Lapua brass vs loaded Hornady ammo.

[Grendelshooter]

I'm in a bit of a conundrum here.
I've already purchased 100 Lapua brass for grendel, and was going to get 400 more.
That would cost me about $360 at .90 each.

Then I started looking at the Hornady loaded smmo which I just assumed would be way more expensive and found it for less than Lapua brass! Hornady 123 ELD (loaded ammo) are .85 each, so 400 would run me about $340.

So to me it seems the better deal would be to buy the loaded ammo and reload the spent casings, but I don't know how big a difference there is between the two as far as brass goes.

If Lapua really is that much better then I'll go that way but I've got to ask are they, really, THAT MUCH BETTER. than Hornady brass to justify the huge cost difference?

[LRRPF52]

I have had great success with both brass manufacturers.

I've gotten more use out of Hornady brass than I thought I would-haven't culled any yet that I can recall.

There are some guys here who have gotten 20+ loads with Lapua brass though.

Hard to argue with starting out with quality factory loaded ammo.

[Grendelshooter]

Especially when it's cheaper than the components lol

[m77mkii]

you could buy Hornady brass for around $250 for 500

[SightedIn]

The eternal Lapua question comes up yet again
I used Lapua for many years when i was shooting .308 and it was the best by far.
However when i came to grendeland, i just happended to start out shooting factory Hornady with about 300 rounds new and, well almost two years later and i'm still reloading that same brass with no fails yet. Couldnt tell you round count each but at least 7-8. I keep telling myself soon as i see some bad ones i'll start buying the lapua but it just hasnt happened.

I would say loads is a large variable. I load light. If you plan on loading hot loads regularly the lapua might be the better bet

[Texas]

I have had very good success with Hornady 123 gr SST -- Hard to beat.

[Kilco]

I've also had great luck with Hornady.. always planned on getting Lapua when my Hornady capped the bed.. But based on the performance of Hornady brass so far, plus the price, I think I will stick with Hornady.

[LWP]

I must have gotten a bad batch of Hornady brass with my factory (200 rounds) ammo in Black and SST because I have a lot of variation in my neck tensions after resizing. Fired 20 rds of each and after resizing all of them 8 pieces of brass will not even hold a bullet, too loose. And I'm using a .288 bushing in my Redding F/L sizer. On the other hand my Lapua brass works great with the same die using a .290 bushing. One note though I did have to use an over size mandrel (.264) on the virgin Lapua brass because the necks were so tight (.259) out of the box. I mean I always use the ex pander ball on my resizer with new brass to open up and try to make them all the same, but even then they were still too tight(.260) so I purchased a OVER SIZED mandrel (.264) from Sinclair to end up with (.263-.2625) which worked much better. Love my Lapua brass in ALL my rifles.

[458MinMag]

... I'm using a .288 bushing in my Redding F/L sizer.

I loaded my first batch of 6.5G last week, and a .287 bushing was giving me 0.002" neck tension with Hornady brass. I just ordered a .286 bushing.

[NugginFutz]

Happy to hear that, 458mm. I use the .286 on my Hornady brass for the same .003" neck tension. I like consistency across the board. Virtually all my Hornady brass started as once fired (by me) factory A-Max.

With Lapua brass, I use the .287 bushing to achieve .003" of tension, as Lapua is a bit thicker.

[kiwi shooter]

My 2 cents lapua is better however in an ar platform you are going to lose the odd one and get the odd one damaged plus going down the hornady route you get to shoot all the ammo 1st

I don't shoot factory ammo as its very expensive in new zealand arround $3 a round

And I shoot a bolt action

Plus there was only $15 difference between hornady and lapua when it came to new brass so lapua was the obvious choice for me

[Bruw]

Another having good results on hornady brass with a redding .286 bushing. My measurements of the factory ammo was between .288 and .2875, so I'm not surprised that the .288 bushing isn't working.

[LWP]

Ok I agree on the .286 bushing for a gas gun with .003" tension, but I'll still refer back to when I resized the Hornady brass with a .288 bushing and some held a bullet nicely and some of the bullets just fell into the cases with no restriction at all. Therefor telling me that there is a considerable difference in wall thickness through out the Hornady brass lot that I have shot.

[LWP]

And to kiwi shooter on your bolt gun I would suggest a .290 bushing only because that's the size I have used with my Lapua brass shooting from my bolt gun. Also have you measured the inside neck dia yet on your new unfired Lapua 6.5 Grendel brass? curious to see if it is as tight as mine were out of the Blue box?

[LWP]

Also kiwi shooter this is a load that has really preformed well in my Mini Howa BOLT gun that you may want to try. 120gr Sierra HPBT with 30.5grs CFE 223, CCI-450 primer, seated at 2.260"coal. Out of my 20" bbl I get 2475fps av. which is not as fast as I would like, but very accurate. I will be testing with this bullet at higher speeds to see if there may be another node faster, and also with some different powders too. Will let you know if I find something that works as well for accuracy but faster.