Lapua case life ???

[rubicon_unlimited]

I had a friend give me 200 .308 lapua cases, he was not sure of round count, probably around 10 loadings. The were fired in a Savage F/TR so I believe they chamber is fairly tight, with a relatively low pressure round and they have not been annealed.The cases were FL sized every 4 loading with standard RCBS dies, and neck sized in between with standard dies. So my question is it worth sending these cases in, to get annealed and continue loading them for my sons 700 sps. Or should I just buy some new cases start over?

I have searched for an answer and read that some people are getting 20+ loads out of their cases, so what do you think?

 

[MALLARD]

Re: Lapua case life ???

haha , when i first read your post i said , who gives someone 200 pieces of lapua brass....then i read 10x fired and it becomes more clear.

reminds me of this crap i watched in history class. These hippies in san fransico were living in the park. Lots of fucking hippies , hundreds. So a group of them , wander over to a local supermarket and start pulling food out of the garbage. The clean it up and begin distributing the food to the rest of the hippies in the park. Obviously no real effort was taken to maintain food sanity. LSD + hippies = what did you expect ?

I dont know if the rest of the hippies in the park knew were the food came from. Point is , free aint always so good.

i dont think annealing will really effect your case life, so im not sure i'd send them out to have it done.

some guys get 20 loads from a case , some get 10 or less... so knowing that... i would toss the brass.

this is true, if person A gave person B 200 rounds of 10x fired 50 bmg cases. Person B would be an idiot to load them up and even dumber to fire them, and ever increasing in stupidity to repeat the process , over and over again.

I cant say 50 bmg is like 308 win , so i can't really say it's the same senario

you could make subsonic loads with them , those are typically "very" low pressure.

 

[bcrich]

Re: Lapua case life ???

My homie gave me 450 lapua cases but you guessed it....fired multiple times times but they still got usable life. Make sure they arent about to seperate from stretching.

 

[ehparis]

Re: Lapua case life ???

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: MALLARD</div><div class="ubbcode-body">
i dont think annealing will really effect your case life, so im not sure i'd send them out to have it done.

some guys get 20 loads from a case , some get 10 or less... so knowing that... i would toss the brass.(snipped)</div></div>

I too have never seen any advantage to case life from annealing. Blasphemy I know but that's my opinion.

If brass is gently treated, which doesn't preclude reasonable usage at maximum pressure, it should still last for 20 loadings and I think you'd make a mistake in just pitching it.

 

[red hawk]

Re: Lapua case life ???

anneal them,the neck is probably worked harden, annealing will soften the work harden neck and shoulder. This is a good time to learn annealing for free! When reloading ,I would neck size. That's just me.Lapua is very brass,and should have plenty of life left. Just inpect them closly after you clean them!!Be safe,and good reloading !

 

[clmayfield]

Re: Lapua case life ???

Annealing will extend case life IF case neck splits are the problem. Annealing won't tighten primer pockets, which, in my experience determines the useful life of a case.

Case life is going to depend on how hot you are loading them. I prefer using virgin brass so I can fireform the brass to my chamber. Once you have more than 3 firings, that brass is going to be dimensioned to the other chamber pretty closely. For more than 10 firings, I would toss them. I have had Lapua last as few as 10 firings... and again, it was the loose primer pockets that caused me to throw them out. I had worked out a load in the winter and kept using it in the summer resulting is some loads that were likely too hot. You don't really know what this guy was doing with them.

In the big scheme of things, brass is the cheapest component on a per firing basis. It is not really a place to skimp. Buy virgin or at least once fired. You could probably find some 1 X fired Federal brass at your local range if you really need to save money. You can tell by the die or wax or whatever it is they put on the primer if it is once fired. That's if you really want to save money. Federal is not good brass, but you aren't going to find once-fired Lapua on the ground anywhere. There's a reason free stuff is free.

 

[josie6637]

Re: Lapua case life ???

Hippies are gross. I wouldn't reload them. Especially not in your sons gun. I wouldn't trust them.

 

[josie6637]

Re: Lapua case life ???

Hippies are gross. I wouldn't reload them. Especially not in your sons gun. I wouldn't trust them.

 

[Hunt]

Re: Lapua case life ???

I got 9 firings on Lapua brass running them through a Forster F/L die before I saw some neck splits. After that, it's on to new brass.

As for trying to skimp beyond 5-10 firings, do the math and look at what you're not saving in terms of money. Is it really worth flame cutting on your bolt face or having a case head separate for a few pennies?

 

[longshooter70]

Re: Lapua case life ???

I anneal my brass regularly, not for extended case life. As mentioned above, primer pockets dictate that. I anneal for CONSISTENT neck tension. Whether you only neck size, full length size or a combination of each, every time the brass is shot, sized and loaded it works the necks. Annealing keeps those necks as close to the same "elasticity" as possible to maintain consistency.
Does it extend case life? Well, if you don't anneal and lose cases to neck cracks before the primer pocket wears out, I'd say so. If you're shooting hot loads and stretching the primer pocket pretty hard, probably not. Just my opinion. YMMV...
Have a great Monday!!!

John

 

[nnn66]

Re: Lapua case life ???

