Home Forums Reloading Varmint Rifles Lapua Brass, Worth the Cost? Needed to Build Most Accurate Handloads?

i bought an 8 twist Tikka .223 that I plan to use to start to shoot longer range via twisting turrets. As such, I want to build some accurate hand loads using 75 grain Hornadys (HPBT or AMax).

I've got a good amount of Lake City brass, but I am wondering if I should buy some better quality brass (have not weighed any yet).

With that said, is Lapua worth the cost? It looks like it is just about double the cost or Hornady or Nosler brass. Inputs appreciated.

Yes

Lapua brass is about as good as it gets, it will help wring the last bit of accuracy out of your load. The question is - does it really matter that much in the field?

I use Lake City for varmint loads and Lapua for match shooting. The difference is slight but the Lapua does shoot better groups.

6mmBR had a table of 223 brass comparisons recently and #1 was Lapua and #2 was Lake City, everything else was lower rated.

drover

It's what the benchrest shooters use.

I remember seeing the table; surprised me that Lake City was #2!

I just bought a new digital scale (GemPro 250). Maybe I'll weigh some tomorrow and see what kind of consistency I can get.

Thanks!

Any other thoughts out there?

That is not what I am after in my brass, especially for a 223 and varmints.. most brass is more than accurate enough...

but for my needs, the Lapua stuff is definitely Mercedes Quality, but can give a very long brass life for a varmint hunter...

on their sight, Lapua makes claims of having reloaded brass over 300 times in their testing... that's pretty impressive... and even if someone only gets a fraction of that many, that still can be an awfully big amount of reloads....

I shoot other brands of brass, but then again, my biggest source is range brass, especially after the PDs do training at the local range and don't even police their own brass...but no one locally is complaining at all...

Drastic variations aside, weight isn't the first consistency to worry about. Case necks having uniform thickness around their circumferences is much more important in the pursuit of precision.

Over on Accurate shooters forum a couple guys mentioned they match prep LC 223 brass and it shoots just as well as Lapua, FWIW

Yes

What does the "match prep" include? If it includes checking the case necks and culling duds then I could easily see it doing quite well. I've done the same with several kinds of brass.

I agree with Mathman. What Lapua does is save you time. Other brass can be made to be just as accurate but they're gonna take a certain degree of sweat equity to get them there. However it is something that needs to be done only once. When I am buying brass to shoot in competition, longevity is not on my short list.
Even with Lapua I use fire culling as my final step in deciding what is practice and what is match quality.

Thanks all, some very good points to ponder. While I have reloaded for quite some time, I've never really taken "precision measures" such as measuring case necks. And most of it was larger caliber big game rounds.

Thanks again, much appreciated.

Lake City is good brass, especially for the cost.

Lapua is better though. Whether it's worth it or not is the question. Loading for a varmint hunt, 500 pieces of Lake City trumps 100 pieces of Lapua in my book.

The last batch of Lapooey 223 brass I got was just that pooey. I've had remmy and win brass more consistent. All of my match brass is now either Nosler or Norma with Norma being my preference.

I'd like to get some Lapua 223 brass and firestorm it for my AI. Then I'd have good brass just for that rifle....

It was reinforced for me yesterday why Lapua is a good idea. I just bought a varmint weight, short throated 6.5x55. While it was in the mail, I ordered the usual Redding dies and 100 Lapua.

It showed up with a bag of new WW brass. Since this rifle will be used for long range doggies in addition to target, I decided to load up some of the WW for coyotes.

What a waste of time. Of the 20 I loaded, over half have runout from 5 to 8+ thou. Talk about bananas! Expecting the rifle to shoot with those is like feeding a Formula 1 car kerosene and expecting it to be competitive.

I checked the dies, and they are fine. I loaded a few rounds with Lapua brass and all were under 2 thou runout. At least the coyotes and wolves will know I have class when they get shot with Lapua brass!

Mathman, I'd have to go back and check. I just remember them saying that they were getting as good results with the cheaper LC, I have been having good results with the last batch of WW , but I have a new box of Lapua that I will be trying to see if I see much of a difference between the two!

I try to use Lapua brass whenever I can, for chamberings like 222Rem,6PPC,22-250AI,6mmBR and a few others Lapua brass is all I use. for the 223 I dont think it is critical, I have used several different brands with good results. the biggest thing with Lapua brass for the 223 is the primer pocket it will stay tight forever and most other brands will start to loosen up after a few reloadings.

Agree on the Win primer pockets loosening up sooner. I find they only last 3-5 firings where LC brass lasts much longer.

I only have a few batches of Lapua but in all cases, it's marginally the most accurate brass in that rifle. If you want to control your variables, Lapua gives you less to worry about.
I suppose if you did full match prep in a Lake City lot, you'd come awfully close. I am really fond of LC brass, too.