Many of you already know this...for those who, like me, have managed to load for 30 years without ever using Lapua brass...that stuff is sweet!

Got a shipment yesterday, including some Lapua 243 brass. Opened the box and fell in love! That stuff was so uniform and perfect it made me almost cry. I don't know if I'll ever be able to get myself to buy the "local" stuff again (well maybe I will, under protest).

My hat is off to my brothers from Finland!

Tim

[This message has been edited by tarbe (edited 03-21-2002).]

Lapua dose have very good brass.
aiso i was told by a local gun smith
that winchester brass was made by lapua.
So i went home and ordered some and have
used winchester ever scince then.

"Winchester" brass from what I knew was made my the original and present owner of Winchester ammunition, the Olin Corp.

Olin's brass mill in E. Alton, Illinois makes some of the best brass rolled product in the world. If they make the best cartridge cases I am not sure. It seems that Lapua does?

It has been speculated that Winchester 7.62x54R Russian is made by Sellier & Bellot. There has been some complaint below of S&B failure.
S&B seems to share with Winchester a slightly shallow primer pocket and that the new Winchester primers are also shorter and fit well.
Dr. Samuel Hayakawa's Law:
"In the absence of information, misinformation will flourish."
It would be good if Winchester would 'fess up or refute this speculation.
Cheers from Darkest California,
Ross

[This message has been edited by Ross (edited 03-21-2002).]

Winchester has been buying components on the World market lately, some of their 5.56mm is made by IMI.

Especially when it comes to the 6.5x55, Lapua is WONDERFUL -- head and shoulders above what Rem & Win can offer and not at much more of a cost. When you figure how many I cull from the Remchester stuff, the cost is actually about the same. And I have YET to cull any Lapua brass.

Once you try it, you'll be hooked...

Sounds like new lapua brass would be excellent to start fireforming for my 25-06 Ackley Improved? I have never loaded any lapua and costs sounds reasonable too!? Thanks. GREG

Greg-
I use Lapua for my 6.5-06 among the aforementioned 6.5x55, and this brass is first-rate as well. The .223 and .308 brass also display superb consistency.

You just can't go wrong with it.

Andr� Mertens claims Winchester ammo is loaded by Norma. The Winchester Euro line ( 8x57IS, 9.3x62, 9.3x74R ) is identical to Sako�s loadings ????

Hermann

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How does Lapua compares to Norma as far as if Lapua is softer or harder? tolerences?

Lapua brass is very tough, almost impossible to get large primer pockets in. In this sence Norma is softer.

In my wildcatting efforts some loads have been, well, positively tilted towards excellent velocities, accompanied with extractor marks, ironed out primers, bolt opened with hammer. You know. Not one loose primer pocket, not even in the 222Rem, a case with very little brass around the primer. Just necksize and reload the case again, and again, and... No doubt someone will succeed in enlargening a pocket, perhaps even live to do it again.

I fireformed 30-06 AI using both Norma and Lapua. Out of 20 cases 5 of the Normas cracked at shoulder edge, 40 Lapua came out as beautiful as a dream. In this sence Norma is harder, perhaps brittle is more corrrect.

Norma and Lapua are very uniform, both weight and measures. After the above fireforming the length variation of the Normas was .008", Lapua .0006". Both were at .0006 before ff. The Lapuas just formed into the new chamber, no cracks, no lengthening, pure joy.

Norma case necks must be annealed, say every 10-15 reloads depending on the chamber neck. I have never bothered to anneal Lapua and have shot some cases over 50 times to test this. They will, no doubt, crack eventually, but at that point you are renewing your Norma brass for the second time, Win brass for the fifth, and Rem for the tenth...

Lapua gets bashed occasionally, mostly due to low availability and high price of Lapua Mag brass. You should remember that Finland is a Montana sized country with 5 million residents. There just isn�t enough of us to make all the brass, powder and cellphones (Nokia) for the world. AKI

The Lapua 243 cases I just received do have annealed necks/shoulders.

When I loaded 20 late last night, I was amazed at how tight and uniform the primer pockets were. Also, no flash hole burrs were seen.

Tim

Greg Y, What Lapua brass would you use to fireform for 25/06 AI?

Aki- Montana sized with 5 million rsidents? Wow, that's crowded. - Dan

Dan. _Barely_ Montana sized. But we don�t have those breath taking but spacious montanas at all, just archipelago, forests, lakes, forests, lakes, and more lakes. Finland was the Land of the Thousand Lakes, today spelled Nokia.

Crowded? NO! Most finns are stuffed into the capital area around Helsinki. They call the country outside "wolf land" which they belived is inhabited by mentaly retarded remnants from the last ice age and not worth a thought. We on the outside do nothing to enlighten them, on the contrary. We encourage their belif. So Finland in general is not crowded at all, just an insignificant little spot around Helsinki were we keep our..., ehh... brothers, occupied with politics, trade, city life in general.

Just bought some Lapua brass in 220 Russian, 30-06 yesterday, 243 last week. I simply can not resist the jewelry... :P

Frasier. I would neck down 30-06, perhaps turn the necks, but never look back.

I started reloading a few years back. Sitting there staring down in a box of sparkling new Lapua 30-06 and 222, I could not understand the often mentioned need of sizing, deburring, culling new brass. After reading your posts I see what you usually are up against. AKI