Mikecr
Well-Known Member
IMO, brass brand has no bearing on this subject.
Lapua is quality brass, but it still has considerable variance. If I wanted brass with less variance out of the box I'd buy Norma. But I use Lapua for it's hardness combined with workable baseline quality.
Where Norma or Lapua do not provide for my cartridge, I just cull the best of whatever does(just as I do with Lapua anyway). With this, I do expect that I'll rake more brass into a trash can(ex. Winchester) than I would with Lapua. Never lose any in Norma.
But when I can buy a big bag of Win Reloading brass for next to nothing, and cull 50 perfect cases, I did alright money-wise,, and the trade-off was effort(never results).
I'm someone who uses custom body dies for shoulder bump only. Separate inline bushing dies for partial neck sizing, then a mandrel die for neck expansion (pre-expansion, or pre-seating).
My necks are turned, but I can make loaded ammo runout very low with unturned necks.
Mandrel expansion is not just for low runout. Expansion itself is beneficial to normalizing seating forces(for accurate seating depths) and loaded tension(inward springback, bullet grip). Partial neck sizing is beneficial for just as much again. And NOT sizing the body mitigates growing bananas out of brass.
But as I implied earlier, not everyone can do this. I believe those who understand reloading actions also know there is no one thing that could be said to apply across the board.
Lapua is quality brass, but it still has considerable variance. If I wanted brass with less variance out of the box I'd buy Norma. But I use Lapua for it's hardness combined with workable baseline quality.
Where Norma or Lapua do not provide for my cartridge, I just cull the best of whatever does(just as I do with Lapua anyway). With this, I do expect that I'll rake more brass into a trash can(ex. Winchester) than I would with Lapua. Never lose any in Norma.
But when I can buy a big bag of Win Reloading brass for next to nothing, and cull 50 perfect cases, I did alright money-wise,, and the trade-off was effort(never results).
I'm someone who uses custom body dies for shoulder bump only. Separate inline bushing dies for partial neck sizing, then a mandrel die for neck expansion (pre-expansion, or pre-seating).
My necks are turned, but I can make loaded ammo runout very low with unturned necks.
Mandrel expansion is not just for low runout. Expansion itself is beneficial to normalizing seating forces(for accurate seating depths) and loaded tension(inward springback, bullet grip). Partial neck sizing is beneficial for just as much again. And NOT sizing the body mitigates growing bananas out of brass.
But as I implied earlier, not everyone can do this. I believe those who understand reloading actions also know there is no one thing that could be said to apply across the board.
