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Old October 13, 2013, 03:47 PM   #1
Deer Slayer 270
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Lapua brass - Do you resize new ones?

Hi folks,

Recently purchased some Lapua brass for the first time for my 308 rifle. I am very impressed with their initial perfect appearance and uniform size and quality. They seem to be fully sized already too! and was wondering if I need to do a full resize on them as I usually do for brand new brass?

The reason I am asking is that when I resized some of them I noticed that the neck was getting scratched. The die is leaving long scratch marks on the neck area only! This does not happen in other brands of brass. I think it is because the neck area is soft from annealing! But I don't like the look of it and if I don't have to do a full resize when they are brand new I rather not do it at all.

Please give me some guidance and feedback from your experience with Lapua brass.

Thank you
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Old October 13, 2013, 04:38 PM   #2
Whisper 300
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The only thing I can reason is that there is a bit of grit in the die.
Silly question but have you cleaned it lately?

Perhaps a shot or two of brake cleaner into the die with the expander plug out followed by a blast of compressed air and a bit of case lube then try again.

Never found Lapua brass to be wanting in any way

Gary
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Old October 13, 2013, 04:56 PM   #3
Bart B.
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All new brass benefits from resizing the necks so bullets are seated straighter and have uniform neck tension.
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Old October 13, 2013, 04:57 PM   #4
Deer Slayer 270
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Gary,
I did disassemble the die and clean it. Did not make much difference right away but noticed the last half of the brass did not show much scratch marks. I think the die's rough surface smoothed out a little bit from wear. Then again I think you would see the scratch marks on Lapua brass because the annealed neck is softer even though I think most other brass are also annealed but Lapua's neck appears to be softer (more annealed - which is a good thing).

Also on the question of whether full sizing is a good idea or not on new Lapua brass: I think I answered my own question. What I did was to get a boat tail bullet and pushed it down the neck of several brass, both sized brass and brass not sized. I noticed that the ones I sized where tighter fit and more uniform where I could pick up the empty brass with the bullet but on most of the brass not sized it was not a very tight fit where I could not pick up the brass by bullet. So I decided to go ahead and resize all of them.
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Old October 13, 2013, 05:13 PM   #5
steve4102
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Quote:
I think it is because the neck area is soft from annealing!
All new brass has been annealed. Some polish away the discoloration and some do not. If your dies are "scratching" the Lapua brass they are also scratching all your other brass, you just can't see it because there is no case discoloration on your older brass.

Take a magnifying glass and check out your other brass, odds are you will find the same scratches.

Scratched brass is a die or cleaning issue, not a "Brand/headstamp" issue.
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Old October 13, 2013, 05:19 PM   #6
jepp2
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Quote:
I think the die's rough surface smoothed out a little bit from wear. Then again I think you would see the scratch marks on Lapua brass because the annealed neck is softer even though I think most other brass are also annealed but Lapua's neck appears to be softer (more annealed - which is a good thing).
All new brass you buy has been annealed. Some just polish so the heat treatment doesn't show.

There is NO way the brass is going to smooth out your die. Dies are very hard (try to mark one with a center punch some time). Soft annealed brass isn't going to polish out the hardened die interior.

All that you needed to do at most was run the expander through the neck of the brass, and and inside chamfer to smooth out the rough burr edge.

But it is your brass.
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