Time for some new brass.

[NF1E]

Time to junk a bunch of LC, RA and DAG brass. Finally got up the guts to bring out a few boxes of new Lapua .308 brass out of the stash. Annealed it this afternoon and sized all 400 cases. First half has been sized, wet tumbled in the SS pins and is now in the dryer. Once dried it gets trimmed and them primed and ready to load. Whatta Hobby!

[Dave Hoback]

You clean & size your brand new Lapua? Wonder how many do vs do not. I’m not planning on it with the new batch of virgin Lapua I have in the new barrel. However I switched to 260AI. Still, even with standard 260Rem, I am inclined to just load & shoot. Worry about the brass prep after initial fire forming. But that’s me.

[NF1E]

Had a bad experience with one batch of .308 lapua some time ago. Had neck splits of 10% on my first loading. Now I anneal and go through the full process. No more splits. Whatta Hobby!

[Whynot]

Had a bad experience with one batch of .308 lapua some time ago. Had neck splits of 10% on my first loading. Now I anneal and go through the full process. No more splits. Whatta Hobby!

You have a system that works for you- and that's what matters. But if 10% failed then something else was going on- because they had just been annealed by Lapua and hadn't had a chance to be work hardened yet-- so they probably would have failed regardless. Unless the brass has been roughed up bad I just load it- because it is going to be under sized for my chamber anyway. Lapua is good brass- but probably not as good as its reputation.

[South Prairie jim]

Interesting to here of split necks on virgin Lapua brass, I typically just use an expander mandrel on virgin brass as the necks are quite undersized and yes they are annealed prior to leaving the plant.

[pdog06]

I normally run my new brass thru a sizer die to round the necks. The last batch of Lapua I got had 9-10 dented necks that needed it anyway.

[bearcatrp]

I shoot allot of 308 for past 30 years. Learned to resize all new brass after issues trying without. With resizing, you know it’s good to go.

[charlie b]

With Lapua I do like Jim, expand and load. Have recently tried the Peterson brass and do it the same way. FWIW, I found I needed to use a tapered expander for this. When I tried just the 'button' the necks would 'buckle'. To me that means they are fully annealed.

After 18 reloads I had my fist Lapua 6BR neck split. The other cases are still doing well after 4 more reloads. I do not anneal and they are FL sized every time.

[NF1E]

I do try to be gentle with brass. I have a feeling that I was lucky and just got a bad batch. Whatta Hobby!

[RCE1]

I just FL size and clean up the case mouths for fire forming Lapua brass.