How to Prep Lapua 6 mm BR brass

[Stockrex]

Good Afternoon from warm (18F) west Michigan,
I am looking at a box of Lapua 6mm BR brass.
I need you help with the brass prep.

What brass prep needs to be done? Why? and with What tool?

[CharlieNC]

Check 6BR.com and most say just load them, no prep. Inspect the necks to be sure no damage that needs sizing to fix.

[memilanuk]

If you have a no-turn chamber, you may be able to just load and shoot as mentioned above. Used to be a chamber with a .272" neck was considered 'no-turn', as loaded rounds routinely measured (for me) about .2705" or so, and fired cases came out measuring .2715 or so. That was with the old gold card-board box stuff; I seem to recall hearing that the new stuff sold in the blue plastic boxes is a little thinner. I imagine it would still work, just the fit wouldn't be quite as perfect (horrors!).

Generally speaking, in my opinion having loaded more than a few (thousand) rounds of Lapua brass in various calibers, the necks out of the box need an expander or something ran thru them before use. Not because of dents (those do happen as well) but because they are too dang tight. Tight enough that seating a bullet can leave a very obvious ring on the ogive from the seater due to the amount of force required to seat it. Running them thru a F/L sizing die with the expander in, or a Lee Collet die, etc. opens the mouth up more like what you'd see after sizing the case following the first firing.

The other thing I've had problems with is the flash holes. No burrs or other defects, just too small to the point where the decapping pins from my Redding Type 'S' F/L bushing dies get stuck - and then pulled out. The flash holes are ~.058-.059" dia, and the pins are ~.055-.057"... any least little bit of primer crud in there and the fit gets awful tight. The Redding die holds the pin in a collet type fixture, so it can end up staying stuck in the case when you lower the ram. If you do have this issue, get a PPC-sized flash hole reamer and go through the cases and clean up the flash hole - it opens 'em up to 0.061-0.062", which is just enough to make the problem go away.

HTH,

Monte

[Nor Cal Mikie]

Take a bullet, point first and stick it in the neck to straighten out any dents. Prime the case, add powder, seat a bullet and start shooting!
If you can and still have enough bullet/neck contact, load with about a .010 jam "into" the lands. Mid range loads will be your friend and your brass will love you for it. Watch the bug holes appear.

[Stockrex]

CharlieNC, reviewed 6BR.com , thanks for link,
Memilanuk, I have the new blue box, and yes I have the 272 no neck turn ... I read about needing the smaller decapping pin.
Nor Cal, easy enough, I could find federal gold medal small rifle primers, so I will lprime and load some rounds.

it is a 12 twist barrel, so I am trying to find some Berger 68g FB locally.

[Dennis]

If you have a no-turn chamber, you may be able to just load and shoot as mentioned above. Used to be a chamber with a .272" neck was considered 'no-turn', as loaded rounds routinely measured (for me) about .2705" or so, and fired cases came out measuring .2715 or so. That was with the old gold card-board box stuff; I seem to recall hearing that the new stuff sold in the blue plastic boxes is a little thinner. I imagine it would still work, just the fit wouldn't be quite as perfect (horrors!).

Generally speaking, in my opinion having loaded more than a few (thousand) rounds of Lapua brass in various calibers, the necks out of the box need an expander or something ran thru them before use. Not because of dents (those do happen as well) but because they are too dang tight. Tight enough that seating a bullet can leave a very obvious ring on the ogive from the seater due to the amount of force required to seat it. Running them thru a F/L sizing die with the expander in, or a Lee Collet die, etc. opens the mouth up more like what you'd see after sizing the case following the first firing.

The other thing I've had problems with is the flash holes. No burrs or other defects, just too small to the point where the decapping pins from my Redding Type 'S' F/L bushing dies get stuck - and then pulled out. The flash holes are ~.058-.059" dia, and the pins are ~.055-.057"... any least little bit of primer crud in there and the fit gets awful tight. The Redding die holds the pin in a collet type fixture, so it can end up staying stuck in the case when you lower the ram. If you do have this issue, get a PPC-sized flash hole reamer and go through the cases and clean up the flash hole - it opens 'em up to 0.061-0.062", which is just enough to make the problem go away.

HTH,

Monte

100% agree on all, plus I definitely run an expander mandrel through all my brass necks for the reason Monte states.

Dennis

[82boy]

What brass prep needs to be done? Why? and with What tool?

Just size them, prime then, charge them , and seat a bullet and your ready to go. length trim after firing.
Lapua brass will fit in a 1% weight range from high to low, the flash holes are perfect, don't mess with them. Nothing to improve enjoy.

