problems with Lapua 6BR brass

just wondering if anyone is having any problems with Lapua 6BR brass
I brought this lots a few months ago brand new and it only been fired 4 times
1st 2 times I only necked sized it so it could stretch to my chamber
I then bumped the shoulders back .001 for another 2 firings then I found these cracks



these were not hot loads and was using reloader 15 and were only doing about 2780fps
haven't found anymore atm just thought it was strange to find this after only 4 firings  

Strange and undesirable!

How typical is this type of cracking starting from the base of the neck and through the shoulder. I'm more familiar with cracking/splitting along the length of the neck as opposed to what I'm seeing in the pictures?

i have Lapua Blue Box 6mm BR Lot P00661101 - never had neck or shoulder cracking but the neck thickness does vary.

main problems have been inconsistent primer pockets, diameter and depth, flash holes vary in concentricity and diameter, and after careful fireforming,  within a few shots requires shoulder bumping with loads that the original cardboard Lapua 6mm BR bass could handle with out any dramas for many reloads.

only good thing it is about .002 -.003 inches larger across the web than Norma 6mmBR brass that i have measured.

cheers
dave g

Hi dave can you please post picture of yourself and use your real name for the forum as this is the rules for everyone.
Everyone here needs to up load a picture of themself for the forum.
cheers and good shooting Les

I found 3 just like yours in my last new unfired batch of 100 Lapua brass, I put it down to a fault when brass was being formed. Is it possible the cracks were in your brass before you fired them?

good to see im not the only one then

ok looks like a few blokes in the US are having the same problem

got this reply from Kevin Thomas on the 6BR forum


. I have a box or two of most of our brass on hand and replace stuff like this fairly regularly. The divots shown in the OPs photos are indeed fairly common to the 6mmBR, the 6.5x47L and the 6.5x284. It's caused by a combination of the rather hard alloy that we use, and the large discrepancy between case neck diameter, and the body diameter. That, in conjunction with the sharp shoulder angles make these cases a real bugger to form properly. These cases should be caught during inspection prior to packaging, but alas, they do occasionally slip through. If any of you should run across this sort of thing, please feel free to contact me and we'll make it right for you.

If you would, please let me know the lot number of the cases involved, as this is how we track them back through their production cycle. I do up a QC defect report that I send back to the Finns, and they will want to know the lot number. This is found on the lower right hand side of the white stripe that runs across the top of the box, and will begin with, "P00xxxxxx". If you guys see any other members here who report similar problems (or any others, for that matter), please direct them to me so we can take care of them. I spend a fair amount of time on the road so I may not be able to get back to them immediately, but I will get back to them.

Thanks,
Kevin Thomas
NAMMO/Lapua
409 E. Second St.
Sedalia, MO 65302
(660) 826-3232


Ah, the infamous thinned case necks! Yeah, sorry about that, but we had absdolutely no say in that one. As you know, we are a Finnish company, and fall under the auspices of CIP, rather than SAAMI. Unlike SAAMI, which is a strictly voluntary organization, CIP has force of law behind them. Member companies are forced, by law, to adhere to their standards, dimensions, and practices. Companies adhere to SAAMI specs because that way things tend to work well together; Remington ammo in Winchester rifles, and so on. In the CIP world, a company theat makes things outside their specs can actually be shut down. That's what happened with the 6mm BR case. We didn't change the specs (which we can't legally do anyway) but we did change where we run our cases within those specs. We normally run all of our specs at the high end of the scale, dimensionally speaking. This was also true for the "old" 6mm BR case. Since we make ammo that has to pass certain CIP gage tests, we ran afoul of them in that loaded ammo. They had some ammo that wouldn't freely pass into the case neck gage, which they deemed "out of spec." We're talking about a few ten-thou difference, but enough that they felt the drag and called it oversize. For that reason, we had to move the specs we ran these cases back just a tad closer to the middle of the tolerance range. In all, the case necks were thinned by just a few ten-thousandths, just enough to where they cleared the inspectors gage, and were declared "in spec" by CIP. Caused considerable grumbling and gnashing of teeth, and whiule we do apologize, there was literally nothing we could do about this one. Curiously, I heard several complaints (or threats) of customers switching over to Norma and so on. Good luck. They're also a CIP company and have to abide by exactly the same specs we do . . . and our brass is harder.

Bryan, I've handled Dasher brass on something of a case by case basis, and as was mentioned, the cases are being used outside their intended venue. No matter. If you want to drop me a line, we can always talk it over, and I'll be happy to work with you.

