Lapua or Hornady brass

[johnjohn]

How many loadings is everyone getting from Hornady vs Lapua brass? I shot over 150 rounds of factory Hornady A-Max. Now I'm ready to reload. I'm already thinking for future should I continue buying Hornady brass which is cheaper or step up to Lapua brass. Thoughts?

Thanks

John

[NugginFutz]

I have both AA (Lapua) and Hornady cases - 7 loads on the Hornady cases and counting, but have only fire formed the AA's once. Since all mine are still kicking, I can't personally speak to their longevity.

Hornady is softer than Lapua or AA brass, but I've heard of people getting 10+ loads on them before the pockets opened. Lapua and AA brass have gone upwards of 20, IIRC. Using just this as a metric, the Hornady brass must be purchased at half the price of Lapua to come up even on the cost/load ratio.

Buying and shooting factory rounds skews the math, but you get the picture.

ETA: vvvvvv - What he said, too.

[LRRPF52]

The Lapua brass is much cheaper in the long run, because it lasts so long. Lapua metallurgy for their brass alloys, as well as the geometry of the case, come together to make the most durable brass in the industry. There really is no comparison.

I have yet to wear out any Lapua cases. Some here have gotten 18-20 loads on them. This is another area where the Grendel's lower operating pressure pays off in spades.

[johnjohn]

Thank you and very good information here. After I wear out the Hornady brass I will certainly switch over to Lapua.

Where can I find AA (Lapua brass)? On the AA website they only have Hornady brass. Was wondering because I've read somewhere on here that Lapua brass headstamp AA sometimes goes on sale.

[NugginFutz]

Alas, I think the days of AA stamped Lapua brass are coming to an end. While I have no direct information on what AA's plans for brass suppliers are, I have not seen anyone reporting purchases of AA/Lapua in some months. Just get the Lapua head stamped brass and be done with it. There is/was no difference or advantage to AA stamped brass.

[mwilkins]

I have yet to wear out any Lapua cases. Some here have gotten 18-20 loads on them. This is another area where the Grendel's lower operating pressure pays off in spades.

Just placed an order with Powder Valley for 100 Lapua cases. Already have two firings on 150 Hornady cases. Looking to get the most I can out of both brands and getting ready to purchase an annealing machine.
Question is how often are you annealing your brass? I am assuming that you are just by the round count on them.

[LR1955]

Just placed an order with Powder Valley for 100 Lapua cases. Already have two firings on 150 Hornady cases. Looking to get the most I can out of both brands and getting ready to purchase an annealing machine.
Question is how often are you annealing your brass? I am assuming that you are just by the round count on them.

No need to anneal Lapua brass. You will get 20 or more firings out of it as it is given you use a decent sizing die with decent lube. I shoot my Lapua Grendel brass until I can't see the headstamp anymore then toss it. Never split a neck and never annealed.

LR55

[Boostmeister]

You won't go wrong with either flavor of Grendel brass. As has been mentioned by others, the Hornady brass is softer (which is not necessarily a bad thing) making it easier to fire form the brass with less powder. I've got about a dozen reloads on both types of brass with no issues thus far. I would point out that the flash hole in the Lapua brass is roughly .057 - .058 which can create an interference with most small pin decapping dies as they are .060 in diameter. The Hornady brass uses a more common .078 flash hole. As I stated, you won't go wrong with either brand of brass, but I would recommend that you stick with one brand to eliminate potential issues with decapping pin breakage. I have a good quantity of both types of brass and finally used a Sinclair tool to open up the Lapua flash hole to the more common .078 flash hole size. I did perform some testing to determine if there were any performance differences prior to opening up the flash hole in the Lapua brass. The test results are available here on the site:

http://www.65grendel.com/forum/showthread.php?9002-Lapua-Flash-Hole-Test

[Sniper338]

Thats like comparing a 1 inch thick medium rare ribeye to a piece of dog (doodoo)

[Boostmeister]

Perhaps you have data that you would like to share with the group, rather than simply inject sarcasm. Without data you are just another opinion.

[LR1955]

OK guys.

You want to smoke each other, do it back channel.

LR55

[sneaky one]

Geez! Gene!

The last 4+ years of Hornady brass was made by PPU-- How does this smell? PPuuuuuue! It's the same as junky version of the orig Wolf junk ammo- they tried to tighten up some specs= really? Putin was in office. Now he want's grendelski ammo. 6.5 is soo arwesome sudddenkly ? The new russkies find the 6.5 so cool.

It was the Grendel world that they saw firstly, so as to tweak the AK to it. It's online - all the new stuff.

[bwaites]

Geez! Gene!

The last 4+ years of Hornady brass was made by PPU-- How does this smell? PPuuuuuue! It's the same as junky version of the orig Wolf junk ammo- they tried to tighten up some specs= really? Putin was in office. Now he want's grendelski ammo. 6.5 is soo arwesome sudddenkly ? The new russkies find the 6.5 so cool.

It was the Grendel world that they saw firstly, so as to tweak the AK to it. It's online - all the new stuff.

Yes, but that is no reason to use vulgarity. The Hornady may or may not be made by PPU, (small primer alone makes it better than Wolf's version by a huge margin if it is.) But Hornady brass last significantly longer in my tests than any of the Wolf did. That may be simply because of the primer pockets, but the brass has a different look when I tumble it too, so I suspect it is slightly different metallurgically.