Alpha Munitions 6mm ARC Brass

[alwie]

Anyone know much about Alpha Munitions Brass?

https://alphamunitions.com/product/6mm-arc/

https://www.midwayusa.com/product/102747573?pid=533630

[StoneHendge]

It's finally arrived - this is awesome news!

You'll find a lot of Alpha brass on the PRS circuit and I have been using it in my 6.5 Creedmoor gas gun. It is very thick and the weight variance is on par with Lapua.

I am on the 9th and 10th firings of mine and I DO NOT ANNEAL. The primer pockets are near the end of their life for competition purposes (nothing worse than blowing a primer due to a loose pocket during a match and having it get get stuck somewhere in the carrier) and I have tossed a few (out of an initial lot of 300) due to them fully accepting a Ballistic Tools primer pocket gauge.

I have not had a single cracked neck but my SD did start expanding around firings 6-7. The addition of a simple 1/2 turn crimp with a Lee crimp die got them back into the mid single digits and I won the Gas Gun trophy in a PRS Regional Match in the spring using them on the 8th firing.

My only complaint is that my primer pockets were extremely tight when new. They would accept a BR-2 but not a Fed 210 Match (the Fed LRPs are slightly wider than the BR-2s). Luckily, I had about 1k of the BR-2s and I used them first. After I was done with the BR-2s, they would accept the Feds. I've squadded with several guys who use Alpha and the Feds in their 6.5 CM manual rifles and none of them have run into the problem I had.

Yeah, its twice the price of Starline, but it's much more consistent and the primer pockets will last twice as long if you don't lose it (I get 4-5 firings out of Starline Grendel brass converted to 6 arc before the primer pockets get looser than Kamala Harris).

I will be buying some of the Alpha 6 arc down the road as I'm working on a build with a Lilja AR24 I hope to use for PRS. I'm not in need now, though, since I have 300 pieces of converted "blemished" Nosler Grendel brass which is extremely consistent (but not worth the normal retail price of close to $2/piece).

[BD1]

They are already sold out at Midway. But I was able to order 100 from Alpha M directly. Not many left, (1,100?) so if you want some order them now. I will run them through my usual program and report the results here.

[StoneHendge]

They are already sold out at Midway. But I was able to order 100 from Alpha M directly. Not many left, (1,100?) so if you want some order them now. I will run them through my usual program and report the results here.

Bruno's has a bunch  Alpha Munitions Brass - 6mm ARC (100) | Bruno Shooters Supply 

Looking forward to your report.

[BD1]

My Alpha Munitions brass came in this week. It looks really good. While it is expensive, it did come in a 100 round cartridge box.  I pulled 20 pieces out at random and checked them for OAL and weight. All fell within 1.479 and 1.482 OAL, (with 16 pieces at 1.480 to 1.485).  And all fell between 110.5 gr and 111.5 grains, (with those same 16 pieces weighing between 110.5 and 110.7 grains).  I saw no sign of burrs or "chads" in the flash holes. That is excellent uniformity "right out of the box".  I'll do my usual uniformity check after they've been fired and resized twice and trimmed to 1.480.  Meanwhile I'm going to order another 100.

[CZ527 Guy]

Too early to tell what I think. Uniformity seems to be the most consistent in terms of weight OAL & I expect other factors I am un able to measure. Just playing around fire forming brass I giving myself a opportunity to get to know the pros & cons of this brass. Everything is looking positive thus far. Think I am going to like this offering a lot if brass life lives up to my expectations.

May have to up my game on exceptional bullets in the near future to properly complement this brass.

[BD1]

Some more observations: I trimmed and loaded the 100 Alpha cases yesterday. The necks are a little rough on the inside, I could fell it when I ran the mandrel in and when seating the bullets. The primer pockets are VERY tight. I had to chamfer them a bit to seat the primers, and I used the bench mounted seater as I couldn't reliably seat them with my hand held RCBS seater. Also I could not hold the brass well enough by hand to run the pocket uniformer in. The tool fits so closely that it spins the case in my hand. Maybe after a firing or two I'll be able to uniform the pockets using a little Do-Drill for lube.

