Alpha vs Lapua Brass

Lapua discontinued 6.5 Grendel a couple years ago and I was starting to run low. I ordered 100 Alpha cases. I decided to do a comparison. First, this isn’t scientific. I have one lot of each and only used a sample size of five new random cases. Second, I can’t compare prices. The Lapua brass was purchased at least two and possibly more years ago and I don’t remember what I paid. It’s irrelevant anyway because of inflation, availability and market conditions. The Alpha brass costed 120.00 per hundred plus shipping. I didn’t compare either with Starline brass but I do have some and I might later. It’s apples to oranges because these are premium cases and they should be better than Starline which is considerably less expensive.

Alpha brass is shipped in regular ammo containers with foam inside them. There were no case neck dents at all. Lapua is shipped in good quality plastic boxes but the cases are loose inside them. They generally have some cases with dented necks and I always mandrel size them before loading. Both brands are sized, annealed and chamfered. Using my Sinclair concentricity gauge I found that the Lapua brass wasn’t close to perfect. The five cases I tested all had .001-.002 errors. This was after I mandrel sized them. I don’t have a way to determine if they are bananas or if they have inconsistent brass thickness. Lapua brass has a well earned reputation for their quality and this was surprising and disappointing. The Alpha brass I had no need to mandrel size. It was extremely concentric with the worst case of the five having less than .0005 errors. Case length. Alpha brass was 1.515 with no variation. Lapua brass was 1.517 or 1.518. Both are trimmed consistently enough not to matter. Weight. The average weight of Lapua is 112.14 grains and the ES of five cases is 0.64. Alpha is heavier weighing an average of 119.65 and an ES of 0.82. This is the one area where the Lapua brass is possibly better although it’s such a small amount it’s probably doesn’t matter.

If you offered me 100 free cases of either brand I’d be all over the Alpha. I don’t know for certain which brand will survive the most loads but the Alpha primer pockets are TIGHT. That’s usually what ends the life of my cases. I use a comparator to size my brass and I also anneal it every second load. These extend the life of case necks and shoulders but don’t do anything for the primer pockets. I expect the Alpha brass to shoot every bit as well as my Lapua did.