Alpha Dasher brass

From a reliable source that already has 100 pieces of this alpha. I’ve gotten word it’s showing pressure signs etc on low speed nodes. Not good. I’ll just buy hydro form or fire form lapua. I have heard some bad things about alpha and looks like they are not gonna do well with this release if these reports are more widespread. Lapua needs to get on the ball with dasher.
 
Last edited:
From a reliable source that already has 100 pieces of this alpha. I’ve gotten word it’s showing pressure signs etc on low speed nodes. Not good. I’ll just buy hydro form or fire form lapua. I have heard some bad things about alpha and looks like they are not gonna do well with this release if these reports are more widespread. Lapua needs to get on the ball with dasher.

I'm gonna go out on a limb here and say your reliable source aint reliable.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Pagcjc
Pointing towards low case capacity at moment. Alpha is showing pressure signs 50 feet a second before the Lapua at the same charge. That’s about all the info i have at moment. Maybe is coincidence but ??‍♂️
 
  • Like
Reactions: gconnoyer
Definitely interested in hearing from anyone who's received their Alpha brass. I'd be interested in swapping from BR to dasher for my next barrel if I didn't have to deal with the hassle of fireforming, since that's really the main reason I went with BR instead. So long as the brass is good to go I'd prefer this over doing fireforming or buying hydroformed brass.
 
has anyone ever sold lapua formed dasher brass, asking for a friend?

What reamer spec?

What’s the measurement of your brass in a shoulder bump gauge after firing?

If it’s close to mine, I’d probably be interested. I’m attempting to build a huge pile of brass so I only have to brass prep a few times a year.
 
What reamer spec?

What’s the measurement of your brass in a shoulder bump gauge after firing?

If it’s close to mine, I’d probably be interested. I’m attempting to build a huge pile of brass so I only have to brass prep a few times a year.

It would probably be worth ordering a couple cases of the same lot of brass then. Lapua is very consistent within the same lot, but not always the same across multiple lots.
 
Received my alpha brass last Thursday. Ordered three hundo to try out, bc hey even solid gold pussy gets old after a while.
Spent a bit of time going through the first 100 and checking dimensions case to case, then alpha against lapua, and finally doing a case capacity test. There was a .4gr difference between alpha and lapua, with the larger capacity going to lapua.
Next I FL sized with the same .266 bushing I use on all other dasher cases. Did the standard chamfer/deburr, then threw some powder.
Dropped 32.0-32.6 Varget into 5 cases for each weight, using the new alpha and the once fired lapua. Wanting all things to be equal, my goal was a head to head comparison. Same primers, same charge weights, same bullets, shot from the same barrel, on the same bench, at the same targets, same day.
What I came up with was this:
All are averages of the 5x rounds ran over a ohler 35p.

105 Hybrids
450’s
No turn neck

32.0- alpha 2820, lapua 2824
32.1- 2839, 2845
32.2- 2853, 2858
32.3- 2876, 2879
32.4- 2912, 2920
32.5- 2933, 2942
32.6- 2969, 2970

Group sizes were on par with what I had previously shot through load work ups so no surprises there. No real discernible difference between the two brands. About the only thing I noticed as being different was es/sd’s were slightly more stable across the board. IMO, these two brands are both excellent and the alpha is on par with lapua for quality and consistentcy. I’m looking forward to doing some more testing, but for now I’m happy to not have to pay to have hydro formed. That cuts $40 off a hundred, which in my twisted mind equals one more box of 105 hybrids.

Hope this info helps someone on the fence make up their mind about buying alpha brass. I wouldn’t hesitate to purchase again if I needed to restock my supply. After the wait list of course.
 
Received my alpha brass last Thursday. Ordered three hundo to try out, bc hey even solid gold pussy gets old after a while.
Spent a bit of time going through the first 100 and checking dimensions case to case, then alpha against lapua, and finally doing a case capacity test. There was a .4gr difference between alpha and lapua, with the larger capacity going to lapua.
Next I FL sized with the same .266 bushing I use on all other dasher cases. Did the standard chamfer/deburr, then threw some powder.
Dropped 32.0-32.6 Varget into 5 cases for each weight, using the new alpha and the once fired lapua. Wanting all things to be equal, my goal was a head to head comparison. Same primers, same charge weights, same bullets, shot from the same barrel, on the same bench, at the same targets, same day.
What I came up with was this:
All are averages of the 5x rounds ran over a ohler 35p.

