Thread: 223 Lapua brass

Originally Posted by grandpamac

Greetings All,
Granted that changes in weight do not match changes in case capacity but it is indicative as shown by @sneeze figures. My own weighing showed (for the .223 only) Federal being the lightest at around 89 grains including fired primer up to the continental brass including Lapua at around 105 grains. Rather than try to measure case capacity (which should be to the base of a seated projectile) with water (messy and inexact) I just segregate the brass by head stamp and if possible lot and develop loads working up with the chronograph to the Hodgdon/ADI velocity adjusted for barrel length. It works for me. Recent work with BM8208 has shown significantly less velocity than the Hodgdon/ADI data suggests and more in line with the Hornady data so for me a decent chronograph is an essential piece of kit for load development.
Regards Grandpamac.

My completely unscientific sample of one shows 2 cases very similar with one other supporting your claim and one that dosn't so Im struggling to see " indicitive" in a 50-50ish result. I guess one mans indicative is another's disproven theory. I don't think bullet seating depth is relevant when simply comparing capacities across brands.
Reading between the lines here it seems you've not actually checked internal volume? just gone off the old collective wisdom of more weight is less volume?