6 BR brass neck clearance

[Bradley Walker]

All of my 6Br brass is the old gold box Lapua. My loaded rounds measure .269". The new 6 BR reamer that everyone is using is .2705". The old standard reamer was .272". I am getting a new barrel and they are using the .2705" reamer.

Is this enough clearance?

[sharpshooter]

No.....you need at least .003".

[tiny68]

All 3 of my 6BRs are 0.272" necks. Make sure you are looking a reamer for the 6BR Norma which fits the Lapua brass well. And as always measure your loaded rounds. I haven't switched to the new blue brass. I purchased 10 boxes of the old gold box in 2010 when Bruno's put it on sale. It will last me a long time. If fact I don't know what it takes to wear this stuff off. I have given one box to each barrel and one for my 30BR. All still going strong.

Luck, Tim

[82boy]

There is no difference between cardboard box, and blue box lapua brass. If your loaded rounds measure at .269 and the chamber speck is .2705, that is giving you .0015 clearence. Some of the old benchrest shooters use to shoot what they called fitted necks wich is about what you got, they would fire the case then just seat the bullet without sizing. The problem is when you do this it can lead to unexplained flyers, and other problems. I prefer to have a bit more tolarence. Jack Neary (One of the top point blank benchrest shooters in the world.) has a saying and it is "Go thin to win." Jack runs .003 to .0035 clearence on his bechrest gun. With that said you need to turn your brass a bit.

[Bradley Walker]

I need a 272 reamer... I had thought after this batch of Lapua wears out I am going to switch to Norma. It is closer to the old Gold box Lapua brass.

I think I would rather just stick to 272 for this year at least.

Anyone got a reamer they can load Russell at Rock creek? HAHAHA!!!

[Bradley Walker]

I really do NOT want to buy all the crap to turn necks... I really, really, do NOT want to turn necks...

[sharpshooter]

So who are "they" you speak of that are going to .2705 necks?

[Bradley Walker]

The new reamer from PTG is a .2705. It is the "new" standard for unturned necks due to the changes in the Lapua brass.

[82boy]

A post off of accurate shooter from Kevin Thomas Lapua represenitive.

This sounds like some misreading, or a few pieces that were on the high end
of the spectrum, but no, the thinner brass is here to stay. To clarify that
a bit, there never was any change of specifications to the brass itself. As
with any manufacturing process, there are both minimum and maximum
dimensions for tolerances. The brass that some are now referring to as
"thick" necks were merely those that ran on the high end of the
specification. Inevitably, some ran a bit over, and caused problems with our
loaded ammunition not gaging properly in a the CIP neck gages. As a CIP
member, this is mandatory for us. As a result, we have had to run the brass
back to the middle of the tolerance range to ensure that they all pass the
CIP neck gage. This is the dimension you'll see in ALL future production.
Incidentally, while these changes took place more or less concurrently with
our switch to the new blue plastic boxes, there is no correlation between
the two, and the type of packaging does not guarantee which end of the
tolerance range the necks will fall into.

I hope this helps to clarify the situation, but if you have any other
questions or comments, please feel free to contact us again.

Sincerely,
Kevin Thomas
Sales & Marketing Manager, SCD CCF
Nammo Inc. - 123 Winchester Drive, Sedalia, MO 65301
Tel: 660-826-3232 - Cell: 660-596-2274 - Fax: 660-851-0800
ksthomas@lapua.us

[Bradley Walker]

That's why I am going to try Norma brass in the future. It's the same as the old Lapua in the neck dimension (I have been told).

[sharpshooter]

What you will find with Norma brass is that it is somewhat softer and will not take the repeated pounding that Lapua will. Norma uses brass that has 2% silver in their alloy, while being more malleable, typically the primer pockets open up if you stand on them just once. I have Lapua cases I have fired over 50+ times with no issues of loose primer pockets. I run .003-.004" neck clearance and full length re-size every time.