New brass AA / Lupua

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  • New brass AA / Lupua

    I just bought a hundred cases for my Grendel. Took it down to start reloading and found when I went to put the CCI 400 small rifle primers in that they didn't want to go in very easily. In fact I had to go to my Rock Chucker to get them satisfactory.
    Should I have used the wire brush on the primer pockets before priming them, even though they were new? Has anyone else had this problem? Thanks

  • #2
    I have been reloading my Hornady brass trying to use it up before I get into my pile of new Lapua brass that I bought at the last sale, so I've not loaded any yet . But if my memory serves me right, I've been using CCI 450 small magnum rifle primers, I think? I'd go out to the garage & check but I'm about to hit the hay... If everything goes as expected tomorrow I'll try to load a few of the new Lapua brass & see how the primers seat & post my findings tomorrow afternoon..

    I had forgotten about this, but a friend of mine that sells bullets, brass & primers sold me some military small rifle primers & said they would work just fine. But they aren't magnum primers, so I need to do some checking for myself..
    Last edited by Guest; 11-23-2011, 05:42 AM. Reason: I left out a word

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    • #3
      Originally posted by Tooreal View Post

      I had forgotten about this, but a friend of mine that sells bullets, brass & primers sold me some military small rifle primers & said they would work just fine. But they aren't magnum primers, so I need to do some checking for myself..

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      • #4
        Thanks davidj,

        If I understand the chart correctly, then that means I don't need to be using the CCI 450 Magnum small rifle primers after all??!!!.

        Mav714, I did the exact same thing as you and loaded some small rifle primers in the New Lapua brass just like you. I am using a Dillon RL550 Carousel loader and it is Definitely a lot harder getting the primers to seat in the new Lapua cases than in the Hornady brass. Not to the point of being afraid they were going to go off. But it seemed like the pressure was getting really close to that point, but after loading about 20 more cases it really didn't seem that bad.. I guess I got use to the amount of pressure that I had to apply to seat the primers?..

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        • #5
          My 100) AA (Lapua) brass arrived last Wednesday. Out of the bag, they look great. Mic'd a handful and the consistency of dimensions exceeds my expectations, easily besting the Hornady brass, as in no contest.

          I drilled the flash holes to .080 and deburred the resulting holes on the inside. I use Remington 7 1/2 primers and tried seating a few to see if I got the same issue. They are indeed a firm seat, requiring much more force with my Lee Safety Primer than my Hornady brass ever required, but went in without distorting the primers. Actually, that gives me a good peace of mind feeling. After the second reloading, every subsequent reload cycle with the Hornadys had some of them getting tossed from primers being too loose for my comfort. These Lapuas feel like they will be good to go a lot more cycles. Makes me regret buying the first two boxes of Hornady brass that I've gone through so far. The necks feel like a harder grade of brass as well, despite having annealing stains. Even though the mouths didn't need deburring, I still chucked each case into my Lee lockstud and gave each one a spin into a pad of 0000 steel wool.

          It's a trick I do after trimming and deburring to give them that final smooth mouth. The steel wool which usually shines the Hornady brass mouths up easily, barely had any effect upon the Lapua mouths. I'm taking that as a good omen.

          Comfortable shooting weather is all but a distant memory now, but I look forward to perhaps one last gasp of indian summer to actually take some out and shoot my benchmark load alongside some Hornady's I loaded up for deer season. 28.5gr AR-Comp and Amax 123s. If we don't get any more days above freezing, I may wind up waiting until spring comes next April/May to do the comparison. We'll see...

          I do not use Military or Mag primers in any caliber I load for, so I can't comment on how they seat. I do know the quality difference between the two brands of brass are like night and day. My only remaining concern will be whether neck tension causes these new cases to buckle when seating bullets. The neck OD from the new AA brass is the same as that which my Forster resizing die produced with the Hornady brass, so I have high hopes.

          Hoot

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          • #6
            I prefer tight primer pockets in brass that I expect to last at least 10 loadings. Lapua is one of the few that you can do that with in a self-loader. Tight primer pockets = good value over the long run. I learned to reload using a hand primer, but I only use my press for priming, since it feels better to me and more secure...just my preference.

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            • #7
              LRRPF52,

              You have a valid point, I too have noticed the Hornady brass primer pocket opening up after several loads. That makes really good sense & I also purchased several bags of Lapua brass so I could get 10 reloads out of them too. You can tell by the way they have been heat treated in the neck & shoulder area for durability & longevity...
              My hats off too you sir, that makes perfect sense my friend..

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              • #8
                Hoot,

                Thanks for sharing the valuable information, I greatly appreciate it, because that will save me some time and effort. :-)

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