Home Forums Reloading Varmint Rifles Problems with Lapua .223 brass?

Recently I decided to try some Lapua brass in .308 and 223. Talk about 2 extremes! The .308 was about as perfect as could be expected right out of the box, no complaints there. The .223 on the other hand was the opposite. It started when I seated a few bullets in the new brass just to get measurement to pick out a neck bushing. It felt like I was seating a bullet into a case full of gravel. Things never got any better after that, I had to full length size the cases to load them, and straight fire formed cases turned into bananas when cases were loaded with Redding competition bushing dies. I could go on, but will just say that there is nothing wrong with the chamber or the dies. I also have RCBS and Lee dies plus a Lee collet die.They all produce excellent results with plain old Winchester brass that was recovered from White box stuff. I was hoping to improve that a little by using "The good stuff".
Has anyone else found a problem with the 223 brass, or do I just have bad luck? I have a few hundred to send back unopened.

There was a bad bunch of the stuff around a while back. Rumors were swirling that Lapua had outsourced the production of that chambering, but those got smacked down by Lapua.

I've got several thousand rounds of the stuff, and all has been typical Lapua quality - outstanding. They are making a slightly different 223 case now with more capacity than earlier offerings. It's called "match", I think. At least that's what the 5 boxes on my bench right now say.

Were I you, I'd send an email to Lapua and let them know about your problems. They have always responded quickly and handled problems the right way. It will also help tremendously if you have the factory boxes so as to be able to reference lot number, as they will surely ask for that info.

CAS,
I too had heard stories about bad brass and outsourcing in 223, but as that was a long time ago I didn't worry about it. I did ask the seller about it though, because I have a memory for things like that. I didn't shot 223 then either. This brass is marked Match Lapua on the boxes, so it should be newer manufacture. The 308 brass that I got at the same time can only be described as perfect. I have also heard that there is another grade of brass called Super match in some calibers. I will try to get ahold of Lapua with the lot numbers, and I have the opened and unopened boxes for reference. Thanks for your reply.

Model70Guy ... when you get this all figured out, please post back in detail with any info you have concerning "names", lot numbers, year/date of production, etc. concerning which .223 brass is OK to buy, and which is NOT ? I have a .223rem that I wouldn't mind trying some of the Lapua brass in... as I have a batch of Lapua brass for my .30-06 that is outstanding, giving me warm fuzzies when thinking about using it in all my rifles. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" />

I'll try, assuming that I can get it figgered out. How something can be so good and so bad puzzles me. The # rubber stamped inside the lid is LOHSP (OK there isn't any numbers in that, just letters <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />) I'll see what I can find out. It is a drag since I have to order this stuff.

Model70guy

I bought a batch just before they started advertising that the next stuff was going to have more capacity. The box is also stamped Match Lapua. and what I take as the lot # is 4PH5003. It is top notch all the way and although I haven't compared weight has pretty much the exact capacity as the WW brass I have. FWIW.

If the number on the front of the box is the lot number, then mine is also marked 4PH5003. I'll check with Lapua to see what the problem is. In the meantime I don't even want to open the other boxes, since I can still return them easily this way. I also have a call in to the dealer that I got them from. I will have to wait and see. In the meantime I am not exactly stuck, the gophers are sleeping anyway so there is time to sort through all this.

Yeah, I'm surprised. The Lapua I have for my 22BR is stupendous stuff, as is the Norma. Remington? Phooey.

Yeah, that's wierd.. I have only obtained one type of Lapua, 200 cases in .222Rem.. I've never seen better stuff. Spendy, but worth it IMHO..

Hope you get some relief from Lapua..

Well, I think that I am making some progress. It seem's that I had a combination of problems. The first box, as stated, needed to be full length sized to get bullets seated into them. Fire-forming these cases straightened them, but some turned into real bananas in the Redding bushing die. Eventually (I never said I was smart) I was able to track the bad cases to the .249" bushing that I had got just for this Lapua brass. This was the second part of my troubles. There was a sharp edge on the leade that I polished out with 400 wet and dry on a tapered punch. This actually shaved a bit of brass off the necks of some cases. This eliminated all the bananas so I opened another box of 100, reasoning that if I had to size and fireform them it wouldn't be the end of the world. Sending them back would be a pain too.
Well get this, the remaining 3 boxes are perfect. Same lot number but these are staight out of the box. Darned if I know what happened to the first box, but there isn't anything wrong with the rest. The first 100 were OK after the first sizing and fireforming too. Things are definitely looking up, but I was very close to giving up on these cases for a while. It could be just a freak occurence.
Has anybody else ever got a bad bushing from Redding?
Model70guy

I don't use the bushing stuff from Redding but I have several of their other dies and have found them to be consistently excellent. Can a bad bushing be obtained from Redding? Absolutely. No matter how good a company is, a QC tech can miss something before a shipment. It happens. I'd send it back to Redding with a note and I'm certain they will take care of you.

Glad you're able to find the cause.