[CZ527 Guy]

BD1: Seems your experience was considerably different than, my experience or perception. My approach was to ID & OD chamfer the case mouth, 000 steel wool the case mouth to remove fine bur left by chamfer tool. Primer pockets were left un touched. Seated CCI 450 primers  W RCBS hand seating tool.  Primer seating was smooth though very snug. The pockets were very uniform. I do not think the cases I am working with would see any benefit from a uniform process.

Initially was just looking to fire form the cases & decided to burn up some 58 gr V - Max bullets over H4198. I was rather pleased to achieve some amazing 100 yard accuracy while fire forming w 26.3 gr of H4198. For what ever reason this load seemed to shoot best from a warm barrel for me. So was not consistent from cold to warm barrel. So while Accuracy was not my goal, my best group was a ragged hole.

I am on my second reloading w 50 of the 100 cased. The remaining 50 I have only prepped the case mouth. After the 2nd firing, I'll plan to anneal the neck shoulder junction area. Then off to working up a load w a 90 gr CX for deer hunting.

[BD1]

BD1: Seems your experience was considerably different than, my experience or perception. My approach was to ID & OD chamfer the case mouth, 000 steel wool the case mouth to remove fine bur left by chamfer tool. Primer pockets were left un touched. Seated CCI 450 primers  W RCBS hand seating tool.  Primer seating was smooth though very snug. The pockets were very uniform, I do not think the cases I am working with would see any benefit from a uniform process.

Initially was just looking to fire form the cases & decided to burn up some 58 gr V - Max bullets over H4198. I was rather pleased to achieve some amazing 100 yard accuracy while fire forming w 26.3 gr of H4198. For what ever reason this load seemed to shoot best from a warm barrel for me. So was not consistent from cold to warm barrel. So while Accuracy was not my goal, my best group was a ragged hole.

I am on my second reloading w 50 of the 100 cased. The remaining 50 I have only prepped the case mouth. After the 2nd firing, I'll plan to anneal the neck shoulder junction area. Thin off to working up a load w a 90 gr CX for deer hunting.

The difference in the primer seating may be in the primers. I'm using Remington 7 1/2s. I have a difficult time getting them to start into the pocket before I chamfered hte edge of the pocket. All of my pockets mic'd a little less than what the PPC reamer produces. leaving the majority seated just a hair below the case head, with a few of them just flush.

[Old Bob]

My saga with Alpha Munitions 6mm ARC brass ...  Good lookin' cases! Checked all 100 & found no blemishes, chads, scrapes or burrs. All the flash holes looked great! One of the things I normally do with new brass is hit 'em with a flash hole de-burring tool. Didn't need to do that with these.

Measured & weighed a sample of 20 cases. The lowest weight was 111.04gr, the heaviest was 111.66gr. The 20 cases averaged 111.312gr. The longest case was 1.4805", the shortest was 1.4785". Incidentally, these two cases were also the heaviest & lightest. I'm not gonna trim any of the longer ones. I won't do that until after they've been fire-formed & resized. Although it didn't appear any of the case necks were out-of-round, I ran all the cases over a .241" mandrel just in case. Then I did a light chamfer on both inside & outside of the case mouths.

Next I measured the depth of the primer pockets. All of them were .124" deep. I took both some Hornady & Starline brass & measured their pockets. These cases had all been hit with a primer pocket uniforming tool. The tool is marked .122" True to the tool, they all measured .122" deep. Decided to forgo that job with the Alpha brass.

Priming them was more work than I'd normally need to do to get them fully seated. With my old RCBS bench seater (the one that uses CCI/RCBS primer strips) I couldn't get the primers to seat below flush with the case rim. There was a slight dome sticking out of the primer pocket. No matter what I tried - even with both my Lee & RCBS hand seaters - I couldn't get the primers below flush. Wasn't looking for much. A .001" below flush would be fine. Then I remembered I had a tool I'd never used before. Don't remember why I got it but I'm glad I did. It's called the RCBS Ram Priming Unit. Here's a link to Midway USA that has them. https://www.midwayusa.com/product/1012930411?pid=416519   After adjusting the unit for the depth I was looking for, I re-ran all the cases I primed with the bench seater. Perfecto! All the primers were just below flush.

I have some Nosler 70gr 6mm Varmageddon bullets I'll load up for fire-forming later on. Will probably use this Alpha brass for match loads in my Uintah bolt gun only. Perhaps with the new Hornady 80gr ELD-VT bullets.

