory ammo.
Probably so, all four of them. A possible reason for the heavy skew towards Alpha brass in that survey is the calibers most are shooting. As noted above, 6GT and 6 Dasher are heavily represented at the top and currently not available from Lapua.
Plus the author was talking about the ten companies they had pre 2020 (corona). The corona ruined a lot of companys ammo/component lines permanently. For example when buying old obsolete calibers at targetsportsusa.com, they always had stock of the weird obsolete stuff. Now, 2 years later theyre still not even halfway there to seeing the old selection. Seems those are dead permanently.
I feel Alpha was small and flexible enough to come back around quicker and move into number 1. I think the corona plus the wars in Europe really put Lapua behind in production numbers.
I feel Alpha was small and flexible enough to come back around quicker and move into number 1. I think the corona plus the wars in Europe really put Lapua behind in production numbers.
Alpha had a bad batch of 6GT. My buddy bought some a month or two directly from Alpha and they contacted him to replace it.
And on topic, for me Alpha is in the same tier as Lapua for me. I'm happy with either and glad both are available options.
If alpha puts 102 in the box, they will be better
Alpha has been used for short range benchrest for a few years now
I was thinking about that just this week. Who knows what the long term outlook is though.
No Alpha will not dethrone LAPUA
It takes decades to build that kind of infrastructure
I am always looking forward to advances, but LAPUA is a known quantity and a very good one
I choose what cartridges I am going to shoot based on whether or not they make a case for it
On the other hand, can other manufacturers catch up? Of course. Peterson makes a damn fine. 375CHEYTAC case.
But all the talk of Lapua ignores the fact that RWS is the real king of the hill if anyone wants to bother to measure a lot of cases with water. The standard deviation on my 50BMG RWS cases is almost so small as to be immeasurable. It was half that of LAPUA which was a fraction of a grain
It takes decades to build that kind of infrastructure
I am always looking forward to advances, but LAPUA is a known quantity and a very good one
I choose what cartridges I am going to shoot based on whether or not they make a case for it
On the other hand, can other manufacturers catch up? Of course. Peterson makes a damn fine. 375CHEYTAC case.
But all the talk of Lapua ignores the fact that RWS is the real king of the hill if anyone wants to bother to measure a lot of cases with water. The standard deviation on my 50BMG RWS cases is almost so small as to be immeasurable. It was half that of LAPUA which was a fraction of a grain
Update- Because of this thread alpha contacted me and explained they had brass that was at the edge of spec and could cause issues in tight chambers. SJA says they cut a tight chamber. They are swapping out the brass for me. Also, they had previously tried to make contact about this issue, but no one on this end listened. Oopsie.
That is top tier CS.
The big issues with RWS:
- Very tough to get in the US
- Mostly Euro calibers with a few of the more popular in the US thrown in for good measure.
Huntington Die Specialties used to carry it, but unfortunately they closed their doors. I'll say that when the only 300 PRC brass was Hornady, I transformed RWS 8x68S brass into 300 PRC and it remains the best brass I've ever used. I'd still be using it if it didn't require a special shell holder due to the smaller rim that precludes using my favorite tools (and if it was available).
I've used four different brands of brass in my 300: Hornady, RWS, ADG, and Lapua. Hands down, RWS is best. By a fair margin over third place ADG, Lapua is second. Hornady is a distant fourth.
I could bring ADG up to Lapua standards, but it took neck turning to do so - that standard was low 6s for SDs. I got RWS into the 5s.
