I just had some new Lapua brass delivered in .223 and 6.5x55. All lovely and new and clean and shiny! However on closer inspection the colour of the brass on the neck area is different to the colour on the rest of the case. This is the same on all of the cases. Is this normal as an artefact of the manufacturing process for new brass? I have always used once fired cases from factory ammo in the past and never seen this. All thoughts and comments gratefully received. Cheers.
New Lapua brass - marks on cases
- Thread starter cambsman
- Start date
Hi Cambsman,
The colour you can see on the necks of Lapua brass, is the annealing(softening) used to allow the brass to stretch, and resize several times without splitting. All brass cases are annealed at the case mouth, but only Lapua leaves the colour on.
Lapua brass is considered to be very good brass. Marcher.
The colour you can see on the necks of Lapua brass, is the annealing(softening) used to allow the brass to stretch, and resize several times without splitting. All brass cases are annealed at the case mouth, but only Lapua leaves the colour on.
Lapua brass is considered to be very good brass. Marcher.
see it shoot it
Well-Known Member
its the heat mark left by the annealing process,dont worry about it all Lapua brass shows it form new
Considered a sign of quality by some, at least you know the stuff is treated.
Sinistral
Well-Known Member
This isn't exclusive to Lapua brass BTW.
All Prvi-Partizan (PPU & 'nny' headstamps) irrespective of calibre, 5.56 Nato RG L21A1, Israeli (IMI) issue, and some batches of Remington .223 have this feature. These are probably annealed too. It's difficult to polish out this finish, as metal is discoloured in annealing.
So ........ it's not necessarily a sign of quality. It does look distinctive, but that's all I'd say for it.
any probs give us a ring but as already sated its the after effect of the annealing process - to soften the neck / shoulder area and not the case head
Sinistral
Well-Known Member
Good point, K. I missed Geco off my list even though I've got hundreds in .223.
So if everyone who's posted is to be believed, then even the cheapest brass available (PPU, RG, Geco, IMI, etc.) is also annealed. As the annealing process increases the cost of production, it's unlikely to be a gimmick - given these sources?
If this neck/shoulder colouration is indeed a true sign of 'multiple times' reloading potential, then Lapua isn't so special after all. Apart from its' price of course, which is.
.What you are seeing is discoloration due to annealing of the shoulder/neck at the factory. You will see it on Lapua brass. On other brands, the brass is polished after annealing to remove the evidence, but they've gone through exactly the same process. On British military ammunition, it is a requirement specification that the discoloration be present as proof that the cases have been annealed: if a manufacturer supplied a batch with the discoloration not present, the entire batch would be rejected.
-JMS
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