105 Hybrids
450’s
No turn neck

32.0- alpha 2820, lapua 2824
32.1- 2839, 2845
32.2- 2853, 2858
32.3- 2876, 2879
32.4- 2912, 2920
32.5- 2933, 2942
32.6- 2969, 2970

Group sizes were on par with what I had previously shot through load work ups so no surprises there. No real discernible difference between the two brands. About the only thing I noticed as being different was es/sd’s were slightly more stable across the board. IMO, these two brands are both excellent and the alpha is on par with lapua for quality and consistentcy. I’m looking forward to doing some more testing, but for now I’m happy to not have to pay to have hydro formed. That cuts $40 off a hundred, which in my twisted mind equals one more box of 105 hybrids.

Hope this info helps someone on the fence make up their mind about buying alpha brass. I wouldn’t hesitate to purchase again if I needed to restock my supply. After the wait list of course.

This is good to know. I have 200pcs that will be here this week and another 300 on pre-order.

If they work out, I’ll just take 500 or so 6br virgin brass I have an make a 6 or .22br
 
From a reliable source that already has 100 pieces of this alpha. I’ve gotten word it’s showing pressure signs etc on low speed nodes. Not good. I’ll just buy hydro form or fire form lapua. I have heard some bad things about alpha and looks like they are not gonna do well with this release if these reports are more widespread. Lapua needs to get on the ball with dasher.
Received my alpha brass last Thursday. Ordered three hundo to try out, bc hey even solid gold pussy gets old after a while.
Spent a bit of time going through the first 100 and checking dimensions case to case, then alpha against lapua, and finally doing a case capacity test. There was a .4gr difference between alpha and lapua, with the larger capacity going to lapua.
Next I FL sized with the same .266 bushing I use on all other dasher cases. Did the standard chamfer/deburr, then threw some powder.
Dropped 32.0-32.6 Varget into 5 cases for each weight, using the new alpha and the once fired lapua. Wanting all things to be equal, my goal was a head to head comparison. Same primers, same charge weights, same bullets, shot from the same barrel, on the same bench, at the same targets, same day.
What I came up with was this:
All are averages of the 5x rounds ran over a ohler 35p.

105 Hybrids
450’s
No turn neck

32.0- alpha 2820, lapua 2824
32.1- 2839, 2845
32.2- 2853, 2858
32.3- 2876, 2879
32.4- 2912, 2920
32.5- 2933, 2942
32.6- 2969, 2970

Group sizes were on par with what I had previously shot through load work ups so no surprises there. No real discernible difference between the two brands. About the only thing I noticed as being different was es/sd’s were slightly more stable across the board. IMO, these two brands are both excellent and the alpha is on par with lapua for quality and consistentcy. I’m looking forward to doing some more testing, but for now I’m happy to not have to pay to have hydro formed. That cuts $40 off a hundred, which in my twisted mind equals one more box of 105 hybrids.

Hope this info helps someone on the fence make up their mind about buying alpha brass. I wouldn’t hesitate to purchase again if I needed to restock my supply. After the wait list of course.
Well there we have it.
"...a reliable source" who isn't so reliable.
 
Lets just say you guys have shot against him in big
From a reliable source that already has 100 pieces of this alpha. I’ve gotten word it’s showing pressure signs etc on low speed nodes. Not good. I’ll just buy hydro form or fire form lapua. I have heard some bad things about alpha and looks like they are not gonna do well with this release if these reports are more widespread. Lapua needs to get on the ball with dasher.
my guess is it was a powder issue. If your source gives Varget a try my guess is they will have zero pressure. This is a new case and will require load development. Powders that worked on fire formed BR may or may not work with the Alpha. With that said the brass was run Virgin by 3 shooters in the AG cup and It took 2nd place. During testing it won the Kahles PRS match, Benchrest matches and was tested by top F-class shooters. I hope you will not judge based off one shooter who tested 1 powder.
 
I have 200pcs I got in the PX arriving tomorrow.

I’ll have some data with 32.0-32.6 varget with it by Tuesday or so. 32.6 is what my barrel likes with lapua brass. Hopefully this is close to the same.
 
Alpha brass:

Ran through a .266 bushing and chamfered mouths. I should have uniformed primer pockets I guess. A lot of them were extremely tight compared to lapua.

My barrel likes 32.6 with lapua and runs around 2960.

32.6 runs 2958 in alpha and no pressure signs.

Apparently my barrel likes 32.2 with alpha brass. I just loaded up 8 rnds 32.2 as zero ammo. Turns out it likes it (of course ?). So I did 3 on paper and 5 over magneto.

The rest are 3 or 5 on paper (3 if it wasn’t looking like sub .4 group) and 5 over magneto.

I’m pretty sure 32.3 was my fault on the high round. It was shot number 4 and I’m not the best at shooting groups.

61CF5DD1-6C14-441F-A366-E51C84EF5BFA.jpeg