Fiftydriver
Official LRH Sponsor
To those that own one of these rifles made by me and for those that maybe interested in one of them, I have a question I would like more information to.
Over the past several months I have had several customers or owners of my rifles ask why I do not have correct headstamped brass for my 7mm Allen Magnum, 300 Allen Xpress or 338 Allen Xpress. I did look into this a couple years back contacting Lapua to see if they would make a custom run of brass for me with my headstamps on them. They said no problem but required a 1/4 million count order for each and at a cost of $2.25 each..... Well, you get the point.
As such, I let that idea drop.
I then started working with Jamison International to make my 338 and 375 Allen Magnum for me to my specs with correct head stamp and have been pretty happy with the finished product.
Recently, Jamison sent me some test cases from their new 338 Lapua brass to see how they performed. This weekend I was able to do a bit of testing. I fireformed all of them for my 338 Allen Xpress wildcat and then did some load development. First on case specs.
I weighed the Jamison 338 Lapua cases and found that they had a max weight variation of 3.4 grains for 25 cases. In comparision, 25 338 Lapua has 3.1 grains max variation so pretty **** close. The Lapua brand of brass did seem a bit more consistant from case to case weight but over all, they had very similiar case weight variances.
The Jamison brass did need the flash holes deburred but this takes very little time and is a one time job when processing virgin brass. Not an issue with the Lapua brand brass but again, you pay alot more also.
The Jamison brass had an average empty weight of 317.4 grains compared to the much heavier Lapua brand at 334.9 grains. I figured this would translate into much larger case capacity for the Jamison case but was wrong. Case capacity measured with H-380 fine ball powder filled to the case mouth was 124.9 gr for the Jamison brass and 124.0 gr for the Lapua brand. More for the Jamison but not by much. Obviously, just a lighter alloy is used in the Jamison brass which did concern me.
It was not time to see if the Jamisons would hold up to my standard 338 AX load pressure. I seated some Fed-215 primers in 10 of the Jamison loaded cases and found the primer pocket fit was not nearly as tight as the Lapua virgin cases. This concerned me a bit.
My standard load for my current Raptor LRSS 338 AX is the 300 gr SMK loaded over 3.670" with 100.0 gr Retumbo and a Fed-215 primer. Average velocity is 2973 fps for a 10 shot string with an extreme spread that generally runs in the low to mid teens, plenty consistant for long range shooting.
I loaded this exact load in the freshly formed Jamison 338 AX brass. Average velocity for the same string was 2947 fps. Primer pockets were unchanged from virgin tightness, very nice suprise.
I upped the powder charge to 101.0 gr and shot another 5 round over the chrono. Average velocity was 2974 fps with 14 fps extreme spread and again, no difference in primer pocket tightness when seating a primer after firing. Simply took an extra grain of powder to match the velocity of the Lapua brand 338 AX brass.
Accuracy was identical as well but will admit it was a bit limited in number of rounds down range. More testing will come.
So, after that testing, I am pretty impressed with the Jamison 338 Lapua brass when used in my 338 Allen Xpress wildcat chambering.
Here is my question, I need to find out what the interest in having correct headstamped brass for the 7mm AM, 300 AX and 338 AX? I know that taking rifles on the airlines often requires having ammo with the exact headstamp as the chambering marking on the rifle. This would eliminate that problem traveling with my rifles chambered in my wildcats.
Because of cost, I would have to ease into this process doing one at a time so I would like to learn which would have the most demand of the three.
Is the Jamison brass as strong as the Lapua brand brass, I do not know, if I had to guess I would say no but its plenty strong for any reasonable top end load using pressures that should be used.
So, tell me this, how many would be interested in correct headstamped, fully formed 7mm Allen Magnum, 300 Allen Xpress or 338 Allen Xpress brass.
Looking on the Jamison web site, they list their Lapua brass for around $203 per 100 plus shipping. This compares to Lapua brass which will run from $245 to $285 per 100 + shipping depending on who is selling it. My fully formed brass with correct headstamp brass would cost about the same as top end Lapua brand brass as we charge $85 per 100 brass to fully form brass for customers which covers componants and labor cost.
So, let me know what all of you think and those that do not own one of my wildcats, please let me know if having access to quality, fully formed, correct headstamped brass would make my wildcats more appealing to you for possible future orders.
