Home Forums Reloading Varmint Rifles New Lapua brass

Got new Lapua .223 brass.

Have always "prepped" other brands i.e. run thru sizer to round out case mouths, trim all to consistent lengths, and chamfered case mouths.

Since Lapua is supposed to be cream of the (brass) crop will this really be necessary?

(Yes I know I can just check the ones I have but am curious about other peoples experience!)

if you are use to doing it, why skip it? skipping isn't going to hurt nothing...

I should add an addendum that I NEVER trim the length of brass, new or range pick up, until the rifle tells me it needs trimmed...

The only thing I do to new Lapua brass is inspect them inside for debris, run a mandrel into the neck to insure they are round and chamfer.
No reason to trim until after first firing, that's when you'll see the largest stretch.
I didn't used to inspect them inside but my last batch had one case full of brass shavings from when they trimmed them to length so now I do.

Just loaded up some new Lapua brass last weekend myself, ran it through a Lee collet neck die and only chamfered the inside. the outside was so smooth it did not need it. I'm with NVhntr, waste to trim before you fire a time or two.

On a side note I also had some new Norma cases, they were defective. the primer pockets were too small and too shallow, I thought if I sent them back that I would probably see them after the Biden error was over.............it took 6 hours to ream and uniform to get primers in

Same as the others I just run a mandrel through the neck with any new lapua brass and thats it.

I need to take classes from you.

Lapua put out a bunch of 223 rem brass recently. A LGS had 10 boxes of it a couple weeks ago and I bought some for $80.00. Since I turned mine into 6x45 brass, I ran it through the sizing die, checked for proper length and examined all case mouths. Everything looked great. Had I used it for 223 rem brass, I would have been good to go without any prep at all. Good stuff as per usual, but still needs to be checked just to verify. Also, my box contained 101 pcs. Couldn't be happier with the quality.

Good to hear. Bought my 1st batch of .223 Lapua brass recently for use in a Browning Low Wall to replace the old batch of Federal nickel plated brass that's about worn out. Been a believer in Lapua brass for .30-06 and 6.5x55 for quite a while now, figured I was stepping up in the .223 world by switching to it.

As already mentioned, check for debris. I have found string chips inside maybe 1:250, like they came from the flash hole drill and were long enough to get stuck. Other than that they should need very little prep.

don't confuse knowledge and intelligence,

with lazy and being a cheap ass....

I put a heavy Chamfer on the inside of the case mouth. This is an aid in helping the bullet get started without scoring the bullet jacket. I neck size all the Lapua brass to insure uniform neck tension on the bullet.

When the brass is in the loading block, inspect the inside of the case with a small AA battery flash light.

My goodness! You mean to say you actually take
time to do something like methodically check cases
for problems or defects?!?

I was beginning to think that I was the only one left
who would actually do a non-mechanized step in the
loading process
Well, that makes two of us. Maybe there's someone
else. Maybe there's somebody that uses a beam scale.
Or even. . . . a single stage press. . . :-0

Ditto all three!😎

Ha! A big portion of knowledge and intelligence is knowing when to be lazy and a cheap ass...

I run all new brass through the sizing die, including Lapua and Norma. I also trim it to the same length and work on the primer pockets. To each his own, its just how I roll.

I just load Lapua brass as it comes out of the box. I've only used 3-4 boxes so far, but I never saw one piece of Lapua brass that had a defect of any sort.

That is how I was taught.

I check it for length. Generally new brass doesn't need to be trimmed. There are those rare occasions though..

I'm still learning and that's why I pay attention to these technique threads.

I got an extra pc. in my last new box. Hey 80 cents is 80 cents. 221 fireball to make into 20VT.