I did some shooting today.
My .308 savage 99f.
My load was a fairly mild 47 grains of W748
under a 150 grain speer flat base.
This is 2 grains under max. After shooting 5 i found a primer blown clear out of 1 of the fresh factory Lapua brass.
This brass looks a bit odd in that the shoulder and neck look a little discolerd.
Has anyone mentioned a problem like this before ? I had 20 factory hornady rounds and they were fine. shot good too.
Any thoughts would be appreciated...tj3006

The discoloration on the neck and shoulder could be from annealing. Is the discoloration uniform among all of the cases? How id the primers appear on the rest of the fired cases?

That is what i thought.
Perhaps the brass annealed. Maybe i should explain myself better. All the brass has the discoloration before loading.
If the Brass is annealed then, maybe its soft enough to cause the primer pocket to expand.
I think i will load the brass from the Hornady
Factory ammo with the same load for my 99.

I will also bring the remaining 20 hand loads from today and see how it looks if i shoot it in my model 70...tj3006

Brass is usually annealed from the top of the neck to just below the shoulder. This lot of brass might be thicker, like military brass, and have a bit less case capacity than the brass used in the load data. You might drop the load down a little and have no issues. Lapua and Norma brass have a reputation for being tough partly because the brass usually is a little thicker.
Matt

thanks Matt !
I will weigh the brass and see if its heavier.
...tj3006

quote:

Originally posted by ColoradoMatt:
Brass is usually annealed from the top of the neck to just below the shoulder. This lot of brass might be thicker, like military brass, and have a bit less case capacity than the brass used in the load data. You might drop the load down a little and have no issues. Lapua and Norma brass have a reputation for being tough partly because the brass usually is a little thicker.
Matt

I have found this to be the case with Lapua brass in several different calbres. That is less internal volume so pressures are up.

It looks like mat and rule 303 might be spot on !
The Lapua brass weighs 13.5 grains more than winchester !
So glad you told me. I have about 150 Lapua brass here new !
I will lighten my load. Better get the chrony out !...

I found the same thing with Hornady Match (not regular) brass as well. More like military.

All factory ammo made with Lapua brass (at least what I have shot) shows the annealing color.

Right on, all factory Lapua shows annealing and that's a good thing. It is very good brass and any savage should handle that load with ease.

Most book loads show max for bolt action rifles..Most 99 Savages rifles however will handle the max load of 48.5 grs. of WW-748 as that has been my pet load for some years, however that does not mean yours will. Your load is obviously way to hot for whatever reason, perhaps your batch of Lapua is thicker than other brands or perhaps you have a minimum chamber in which case you can probably get high velocity with minimum loads, are you using standard primers? Magnum primers will run pressure sky high in the .308 enough to make your load max with that less than max load. Also if your necks are too long and cases need trimming that can run pressures way high. Keep cases trimmed.

I suggest you try WW, Fed. or even Rem brass and see what happens..blowing primers is not a safe practice for sure..

Other than WW-748 I have found most book max loads need to be reduced 1.5 to 2 grs. in a 99 Savage. In the 99 a hot load will usually cause movement in the lever upon firing, that's a good clue to back off a grain or two, and if the action bolt drops even a tad, your way dangerous..The 99 is kind to shooters, it's tells you when your in the red.

IMO all handloaders should invest in a chronograph, its the best insurance out there today and a good chronograph can be had for a bit over $100 bucks.

Are you using the standard Lapua .308 Win case, or the Palma Lapua .308 Win case?
http://www.lapua.com/en/products/reloading/cases

My cases have large primer pockets, so they are the standard.
I ran the fired cases through my sizing die and put new primers in them. and i did not notice any difference.
My plan is to shoot some of the remaing 21 rounds over my chrony. From my model 70
If velocity goes over about 2850 , i will back off my charge.
47 grains seemed a safe start charge and i would expect about 2700 , but if the brass has thick walls ,
tj3006