Lapua brass

[grovey]

I'm looking buy some better brass this winter for my 221 FB and 223 Rem. How uniform have you Lapua users found their 221 and 223 brass to be in weight? I'm only looking to buy 100 pcs for each rifle, and would like to end up with 2 big lots and very few culls when I weight sort them.

I have been using the same unsorted 50 Norma cases over and over in the FB, but if I actually weight sort it to a 1/2 gr I only get 30 cases I'd consider a lot for benchrest shooting. Could I expect Lapua to be more uniform than that ?

[B23]

I've found Lapua brass to be the best, in all aspects, of any brass that I have used.

I suppose weight sorting new brass is ok but what really matters is the internal volume so if you really want to do something, measure the case capacity with water of each individual case and sort them by their case capacity.

[grovey]

I've tried sorting by water capacity, but I don't trust it. It seemed easy to get another drop of water in/on a full case and change the reading. I'll stick to weight sorting from the same lot.

[Foxhunter223]

I have used 223 Lapua and found it to be excellent. None better.

Pete

[kenbro]

Lapua brass need closely inspecting like any other brand before use.
My last 100 x 223 cases had several with dinged necks. I also clean the mouth up, inside and out.
No weighing for my shooting.
Ken.

[2skeet]

I scored several boxes a few years ago in 221FB and 222. I want to try to work with the 222 to build 20-222 brass but haven't screwed up the courage to try it yet. I don't want to foul-up any brand new cases.
My big concern is the neck thickness. Which is what I'm dealing with now with W-W brass it's all over the place.

[SS427]

Despite some recent comments about Lapua brass on some of the forums, it is still my go to brand of brass to buy.

I gave up on sorting Lapua by weight because i couldn't see the difference on the target, so don't have any recent experience with that. But my last Lapua batch of 221 Fireball that I necked down for 20VT was all thicker on one side of the neck. I have to turn it down for a .232 chamber and the turner revealed that flaw. Some were thick all the way around and turned down bright and shiny. But most ended up with about 75-90% shiny and the remainder not touched by the blade. Good news is they shoot extremely accurately which is all that matters.

[ben lurkin]

I have tried a bunch of different brass in 223. I was somwhat disappointed in Lapua in this caliber; especially considering the price! I'll have to check my notes but LC and Norma were better in terms of weight consistency. Around here, I buy the Norma TAC 223 in 55 gr for $6 a box of 20. Funny, the loaded ammo is $30 pet 100; about 50% cheaper than the empty brass! I pulled the bullets on about 400 of these and replaced them with Nosler 55 gr varmageddon when they were on sale when I needed some varmint loads earlier this year. They shoot well!

You will, however, have to remove the light staking around the primer Pockets when you reload them

[GrocMax]

I'm with 'Ben Lurkin' (nice forum name ) on the 223. In my situation I need at least 500-1000 cases each caliber for varmints and Lapua isn't worth the extra money, primer pockets open up quicker than LC same load (even with the tight pockets) and I can buy 250-300 new LC for same price as 100 Lapua. No difference on target.

Now for 6BR varminting its a different story, Lapua brass is well worth it as they will last forever, 50+ loads or more with an anneal now and then. THAT is value.

I see no value in brass that is 2-3 times the price, doesn't last as long, and has no difference on target.

[montdoug]

Coincidental to this thread, I just bought one of the CZ 527 Varmint .222's that CZ had made in Czechoslovakia for a contract in Mexico and allowed CZ USA to sell the over-run of 47 rifles. I figured I'd like to give my first ever .222 a chance to live up to the reputation for gilt edged accuracy I've heard about so long so I bought 400 rounds of Lapua .222 brass. I have no problem using Remington brass either but in it I feel compelled to uniform primer pockets and ream flash holes as well as weight segregate, as in a lotta work . On Lapua brass I leave flash holes and primer pockets alone so to me that's worth the extra money.
I sure don't wish to engage in a long drawn out debate about the value or stupidity of weight segregating brass, I do it and if you don't I'm just fine with that, I sure ain't selling it . Disclaimers stated! I just so happen to have quite recently finished weight segregating those 400 Lapua cases into MTM boxes of 50 and I'll post the results for ya if that's worth anything. I should say that 300 of these cases were all the same case lot and 100 wasn't, I didn't do the 100 separately but just weighed em and boxed em with the rest.
Here ya go. The lightest case was 92.7 grains and the heaviest was 95.3 grains. the boxes of 50 broke down like this:
92.7gr to 93.4gr.
93.1 to 93.4
93.5 to 93.8
93.5 to 93.6
94.2 to 94.7
That 250 segregated out into less then .5 grain variance per box or 50. Now the other 150.
93.9 to 94.6
93.4 to 94.2
94.7 to 95.3

That last 150 by box of 50 varied .6, .7 and .8 of a grain, not much IMO, but if ya threw em all together and fired a group with one case weighing 92.7 grains and another weighing 95.3 that's 2.6 grains as the extreme spread. That's out of 400 cases and 2 different lots. Not sure where you feel ya oughta cull em and because all a mine end up in a box to be used ya might find it ain't worth your while to just do just a hundred??

Just to add perspective and convince anyone in doubt that I'm over the hill anal , I went back and dug out 500 Remington .221 Fireball cases I did the primer pockets, flash holes on and and (weight segregated em as the Lapua's above). Did all that years back. I got:

79.4 to 80.0
80.7 to 81.2
80.2 to 80.8
80.8 to 81.0
81.7 to 81.9
82.4 to 82.9
82.2 to 82.2 all the same
82.0 to 82.1
82.2 to 82.3
82.3 to 84.2

That's a 4.8 grain extreme spread as opposed to Lapua's 2.6 grain spread in heavier cases.
After doing the work to that Remington brass that I won't have to do to the Lapua I gotta say that some of that Rem. brass is loaded for really accurate rifles and no way I think any brass is gonna allow "me" with my abilities to shoot smaller groups with better brass, but I sure like not doing all that work.
As long as this is I'll bet you can tell that I'm really bored.

P.S.
The real "value buy" in brass for me happened a number of years back when I believe Midway was selling 100 packs of Lapua weight segregated (as in perfectly the same), sized with perfect necks, chamfered and deburred .223 cases for .38 cents apiece. Nicest brass I've ever seen, to nice to use so I still have most of it. Now that's anal .