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Norma Vs. Lapua

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17 September 2004, 17:55
jb2008
Norma Vs. Lapua
Greetings all,

Why does everyone seem to favor Lapua brass? I have yet to try Norma brass (price!) but I can't seem to find any data that would make them better than anything else we can buy. Can anyone shed light on the subject?

James
17 September 2004, 18:19
mho
Both Norma and Lapua make excellent brass. Norma is quite a bit more expensive, and often tends to be on the soft side. BR shooters (in particular) like to load up to high pressure, so Norma brass does not last long for those guys.

Other than that, either make is pretty much top of the line.
- mike
17 September 2004, 18:25
Jeff Alexander
Quote:

Both Norma and Lapua make excellent brass. Norma is quite a bit more expensive, and often tends to be on the soft side. BR shooters (in particular) like to load up to high pressure, so Norma brass does not last long for those guys.

Other than that, either make is pretty much top of the line.
- mike



Mike is correct, except in some calibers - Norma is 1/2 the cost of Lapua. Norma is also available in more calibers (i.e. 338 Win Mag, 470 Nitro). Both are excellent. Norma starts out softer, but tends to "harden" quickly upon reloading once or twice.

Jeff
17 September 2004, 18:25
lawndart
Lapua tends to be tougher, and last for more load/shoot/resize/load cycles. I have had great performance with both brands over the years. I try not to put the spurs into the Norma cases as much as I might do with a Lapua case.
Norma makes the Weatherby brand brass, and that is plenty tough.
I'll use Norma if Lapua doesn't make a particular case that Norma does.
JCN
18 September 2004, 06:19
beemanbeme
My example of one for what its worth: This spring I bought 100 Lapuas and 100 Normas. I found the Lapuas to pretty much be a "load 'em up and shoot 'em" deal. And (I think) I still have about 96 or 97 of them. Admittedly they were for a .222 so they weren't too stressed. As I said, one of their main attractions for me was their precision and uniformity.
Not so the Normas. They were for a 22-250 and I now have about 32 of them left. I think the only reason I have that many is because I dropped my powder charge down by 5 grains. That's a lot. I also found that I had to do everything to uniform them that I had to do to domestic brass. So to my way of thinking, I'd be as well off buying domestic brass and putting the $50-$60 savings in my pocket.
Would I buy more Lapua? Yes; Norma? No.
18 September 2004, 06:31
Atkinson
I use both, but I like Lapua better than any other brass that I have used...for one thing its annealed to start with and shows in the new brass...
16 October 2004, 03:58
John Bartels
Quote:

I've actually had trouble recently with both Lapua and Norma brass, both in the form of overly deep primer pockets, deep enough that the primer set in with the impact of the firing pin, and failed to go off. Calibers were 9.3x62 (lapua) and 338-06 (norma via weatherby).


Interesting that you should say that. I've just had that very problem with a couple of 6*47 rounds. But the cases weren't anything flash, just Remington 222 Rem Mags.
24 September 2004, 17:57
Gadolinium
Have not used Norma, but shoot Lapua 223 and it is uniform and long lasting. Initially I started with 100 pieces and have only scrapped one after 8 firings. Good stuff and worth the price. My dad weight sorted 100 pieces of winchester the other day and came out with 35 pieces within reasonable tolerence. yikes.
25 September 2004, 05:46
BIG SAM
jb,

I believe that you can see that both brands are very popular. In order of caliber availibility, I go with Lapua, then Norma, then Winchester.

A point of interst is that I have 20 Norma cases in .416 Rigby that I have fired 6 times with full house loads. All they have ever needed was to be trimmed other than initial prep. They are still with-in specs and I will use them again when I make up my next batch of practice loads.

All the best,

Sam