I'm interested in this thread as I'm pretty new to reloading and was wondering about this myself. I've been using Lapua brass for .308win and have been FL sizing for the first load and then neck sizing after that. So far, I've stopped after 4 firings and then start loading with new brass. Of course, I've kept all the the brass that I've fired 4 times and am intending to continue using it. However, I was unsure if I should continue with just neck sizing or do I need to periodically FL size it again? There was mention in this thread about FL sizing every 4 loads. So, is that generally what should be done....FL size after 4 firings?

Being rather new to this, I'm probably overly cautious and don't want to take any chances, so it has been my intention to simply toss the brass after about 6 or 7 firings regardless of whether it is showing signs of wear. Does that sound reasonable or am I wasting good brass by tossing it too soon?

 

[nnn66]

Re: Lapua case life ???

I wanted to bring this thread back to the top because I'm still hoping one of you guys can answer my question about how often Lapua cases should be FL sized after neck sizing several times.

Also, another issue I just remembered is that the reason I stopped loading my Lapua brass after 4 firings was because I became a little concerned with the fact that I seemed to have a slightly hard bolt lift on a couple of rounds. I had loaded these same loads in new, once-fired, and twice fired brass with no bolt lift problems, but then on the 4th firing of the brass, with neck sizing only, a couple of rounds seemed to cause a hard bolt lift. Could this be because the brass needed to be FL sized again? I've also read about the possibility of the shoulder being knocked back...I'm not sure I completely understand how this happens. Is that another possible reason for hard bolt lift? Is this something that is controlled by the depth that I screw in my sizing die? Sorry if this has already been covered a million times. I read through a lot of threads here, but I still don't completely understand.

 

[clmayfield]

Re: Lapua case life ???

Basically, as you fire the brass, the distance from the case head to shoulder keeps increasing a little bit at a time. If you are neck-only sizing, you are doing nothing to affect this dimension. Eventually, you will have to do what is called "bumping the shoulder," which means that you are pressing the shoulder back down to shorten the distance from shoulder to case mouth. You are getting hard bolt lift because the dimension from shoulder to case mouth on your case is longer than it is in your chamber.

It would be a good time to buy some headspace inserts for your caliper and measure this dimension so that you know how far back to bump your shoulder.

You can do this with a Full Length Sizing die or you can do it with a body die. Redding sells a body die with their neck die for this purpose.

 

[Hunt]

Re: Lapua case life ???

F/L resize when bolt lift gets tight. That's your fix.

 

[nnn66]

Re: Lapua case life ???

Thanks for the replies! So, I think I have this straight....I need to get head space inserts for my calipers and determine how much the shoulder needs to be bumped back. Carter, you said this can be done with my FL die...I guess now I still need to understand how to set up the die to get a specific amount of shoulder bump. Will my FL die automatically bump the shoulder the correct amount or do I need to somehow adjust it to be at the proper depth to do this?

 

[Gene Poole]

Re: Lapua case life ???

After have a few reloads of fire-formed, neck-sized cases fail to chamber, I now run a dedicated FL die (Lee) without the expander mandrel on all cases to ensure that the shoulder is bumped back enough. If they are not too long, no harm done. I adjusted the die using one of the cases that failed to chamber (after properly de-seating and de-priming) and just bumping the die in a little bit until it chambered, then a bit more. I use the Lee collet die to size the neck properly regardless of what the FL die might have done to the neck.

Does any die company make a dedicated shoulder die that doesn't mess with the neck?

 

[jrob300]

Re: Lapua case life ???

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: Gene Poole</div><div class="ubbcode-body">
Does any die company make a dedicated shoulder die that doesn't mess with the neck? </div></div>

Redding Body Die. Sizes the body, does not touch the neck. Set up properly it will do as you wish.

John

 

[nhm16]

Re: Lapua case life ???

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: nnn66</div><div class="ubbcode-body">Thanks for the replies! So, I think I have this straight....I need to get head space inserts for my calipers and determine how much the shoulder needs to be bumped back. Carter, you said this can be done with my FL die...I guess now I still need to understand how to set up the die to get a specific amount of shoulder bump. Will my FL die automatically bump the shoulder the correct amount or do I need to somehow adjust it to be at the proper depth to do this? </div></div>

I use the Redding Competition shellholders to get consistent repeatable shoulder bump. I also anneal and FL size (with a neck bushing) after every firing to get the most consistent brass. Helps if you have something like a Bench-Source or Giraud annealer which makes it go much faster.

 

[clmayfield]

Re: Lapua case life ???

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: nnn66</div><div class="ubbcode-body">Carter, you said this can be done with my FL die...I guess now I still need to understand how to set up the die to get a specific amount of shoulder bump. Will my FL die automatically bump the shoulder the correct amount or do I need to somehow adjust it to be at the proper depth to do this?</div></div>

After three firings with a little heavy but managable bolt lift, if you measure your heaspace for the cartridge, it should roughly equal chamber headspace.

To adjust your die, if you don't have a micrometer top, you will need to back your die off until it does not touch your case at all, then keep adjusting it down about an eighth of a turn at a time and keep measuring your case until you see the press is making it smaller. I bump a little more than .001", but I do it every time. If you are neck sizing only, you should bump .003" - .005".