Kevin Thomas
NAMMO/Lapua
409 E. Second St.
Sedalia, MO 65302
(660) 826-3232
kthomas@nammoinc.com
Report to moderator   Logged
Kevin Thomas
Lapua USA

 i also sent him a pic of my cases and got this as a reply


Give me a call or a quick email, and I'll be happy to replace these for you. The location of the split tells me that this is exactly the type of fold I've described. Up in the necks, that's probably on you. In the shoulder, yeah, that's on us.

Kevin Thomas
NAMMO/Lapua
409 E. Second St.
Sedalia, MO 65392
(660) 826-3232
kthomas@nammoinc.com
Report to moderator   Logged
Kevin Thomas
Lapua USA


was great service but i said dont worry about it as we all know what its like to get bullet bits into oz

ok looks like a few blokes in the US are having the same problem

got this reply from Kevin Thomas


Ah, the infamous thinned case necks! Yeah, sorry about that, but we had absdolutely no say in that one. As you know, we are a Finnish company, and fall under the auspices of CIP, rather than SAAMI. Unlike SAAMI, which is a strictly voluntary organization, CIP has force of law behind them. Member companies are forced, by law, to adhere to their standards, dimensions, and practices. Companies adhere to SAAMI specs because that way things tend to work well together; Remington ammo in Winchester rifles, and so on. In the CIP world, a company theat makes things outside their specs can actually be shut down. That's what happened with the 6mm BR case. We didn't change the specs (which we can't legally do anyway) but we did change where we run our cases within those specs. We normally run all of our specs at the high end of the scale, dimensionally speaking. This was also true for the "old" 6mm BR case. Since we make ammo that has to pass certain CIP gage tests, we ran afoul of them in that loaded ammo. They had some ammo that wouldn't freely pass into the case neck gage, which they deemed "out of spec." We're talking about a few ten-thou difference, but enough that they felt the drag and called it oversize. For that reason, we had to move the specs we ran these cases back just a tad closer to the middle of the tolerance range. In all, the case necks were thinned by just a few ten-thousandths, just enough to where they cleared the inspectors gage, and were declared "in spec" by CIP. Caused considerable grumbling and gnashing of teeth, and whiule we do apologize, there was literally nothing we could do about this one. Curiously, I heard several complaints (or threats) of customers switching over to Norma and so on. Good luck. They're also a CIP company and have to abide by exactly the same specs we do . . . and our brass is harder.

Bryan, I've handled Dasher brass on something of a case by case basis, and as was mentioned, the cases are being used outside their intended venue. No matter. If you want to drop me a line, we can always talk it over, and I'll be happy to work with you.

Kevin Thomas
NAMMO/Lapua
409 E. Second St.
Sedalia, MO 65302
(660) 826-3232
[hidden email]
Report to moderator   Logged
Kevin Thomas
Lapua USA

 i also sent him a pic of my cases and got this as a reply


Give me a call or a quick email, and I'll be happy to replace these for you. The location of the split tells me that this is exactly the type of fold I've described. Up in the necks, that's probably on you. In the shoulder, yeah, that's on us.

Kevin Thomas
NAMMO/Lapua
409 E. Second St.
Sedalia, MO 65392
(660) 826-3232
[hidden email]
Report to moderator   Logged
Kevin Thomas
Lapua USA


was great service but i said dont worry about it as we all know what its like to get bullet bits into oz

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NAML

 
Is anyone having this problem
I have gotten with Kevin Thomas about a problem I am having with 6.5x284 inconsistent neck wall thickness that goes to the shoulder.
The wall thickness  runs from .0145 to .017.
To true up the neck I would have to take off .0025 to to make the neck true.
Since I use Induction Annealing on my cases this difference does not allow for true neck annealing, unless I true the necks.
 This will cause the neck to be thinner and most likely less reloads.

I have sent Kevin 3 cases of each lot with lot numbers. Since he is in competition at this time, we will see what he comes up with when he checks the cases.
I will let you know

Jack
 

welcome Jack and will be interesting to see what they say
i have found about 6 cases out of 200 that split on me and none since , have reloaded about 10 to 15 times now on my 6br
i have brought new ones but am waiting for my 6BRX to be built before i use them, so i hope they will be fine
i have never skimmed my cases until a few months ago and while i didnt skim them all the way i only took about .0015 off and that cleaned up about 90% of my cases which is fine
i do know some blokes who skimmed over .002 or more to get them perfect or to fit their tight chambers

keep us in the loop mate on what they find