I wonder where I can get some of the 100 round boxes the Alpha brass comes in? I have 50 round boxes for my Hornady & Starline brass but 100 round boxes would be better.

[BD1]

My saga with Alpha Munitions 6mm ARC brass ...  Good lookin' cases! Checked all 100 & found no blemishes, chads, scrapes or burrs. All the flash holes looked great! One of the things I normally do with new brass is hit 'em with a flash hole de-burring tool. Didn't need to do that with these.

Measured & weighed a sample of 20 cases. The lowest weight was 111.04gr, the heaviest was 111.66gr. The 20 cases averaged 111.312gr. The longest case was 1.4805", the shortest was 1.4785". Incidentally, these two cases were also the heaviest & lightest. I'm not gonna trim any of the longer ones. I won't do that until after they've been fire-formed & resized. Although it didn't appear any of the case necks were out-of-round, I ran all the cases over a .241" mandrel just in case. Then I did a light chamfer on both inside & outside of the case mouths.

Next I measured the depth of the primer pockets. All of them were .124" deep. I took both some Hornady & Starline brass & measured their pockets. These cases had all been hit with a primer pocket uniforming tool. The tool is marked .122" True to the tool, they all measured .122" deep. Decided to forgo that job with the Alpha brass.

Priming them was more work than I'd normally need to do to get them fully seated. With my old RCBS bench seater (the one that uses CCI/RCBS primer strips) I couldn't get the primers to seat below flush with the case rim. There was a slight dome sticking out of the primer pocket. No matter what I tried - even with both my Lee & RCBS hand seaters - I couldn't get the primers below flush. Wasn't looking for much. A .001" below flush would be fine. Then I remembered I had a tool I'd never used before. Don't remember why I got it but I'm glad I did. It's called the RCBS Ram Priming Unit. Here's a link to Midway USA that has them. https://www.midwayusa.com/product/1012930411?pid=416519   After adjusting the unit for the depth I was looking for, I re-ran all the cases I primed with the bench seater. Perfecto! All the primers were just below flush.

I have some Nosler 70gr 6mm Varmageddon bullets I'll load up for fire-forming later on. Will probably use this Alpha brass for match loads in my Uintah bolt gun only. Perhaps with the new Hornady 80gr ELD-VT bullets.

I wonder where I can get some of the 100 round boxes the Alpha brass comes in? I have 50 round boxes for my Hornady & Starline brass but 100 round boxes would be better.

My alpha brass came came in the 100 round boxes from Alpha.  But maybe it doesn't come in the boxes if you buy it from another vendor?

[BD1]

Something else I noticed after shooting the first 100 Alph Brass: The rims are thicker. My starline brass rims measure .050, while the Alph brass rims measure .055. About 1/3 of the fired brass have small burns from the extractor, both from chambering , and extracting. I polished the sharp corners and hopefully that will prevent the burrs

[Old Bob]

My saga with Alpha Munitions 6mm ARC brass ...  Good lookin' cases! Checked all 100 & found no blemishes, chads, scrapes or burrs. All the flash holes looked great! One of the things I normally do with new brass is hit 'em with a flash hole de-burring tool. Didn't need to do that with these.

Measured & weighed a sample of 20 cases. The lowest weight was 111.04gr, the heaviest was 111.66gr. The 20 cases averaged 111.312gr. The longest case was 1.4805", the shortest was 1.4785". Incidentally, these two cases were also the heaviest & lightest. I'm not gonna trim any of the longer ones. I won't do that until after they've been fire-formed & resized. Although it didn't appear any of the case necks were out-of-round, I ran all the cases over a .241" mandrel just in case. Then I did a light chamfer on both inside & outside of the case mouths.

Next I measured the depth of the primer pockets. All of them were .124" deep. I took both some Hornady & Starline brass & measured their pockets. These cases had all been hit with a primer pocket uniforming tool. The tool is marked .122" True to the tool, they all measured .122" deep. Decided to forgo that job with the Alpha brass.

Priming them was more work than I'd normally need to do to get them fully seated. With my old RCBS bench seater (the one that uses CCI/RCBS primer strips) I couldn't get the primers to seat below flush with the case rim. There was a slight dome sticking out of the primer pocket. No matter what I tried - even with both my Lee & RCBS hand seaters - I couldn't get the primers below flush. Wasn't looking for much. A .001" below flush would be fine. Then I remembered I had a tool I'd never used before. Don't remember why I got it but I'm glad I did. It's called the RCBS Ram Priming Unit. Here's a link to Midway USA that has them. https://www.midwayusa.com/product/1012930411?pid=416519   After adjusting the unit for the depth I was looking for, I re-ran all the cases I primed with the bench seater. Perfecto! All the primers were just below flush.

