Reloading 308 brass necked down to 243

onegreatshot

Have a medium problem [:(], I recently reloaded several rounds of necked down 308 brass,in either FC or Win. After resizing, I guaged it and trimmed if necessary. So before I leave to do some dog hunting in Olka., I chambered each round. Out of 75 rounds 21 would not chamber, did not attempt to force any after the first one sort of stuck. Now what should I do??? pull all the bullets, dump powder, resize, toss the primers and try again??? Is this common with a necked down 308 Brass???? All help, advise or ideas will be much appreciated.[:)]

shoff14

Take the deprimer out of your die and resize. It would come in handy in situations like this that you have a gage to check. You should be good after the rounds are fired once.

gcs10

I had that problem when I necked a bunch of military .223 brass down(?) to .222. The necks were too thick. I had to turn the necks of each of the resized cases before they would chamber properly. I would disassemble every round and turn the necks. But, before you take everything apart, measure the outside diameter of the loaded rounds as compared to the outside diameter of a factory round. The difference in the measurements will confirm the oversized neck problem.

Cort

Rocky Raab

Yup: necks too thick. Even the ones that chamber may be dangerous to fire because the thick brass may not allow enough room for the neck to expand when releasing the bullet. Pressures can soar.

The maximum neck diameter of a loaded 243 Win round is .276". If yours exceed that, and if you cannot turn the outside or ream the inside of the neck, you have a pile of unusable cases.

onegreatshot

Thanks, I'll check neck size as stated, and resize to see if they work. Thanks

5mmgunguy

Sounds like you have a good way ahead.

243winxb

Neck diameter over .276" is 1 problem. The other problem is your not able to push the shoulder back far enough with standard dies. Lee Info > quote:Can't close bolt on rifle

First make sure the the sizing die is adjusted so that the shell holder contacts the base of the die when the ram is at the top of its stroke when resizing a case. This ensures that the sizing die is bumping the shoulder back as well as reducing the diameter of the case. If the shell holder does not contact the base of the die, the diameter of the case is squeezed down, making the case (and distance to the shoulder) longer.

The second reason is> quote:Forming vs. Sizing

Case forming dies are usually cut to size the case slightly smaller than the minimum SAAMI (Small Arms Ammunition Manufacturers Institute) dimensions, to account for the brass case's tendency to spring back after sizing.

Our full length sizing dies are cut to size the case closer to the middle of the SAAMI dimension, because that is where most rifle's chambers are made, and to size to the minimum would shorten case life. Whether or not our full length sizing die will work as a case forming die depends upon the chamber dimensions of your rifle, and how much spring back there will be when sizing the case.

Ambrose

I remember seeing pictures of a blown-up Winchester model 70 in the "American Rifleman" magazine back soom after the .243 cartridge came out. That was back in the days when they had a staff that would/could investigate stuff like that. They determined that, like Rocky said, the neck of the .308 cases that were necked down did not have enough room to expand to release the bullet. Several had been fired and then the rifle finally let go.

Rocky Raab

I built my 25-308 before the 260 Rem came out, so my choices were to neck up 243 cases, or neck down either 7-08 or 308. I ruled out necking up due to the chance that a 25-cal round with a 243 headstamp might accidentally wind up in the hands of a 243 shooter.

Necking down 7-08 brass was problem free, but I had to pick and choose 308 brass carefully. Win brass was thin enough to work, but Federal Match brass was too thick and would not chamber. I declined to start turning necks just so I could use Federal brass and stuck with Rem 7-08 cases or Win 308s. I don't shoot the 25-308 as much as I used to, but I have yet to lose a case after all these years.

Incidentally, fouling is a secondary reason for the NRA rifle that let go after a few shots. The theory is that the first few shots left enough fouling in the throat that the final bullet could not overcome both the tight neck and the fouling. The bullet stopped - and the rifle became a bomb.

Ambrose

Incidentally, fouling is a secondary reason for the NRA rifle that let go after a few shots. The theory is that the first few shots left enough fouling in the throat that the final bullet could not overcome both the tight neck and the fouling. The bullet stopped - and the rifle became a bomb.

Rocky; You saw that article in the Rifleman! My gosh, how old are you? I thought I was the geezer here!

Rocky Raab

Ambrose, a short while ago a bubbly young lady gushed to me that she had just turned 21. I made a wry grin and told here, "You know, 21 years ago, I was 21 years older than 21."

She didn't get it. (I'm about to be a year older than that.)

Ambrose

Well Rocky, I guess I got almost 10 years on you then. I gues I am the geezer here!

Rocky Raab

Past a certain point, there are no levels of geezer. Ya just are one. I claimed the status of "junior geezer" at 55, and the moment I retired, was proud to promote myself to full-fledged geezer.