Lapua vs Norma brass 300 WM

[drpbroun5]

I have been told that Norma was the manufactuer of the Lapua 300 Win Mag brass. Can anyone confirm or debunk this? Has anybody compared the brass made by these two companies. If so, how do they compare? Thanks.
Paul

 

[Broz]

I believe this to be true, Norma made 300 win brass for Lapua. I use Lapua brass in my 300 win mag. I have also used Norma brass in many other rifles over the years. With no scientific proof I will say this. The 300 win mag, Lapua head stamp brass I have been using is out lasting any other Norma brass I have ever used. Always with Norma brass, or Weatherby brass made by Norma, that is known to be very soft, the primer pockets became loose after only 3 to 5 firings. My 300 win mag brass has 10+ firings and I am just now getting some loose pockets. These were all max loads. So my conclusion / personal opinion is, that 300 win Lapua head stamp brass is harder than any other Norma or Weatherby brass made by Norma I have used.

Jeff

 

[J E Custom]

I have been told that Norma was the manufactuer of the Lapua 300 Win Mag brass. Can anyone confirm or debunk this? Has anybody compared the brass made by these two companies. If so, how do they compare? Thanks.
Paul

The guys that shoot the Lapua calibers all recommend using the Norma brass to work up loads
and when they reach Max pressures the Norma will show pressure and then switch to the Lapua brass that does not show pressure like the Norma to stay within reasonable pressures and make the Lapua brass Last even longer.

So the Lapua brass appears to be stronger by design or alloy than the Norma.

I don't think Norma makes Lapua brass because of the difference in the two.

Norma brass is very good brass but in my opinion the Lapua is the best, and most of the time cheaper to buy.

J E CUSTOM

 

[Broz]

JE, this is a chambering specific instance. I agree with your post with the exception being Lapua 300 Win Mag brass that was discontinues years ago. I am of the understanding that at that time Lapua was not making any belted cases and commissioned Norma to make the 300 win brass for them. Now, that brass could have been made to specific specifications for Lapua and not to Norma specs, ? That I do not know. Only that I believe , from my experience with it, that the 300 Win Brass made by Norma, with Lapua head stamp, seems to be harder than all other Norma brass I have used. But I do not believe the Lapua 300 win brass is as hard as , lets say, .338 Lapua brass.

Jeff

 

[MudRunner2005]

My Norma .300WM brass appears to be very high quality. I haven't had a chance to shoot any of it yet, but it appears to be as good a quality as my Nosler, but the Nosler appears to have been more refined (chamfered, deburred, deburred & uniformed flashhole, etc...), even though it was made by Norma, as well.

For my .308 Win, I use Lapua brass, and for everything else, I try to use Nosler. If I can't find any Nosler or Lapua for a certain caliber, my next choice is Norma or Winchester.

 

[J E Custom]

JE, this is a chambering specific instance. I agree with your post with the exception being Lapua 300 Win Mag brass that was discontinues years ago. I am of the understanding that at that time Lapua was not making any belted cases and commissioned Norma to make the 300 win brass for them. Now, that brass could have been made to specific specifications for Lapua and not to Norma specs, ? That I do not know. Only that I believe , from my experience with it, that the 300 Win Brass made by Norma, with Lapua head stamp, seems to be harder than all other Norma brass I have used. But I do not believe the Lapua 300 win brass is as hard as , lets say, .338 Lapua brass.

Jeff

Thanks Jeff , That Makes sense that they had others making some brass that they were not.
My guess is that rather than tool up with different dies for the Lapua they simply changed the alloy
to meet Lapua standards of toughness.

I know that for years Norma made all of the Weatherby brass and loaded it. I have lots of it and it is not as good/tough as the Lapua brass in there calibers.

The only brass that I have ever seen out last the Lapua brass was the DWM and they no longer exist.

Unfortunately with todays brass shortage we are forced to use almost any brass available. But I still try to get the best brass if it is available.

I don't think you can go wrong with ether Norma or Lapua if you can get it.

PS: Mudrunner. Is there any proof that Norma makes Nosler brass? Sources inside the Nosler plant say that It is made by federal. I don't know for sure if that is true but there have been post on this web site from people that work for Nosler saying that all of there brass comes from Federal.

I am not trying to start an argument I am just interested in proof where it comes from, and if some one that Knows for sure, (That works there) I for sure would like to know.

