Contrary to many I full length resize every time and have not suffered for it though I understand the logic behind neck sizing only unless other factors indicate otherwise. This I believe also ties back to your question about annealing as I am of the belief that doing so every 3rd firing has helped maintain the necks and has extended the life of the brass. Add to that the idea that I seriously doubt I have anywhere close to the skills to be able to shoot and tell the difference and for me at least it is a "why bother?" issue.Īs far as how many firings I am getting out of my 308 Lapua brass I have many here with 12+ on them, some as high as 19. As I mentioned, the Lapua in my inventory has proven to be so close that I don't bother worrying about it. So the idea behind keeping the cases segregated by weight is to tailor the loads to the specific case volumes so that they shoot identically/similarly across the various weights. If anything I can add helps you or anyone else that is great.Ĭase to case weight consistency is an indicator as to case volume since the heavier the case the less internal volume - presuming the external dimensions are the same. Thanks for the compliment but not sure I'm all that worthy of it, just have been reloading for quite a while and have figured out what works for me, generally at least. For me it all comes down to price and what I can afford at the time but as you can guess there will be no more federal headstamps. If I were to say which one appears to shoot tighter groups, Lake City and Lapua may have a slight advantage but I have often wondered if that could be due to the thicker necks of those two positioning the bullet ever so slightly more in line with the bore.īoth my Lapua and Lake City weight quite a bit more than Winchester and Hornady but those last two also have larger H2O capacities. Case heads have equally loosened on all the over brands if heavy loads are used, when not they stay tight (doesn’t matter for federal). I also anneal after my 3rd firing and I believe that extends the life of any brass except federal as its primer pockets are loose after 2-4 firings. The rest all shoot well with some of the older Winchester and Lapua having 20+ firings. The federal has been retired and I do feel it is junk brass for the reloader to stay clear of. I have about 800 Winchester, 600 Lapua, 500 Lake City 91, 200 federal match and 47 Hornady match.