Over the past several months I have had several customers or owners of my rifles ask why I do not have correct headstamped brass for my 7mm Allen Magnum, 300 Allen Xpress or 338 Allen Xpress. I did look into this a couple years back contacting Lapua to see if they would make a custom run of brass for me with my headstamps on them. They said no problem but required a 1/4 million count order for each and at a cost of $2.25 each..... Well, you get the point.
As such, I let that idea drop.
I then started working with Jamison International to make my 338 and 375 Allen Magnum for me to my specs with correct head stamp and have been pretty happy with the finished product.
Recently, Jamison sent me some test cases from their new 338 Lapua brass to see how they performed. This weekend I was able to do a bit of testing. I fireformed all of them for my 338 Allen Xpress wildcat and then did some load development. First on case specs.
I weighed the Jamison 338 Lapua cases and found that they had a max weight variation of 3.4 grains for 25 cases. In comparision, 25 338 Lapua has 3.1 grains max variation so pretty **** close. The Lapua brand of brass did seem a bit more consistant from case to case weight but over all, they had very similiar case weight variances.
The Jamison brass did need the flash holes deburred but this takes very little time and is a one time job when processing virgin brass. Not an issue with the Lapua brand brass but again, you pay alot more also.
The Jamison brass had an average empty weight of 317.4 grains compared to the much heavier Lapua brand at 334.9 grains. I figured this would translate into much larger case capacity for the Jamison case but was wrong. Case capacity measured with H-380 fine ball powder filled to the case mouth was 124.9 gr for the Jamison brass and 124.0 gr for the Lapua brand. More for the Jamison but not by much. Obviously, just a lighter alloy is used in the Jamison brass which did concern me.
It was not time to see if the Jamisons would hold up to my standard 338 AX load pressure. I seated some Fed-215 primers in 10 of the Jamison loaded cases and found the primer pocket fit was not nearly as tight as the Lapua virgin cases. This concerned me a bit.
My standard load for my current Raptor LRSS 338 AX is the 300 gr SMK loaded over 3.670" with 100.0 gr Retumbo and a Fed-215 primer. Average velocity is 2973 fps for a 10 shot string with an extreme spread that generally runs in the low to mid teens, plenty consistant for long range shooting.
I loaded this exact load in the freshly formed Jamison 338 AX brass. Average velocity for the same string was 2947 fps. Primer pockets were unchanged from virgin tightness, very nice suprise.
I upped the powder charge to 101.0 gr and shot another 5 round over the chrono. Average velocity was 2974 fps with 14 fps extreme spread and again, no difference in primer pocket tightness when seating a primer after firing. Simply took an extra grain of powder to match the velocity of the Lapua brand 338 AX brass.
Accuracy was identical as well but will admit it was a bit limited in number of rounds down range. More testing will come.
So, after that testing, I am pretty impressed with the Jamison 338 Lapua brass when used in my 338 Allen Xpress wildcat chambering.
Here is my question, I need to find out what the interest in having correct headstamped brass for the 7mm AM, 300 AX and 338 AX? I know that taking rifles on the airlines often requires having ammo with the exact headstamp as the chambering marking on the rifle. This would eliminate that problem traveling with my rifles chambered in my wildcats.
Because of cost, I would have to ease into this process doing one at a time so I would like to learn which would have the most demand of the three.
Is the Jamison brass as strong as the Lapua brand brass, I do not know, if I had to guess I would say no but its plenty strong for any reasonable top end load using pressures that should be used.
So, tell me this, how many would be interested in correct headstamped, fully formed 7mm Allen Magnum, 300 Allen Xpress or 338 Allen Xpress brass.
Looking on the Jamison web site, they list their Lapua brass for around $203 per 100 plus shipping. This compares to Lapua brass which will run from $245 to $285 per 100 + shipping depending on who is selling it. My fully formed brass with correct headstamp brass would cost about the same as top end Lapua brand brass as we charge $85 per 100 brass to fully form brass for customers which covers componants and labor cost.
So, let me know what all of you think and those that do not own one of my wildcats, please let me know if having access to quality, fully formed, correct headstamped brass would make my wildcats more appealing to you for possible future orders.