I have some Nosler 70gr 6mm Varmageddon bullets I'll load up for fire-forming later on. Will probably use this Alpha brass for match loads in my Uintah bolt gun only. Perhaps with the new Hornady 80gr ELD-VT bullets.

I wonder where I can get some of the 100 round boxes the Alpha brass comes in? I have 50 round boxes for my Hornady & Starline brass but 100 round boxes would be better.

My alpha brass came came in the 100 round boxes from Alpha.  But maybe it doesn't come in the boxes if you buy it from another vendor?

I meant empty 100 round boxes. I got my Alpha brass from Midway USA. It comes with the Alpha supplied box as well. Got a birthday discount from Midway so the cost ended up being the same as buying them from Alpha + shipping.

[BD1]

I'm starting into my second box of 100. Primer pockets are looser, more like what I'm used to. I can use the pocket uniformer easily by hand. As to the boxes, they are great, my only suggestion would be that they make the dividers a little shorter. As is, the dividers are slightly taller than a fired case so you need a little pick or something to lift the fired cases out.

[CZ527 Guy]

I'm starting into my second box of 100. Primer pockets are looser, more like what I'm used to. I can use the pocket uniformer easily by hand.  As to the boxes, they are great, my only suggestion would be that they make the dividers a little shorter. As is, the dividers are slightly taller than a fired case so you need a little pick or something to lift the fired cases out.

Crossed my mind as well. Empty cases are a bit of a pain to remove from the box.

Know I have seen it else where Though I feel this is worth repeating. Start lower than your usual charge & work up with the new brass. My experience suggest backing off 2 grains may be a minimum consideration for a starting load.

[Old Bob]

I'm starting into my second box of 100. Primer pockets are looser, more like what I'm used to. I can use the pocket uniformer easily by hand. "As to the boxes, they are great, my only suggestion would be that they make the dividers a little shorter. As is, the dividers are slightly taller than a fired case so you need a little pick or something to lift the fired cases out."

I noticed that. My fingernails are long enough pick 'em out of the slots.

[StoneHendge]

I'm starting into my second box of 100. Primer pockets are looser, more like what I'm used to. I can use the pocket uniformer easily by hand.  As to the boxes, they are great, my only suggestion would be that they make the dividers a little shorter. As is, the dividers are slightly taller than a fired case so you need a little pick or something to lift the fired cases out.

Crossed my mind as well. Empty cases are a bit of a pain to remove from the box.

Know I have seen it else where Though I feel this is worth repeating. Start lower than your usual charge & work up with the new brass. My experience suggest backing off 2 grains may be a minimum consideration for a starting load.

I'll second that - when I switched from starline to Alpha in my 6.5CM, I ended up around 1.5 grains lower for the same velocity holding everything else equal (bullet and same lots powder and primers).

If your adventurous, make one at a grain less than your normal charge and it will tell you roughly how much more you need to go down.

[BD1]

I haven't checked the once fired case capacity, but the new case capacity is nearly identical to my new starline cases, and the load I'm running is only about 50,000 psi. So I used the same load in the first 100 Alpha cases and got essentially the same velocity, (within 10 fps), and the same single digit SDs.

[popgun]

If the rims are thicker check to be sure your extractor grabs the rim properly in gas guns. Lapua brass has a slightly thicker rim and gave me issues extracting when I replaced my bolt. I found quite a few bolts that did not have the extractor pivot hole drilled close enough to the face of the bolt to give proper clearance between the face and extractor claw for the thicker rim.

[BluntForceTrauma]

We've got specially-designed 6mmARC / 6.5 Grendel / 22ARC extractors at RexusOutfitters.com if you're having trouble with these extractors. Sharp extractor corners are already "de-fanged" from the factory to avoid gouging rims, and has a wider rim channel than standard 5.56 extractors to accommodate the thicker 6A rim — all while keeping the claw thickness the same as standard 5.56 extractors rather than thinned out like other 6.5 Grendel-type extractors.