338 Lapua Brass compared to 300 Remington Ultra Brass

[DANTEC]

Without to say you can reload 4 times 5 times or more some important points to check

chamber drawing dimensions / chamber real dimension

on 338 LM factory chambering dims are a bit broad ( even if some shooter can say that on my rifle ..... ) yes but original drawing chamber is CIP ( european standrad proof house organisation ) and chambers are not target / BR chamber .

Headspace in 338 LM chamber is broad if you compare to the unfired case case so best is set headspace on GO gauge and not use the NO GO or even use a custom Gauge more shorter remenber that 338 LM is a military design cartridge so sma problem as in 308 WIN ( headspace go for 1.630 to 1.635 and case are under 1.628 ( around) to allaow chambering if you get a chamber with heaqspace at 1.635 ( in tolerance near max ) your case body increase of 0.007 inch at each firing and aftereach shots reload too ( full sizing ).

for example : I have visit the Sako factory and sako rifle chamber job in mass product not really BR chambering job but rifle are accurate even if chamber are not tight ( when I say tight this is not neck turning chamber that chamber with minimum gap between case and chamber wall to allaow factory round chambering ) .

Norma case are good but always softer ( brass quality than Lapua ) and you start to loose primer quicker than on Lapua case .

on 300 REM same problem chamber dim is a bit broad ( base diam ; neck and throat )
REM brass are hard brass and I have often slpit neck ( on regular 7 REM MAG 300 WIN mag ... ) not shoot enought with regular 300 ULTRA but I always anneal the neck to improved case life with Rem brass .

good shooting

DAN TEC

 

[Sausage]

Provided the reloading is done Safe and whithin pressure Zones. How many times approximately can a shooter reload the same cases for the following:

338 Lapua Magnum using either Norma or Lapua brass?

300 Remington Ultra Magnum using Remington brass?

My objective is obtain the maximum reload life/mileage out of each of the above mentioned casings and then compare toward the cost per round.

Thank You again for the use of the Boards.

Sausage

 

[Digger49r]

I just read your post and noticed you mentioned annealing. I shoot the 300 RUM and I have to admit the rem brass leaves a lot to be desired. I get about 5 loadings out of mine before the primer pockets get loose. As well I find a great difference in the overall weight of the brass....as much as 13 gr per case ....and that's weighing it AFTER I turn the necks. That much difference has got to change the case capicity.I'd like to try annealing the necks but have never done it before....is there any place that gives detailed instructtions? I've considered re-barreling and re-chambering to the 30/416 just so I can use rigby brass....but as I've read here in these posts that creats a whole new argument. What we RUM shooters need is Norma brass...then life would be good

 

[Steve Shelp]

Can't answer the original question due to the points that were already made..... way to many variables to consider to accurately answer with any certainty.

But would like to make one point on the comment about, if Norma started making RUM brass your life would be better. I say it wouldn't be better, just more expensive.
The Norma brass (assuming it's made like the rest of their stuff) would open up primer pockets faster than any Remington brass I've ever dealt with. So you would end up with really good quality brass for measuring purposes (weight and out-of-round would be many times better than Remington), but case life wouldn't be better and would probably be worse. Norma brass typically is the softest of any brass I've ever used for numerous chamberings and wildcats. It's the best stuff in the world when it sits on a scale or next to a dial indicator, but then you fire it and it goes down hill.

This has been a problem for many years, and Norma has never changed it. There was hear-say a couple of years ago that Norma changed thier process for "magnum" brass to toughen it up some, but newer batches of Norma brand 338 Lapua brass hasn't proven this to be true in my tight chamber.

Steve

 

[etisll40]

Do you anneal the brass before you fireform?

 

[sp6x6]

I have 6 loads on 338 Norma, some I took up to max, w/ sticky bolt and ejector marks. Then backed off a couple for accuracy. We will see what I get. The first post mentioned full length size, to .007 under. To fit all chambers, I bump my shoulder .002 back.

 

[sp6x6]

I see where Broz has done 15+ reloads on lapua brass for 338.