Lapua 308 brass

[dana bodnar]

I have built a 308 and now I'm working up a load for it and have noticed they have 2 kinds of Lapua brass. large primer pocket and then small primer pocket Palma. witch one would better for long range with a 168-G Berger.

 

[Varmint Hunter]

Large primers for hunting, particularly in cold weather or when using ball powders.
Just my opinion.

 

[ShtrRdy]

Personally I don't think it makes much difference. I use the LRP version and it works great.

 

[JMW67]

For hot loads I use the SRP due to more brass around the primer pocket I seem to get more firings out of them before the pocket gets loose

 

[TennJed]

Not sure if this pertains to .308, but I bought Lapua 6.5 creedmoor with the small primer pockets and they use the small flash hole size, never knew there were actually 2 sizes of flash holes (my bad). When I popped the primers out with my Lee deprime die, all the flash holes were enlarged from the decapping pin and belled out of the bottom of the pocket. Bought a Lyman flash hole uniformer and have to for every case, bore the flash hole and run a primer pocket uniformer through each case to get rid of the flare. Just my experience. Adds hours to case prep for this one time operation.

 

[johnnyk]

Supposedly, or at least the way I interpreted it, was the .308 SPR case was designed by/for benchrest shooters looking for more precision.
The Lapua 6mmBR Norma also has the smaller flash holes but I learned that by reading it on AccurateShooter before I purchased the brass (Got lucky!) Instead of buying a die with the smaller decapping pin I put mine in the drill and filed/sanded it down. No problems, so far.
Seems like I saw a test a few years back about someone using .308 loads with both primers to see if there was a difference in the accuracy. Don't think there was a noticeable difference but could have been the small sample of the test, the shooter or the rifle. Of course that was back when components were cheaper and more readily available.

 

[Another Casual]

I'd buy whatever you have more primers for. I used the Palma 308 SRP brass for 7mm-08. Works great, but even with CCI #450 it produces some hang fires with ball powders.

 

[dana bodnar]

I have 100 of each in Lapua. Thanks for everyone's posts I appreciate the help. This is the first 308 cartridge that I have done load development on. I will be at the range this weekend to get on paper and start some powder test's.

 

[jpfrog]

Not sure if this pertains to .308, but I bought Lapua 6.5 creedmoor with the small primer pockets and they use the small flash hole size, never knew there were actually 2 sizes of flash holes (my bad). When I popped the primers out with my Lee deprime die, all the flash holes were enlarged from the decapping pin and belled out of the bottom of the pocket. Bought a Lyman flash hole uniformer and have to for every case, bore the flash hole and run a primer pocket uniformer through each case to get rid of the flare. Just my experience. Adds hours to case prep for this one time operation.

You can also use a smaller decapping pin designed for small primer flash holes, which saves you the "fixing" steps involved in using the large pin. Also saves you from breaking your large pin, which will more than likely happen if you try to use it on a small primer hole.

 

[TennJed]

You can also use a smaller decapping pin designed for small primer flash holes, which saves you the "fixing" steps involved in using the large pin. Also saves you from breaking your large pin, which will more than likely happen if you try to use it on a small primer hole.

Thank you, I'll look for a generic deprime only die with the small pin.

 

[Beluebow]

I don't think small or large makes that much difference in cold weather. Primer cup thickness is the real culprit, use a thinner cupped primer during the winter if you feel like you may have issues.

 

[CoachChris]

I use both LRP and Palma brass
With 178 ELD-M's and IMR 4166 I'm hitting 2604fps in the Palma
2554fps in the LRP
I'm getting my best results out of the Palma brass with CCI #450

 

[spladi]

SRP = more strength in the primer pocket / base area ? ?

 

[dana bodnar]

I built a Tikka T-3 308 new I shot 10 rounds this weekend to get a tight enough group on paper @ 100-Y . then I shot a powder load test with Varget from 39-G to 41.5-G with 168-G Berger VLD with the large primer pocket Lapua brass. from 39-G to 41-G of powder I shot an average of an 1-1/4 groups. at 41.5-G I have a nice 3 shot clover with all holes touching. That was the first time it went that easy for me with a brand new rifle. Usually I have to shoot 1 to 2 hundred rounds through the barrel to even start getting something that I like. I hope I can duplicate this on my next trip to the range,