[memilanuk]

Never said the flash holes weren't perfect; just that they will - as in 'when', not 'if' (and I've worked with enough 6BR/Dasher/30BR/308Palma brass to be confident in that) - suck the decapping pin right out of a Redding Type 'S' die. After a couple times of finishing up sizing a batch of brass only to find that a portion of them still have the spent primer in there, and having to go back and find which one has my decapping pin stuck in it... I decided there was a better way.

YMMV,

Monte

[82boy]

- suck the decapping pin right out of a Redding Type 'S' die. After a couple times of finishing up sizing a batch of brass only to find that a portion of them still have the spent primer in there, and having to go back and find which one has my decapping pin stuck in it... I decided there was a better way.
Monte

Better dies don't do this, never had a problem with it in a Forster, RCBS, or other dies. (Loaded thousands of rounds of Laupa.) Maybe it time to call Redding and tell them, or chuck your decaping pin in a drill and sand a bit off.

[Stockrex]

I read about the pin being too thick on 6mmbr and on Benchrest,
They mentioned that one should calling the manufacturer to get the proper pin.

I bought a Wilson micrometer seater for an arbor press (need to check my hair color before I dye it next time), but I don't have an arbor press....

Which micrometer seater do you guys use?
Barrel-nut mentioned whidden dies, just go with whidden and forget about it?

[82boy]

I read about the pin being too thick on 6mmbr and on Benchrest,
They mentioned that one should calling the manufacturer to get the proper pin.
I bought a Wilson micrometer seater for an arbor press (need to check my hair color before I dye it next time), but I don't have an arbor press....
Which micrometer seater do you guys use?
Barrel-nut mentioned whidden dies, just go with whidden and forget about it?

As far as micrometer ester dies go I use Forster, they are the best bang for the buck. The RCBS gold medal match dies are nice you drop the bullet into the die, and it seats but they are pricy.

On an arbor press the best priced is 21 century. http://www.21stcenturyshooting.com/ $85 to $89 bucks

[Nor Cal Mikie]

I use RCBS Compitition seater dies. Forster Bushing Bump Dies for sizing the neck and bumping the shoulder and a body die when needed. Maybe every 4 th. or 5 th. firing?
Got 22, 6 and 6.8 BR brass with 20 to 25+ firings and still going strong. Might mention, all my loads are mid range so no stress on the brass. You don't have to be fast to be accurate.
Make sure you pick up/get the smaller decapping pins and you're good to go.

[memilanuk]

FWIW... what I'm talking about with the decapping pins is not regular (0.080" hole) vs. PPC (0.059" hole)... as I knew from the start about that and had the right sized (according to Redding) pin. It's just a fuzz too big - 0.055" would probably work just fine.

The reason you probably never saw this kind of problem with other brands of dies is that they probably use shouldered decapping pins (RCBS for sure, don't recall whether Forster does or not), not ones held in place by a collet. It was just held in there secure enough to jam its way thru regardless, where the Redding can pull free rather than break off (seen that happen as well). Six one way, half a dozen the other.

I figured that with several of the places that cater to BR type loading such as Russ Haydon's Shooter Supply (sadly closing down now with Russ and Marsha retiring) and similar all making BR/PPC flash-hole reamers that specifically open up them up to 0.061-0.062"... that the 'problem' ain't just my imagination, or my 'crappy' dies.

[Patch700]

My experience with their brass is similar to most mentioned above... I would not turn the necks as I've found them to be just fine.

In fact all I do with mine is ream the pockets for uniform depth and even at that I've not seen alot of inconsistencies in their depth.
The flash hole i have never touched as they don't use the same procedure as other Mfg's and you don't get that little flap if you will on the inside.. If you do wish to de-burr the flash hole stay away from cheap tools . And a quality expander mandrel is a nice tool to get more consistent neck tension from brass that has not been fired and sized .

A friend of mine decided to do the full case prep on a batch of lapua brass for his 6.5x47L and essentially he ruined about 50 cases by doing the "90%" cleanup on the necks along with de-burring the flash holes... His was a no turn chamber and after he did the cleanup of the necks he had consistent problems with getting a good seal at the neck , also when we compared his E/S with that brass that was turned and had the flash holes done the numbers went from 7 or 8 to 24-30 fps deviation in a ten shot.. The tool he used for de-burring was an older rcbs that should've long been retired..

[Stockrex]

The reloading gods threw me a bone: I bought the last box of Berger 68 FB 6mm bullets from Cabelas last night,
now to get an arbor press.

Should I go for the regular arbor press? or one with the force measurement built in?

[82boy]

Just get a standard arbor press. The one with the seating force measurement will knock your socks off.