J E CUSTOM

 

[Pdvdh]

This question has been asked in the past, and so far, no one has ever responded stating that they have used both brands of 300 WM brass in their 300 WM. We are left speculating.

My tentative conclusion: both Norma and Lapua 300 WM brass are of high quality - dimensionally. Lapua 300 WM brass is tougher, and Lapua primer pockets will survive high pressure loads better than Norma brass.

Norma's Weatherby cartridge brass case heads were so soft/weak, that they were the equivalent of disposable brass in my .338/.378 Weatherby back in the early 90s. The soft Weatherby brass was a significant consideration when I decided to move on to another .338 caliber cartridge, the .338 Imperial - using RWS's .404 Jeffery brass.

 

[brentc]

Is there any proof that Norma makes Nosler brass? Sources inside the Nosler plant say that It is made by federal. I don't know for sure if that is true but there have been post on this web site from people that work for Nosler saying that all of there brass comes from Federal.

J E CUSTOM

I know of one instance where there is good evidence from testing that Norma makes Nosler brass. In the 300 RUM, testing of all the brass to include R-P, Fed, Nos, and Norma has indicated that Norma and Nosler have the same physical dimensions throughout. I'm not sure about other chamberings but the Nosler and Norma 300 RUM appear to be one and the same.

 

[MudRunner2005]

Thanks Jeff , That Makes sense that they had others making some brass that they were not.
My guess is that rather than tool up with different dies for the Lapua they simply changed the alloy
to meet Lapua standards of toughness.

I know that for years Norma made all of the Weatherby brass and loaded it. I have lots of it and it is not as good/tough as the Lapua brass in there calibers.

The only brass that I have ever seen out last the Lapua brass was the DWM and they no longer exist.

Unfortunately with todays brass shortage we are forced to use almost any brass available. But I still try to get the best brass if it is available.

I don't think you can go wrong with ether Norma or Lapua if you can get it.

PS: Mudrunner. Is there any proof that Norma makes Nosler brass? Sources inside the Nosler plant say that It is made by federal. I don't know for sure if that is true but there have been post on this web site from people that work for Nosler saying that all of there brass comes from Federal.

I am not trying to start an argument I am just interested in proof where it comes from, and if some one that Knows for sure, (That works there) I for sure would like to know.

J E CUSTOM

My experiences with Federal's crap brass tells me there's no way in hell Federal makes Nosler brass... However, Federal could use a different alloy mixture and make the Nosler brass stronger. But the main reason I feel Nosler brass is made by Norma is proof in the pudding... Look at the headstamps. They use almost identical lettering just 2 different words.

 

[scottishkat]

I have heard speculation that Norma made the Lapua stamped 300 win mag brass sometime ago and that Norma made Nosler brass. I believe that Nosler gets their brass in different places among them federal. Which has been verified by an employee according to some of the rumors I have read.

Nosler brass is made in several calibers not sold by Norma.

From my own personal experience some of the nosler brass I have used is not as good a quality as some of the Norma I have used.

Whether these are just metallurgical issues that are above my pay grade or just a bad batch of Nosler brass I purchased I cant say.

My first choice is Lapua my next is Norma in 300 win mag Winchester is as good as Norma when you can find it.

Good luck and shoot straight

Bob

 

[jonthomps]

I've had good luck with my Norma 300WM brass - I'm on my 5th firing. That being said, I'd take Lapua brass over Norma any day!

 

[Jaxdialation]

I just acquired a new 300WM, and I am using virgin Norma brass.

The only thing I notice is that the primer pockets a very very tight.

 

[bigngreen]

Shiraz Balolia of Grizzly has contracted 6 Dasher and 284 brass from Norma, normally guys are using Lapua 6 Br brass for form the Dasher cases and I know there was a lot of effort made to get the Norma cases to run with the Lapua. Double striking the head was one of the processes mentioned to get the Norma up to Lapua capability.

 

[brentc]

I actually think very highly of Norma brass in the chamberings I've used it in. For the WSM, I don't think you can beat it. It's tough stuff, I've beat the living daylights of it and I just keep loading and annealing. I've just started using it in the 300 RUM so time will tell how long it will go there. My load is fairly mild by many standards, so it should last quite a while.

I did find something interesting with the RUM though. I found that I could reach the comparable velocity with virgin Norma brass with 2 grains less powder when compared to virgin R-P brass. 85.2 grains H1000 230 hybrid target in Norma at 2880 fps compared to 87.5 grains H1000 for 2900 fps in R-P.