What is the best commercial brass to use and why? I was going to use winchester brass and a friend told me no due to weight variations.
7mm-08 brass question?
- Thread starter jonbearman
- Start date
That's always a tuff question because it favors opinion and little solid info +/-. Kinda like asking a guy what's the best primer, 9 times outta 10 it's the primer he started with and for no particular reason.
That said I use a 7-08 for a hunter. I've played around with a bunch of bullets and the boy uses it for range practice, so I've loaded and fired a bunch of rounds through it with Win, R-P and FC brass. Going on 4 loading on the Win and have seen no trouble with the necks but looking to anneal next round.
The R-P seem to be a bit more consistant in neck thickness but all show capabilities of good runout results after sizing, but all that means is I happened into a good set of dies. I have not weigh sorted my cases, but I have heard from others the R-P is heavier, thus the Win's have a larger capacity.
If your looking to load with heavy or max charges the Win would be the way to go.
I won't comment on the FED, as I'm only 1 loading into some 1x I picked up second hand and I'm really sceptical because of a bad bunch of FED 308 I got one time. I'll stay away from Fed brass in the future, others swear by it.
Right now, if someone put a bag of R-P and a bag of Win in front of me and said pick one for free, I'd choose the R-P.
Which ever you get, de-burr the inside flash hole.
That said I use a 7-08 for a hunter. I've played around with a bunch of bullets and the boy uses it for range practice, so I've loaded and fired a bunch of rounds through it with Win, R-P and FC brass. Going on 4 loading on the Win and have seen no trouble with the necks but looking to anneal next round.
The R-P seem to be a bit more consistant in neck thickness but all show capabilities of good runout results after sizing, but all that means is I happened into a good set of dies. I have not weigh sorted my cases, but I have heard from others the R-P is heavier, thus the Win's have a larger capacity.
If your looking to load with heavy or max charges the Win would be the way to go.
I won't comment on the FED, as I'm only 1 loading into some 1x I picked up second hand and I'm really sceptical because of a bad bunch of FED 308 I got one time. I'll stay away from Fed brass in the future, others swear by it.
Right now, if someone put a bag of R-P and a bag of Win in front of me and said pick one for free, I'd choose the R-P.
Which ever you get, de-burr the inside flash hole.
bozo699
Gold $$ Contributor
jon,
Necchi summed it up pretty good,I disagree on his choice of brass but then again thats pretty much what he said ford/chevy thing.
Here are my findings for 7mm-08 brass I have three rifles chambered in 7-08.
The rem brass has been the worst for me, bad concentricity and off center flash holes. Win brass has been ok as well as fed. The nosler has some promise but I am on first loading I will know more on them later Oh I guess they were .308 necked down, however the .308 nosler brass was almost as good as Lapua but the .300wm nosler brass went into the scrap brass bucket ( I never loaded it ) worst brass I have ever bought. so far the brass I get the best accuracy from out of the 7-08 has been Norma, very consistent,very uniform. The only negative thing about the Norma has been the primer pockets, most of the time Norma has had a reputation for loose primer pockets,not these you almost need a hammer and punch to seat them
other than that there awesome and I will be ordering more of them. within a month or so I will have a better idea on the nosler brass and will PM you a report. I think you can buy 7-08 headstamped nosler brass? anyway I will let you know.
Wayne.
Necchi summed it up pretty good,I disagree on his choice of brass but then again thats pretty much what he said ford/chevy thing.
Here are my findings for 7mm-08 brass I have three rifles chambered in 7-08.
The rem brass has been the worst for me, bad concentricity and off center flash holes. Win brass has been ok as well as fed. The nosler has some promise but I am on first loading I will know more on them later Oh I guess they were .308 necked down, however the .308 nosler brass was almost as good as Lapua but the .300wm nosler brass went into the scrap brass bucket ( I never loaded it ) worst brass I have ever bought. so far the brass I get the best accuracy from out of the 7-08 has been Norma, very consistent,very uniform. The only negative thing about the Norma has been the primer pockets, most of the time Norma has had a reputation for loose primer pockets,not these you almost need a hammer and punch to seat them
other than that there awesome and I will be ordering more of them. within a month or so I will have a better idea on the nosler brass and will PM you a report. I think you can buy 7-08 headstamped nosler brass? anyway I will let you know.Wayne.
I've always used 308 Lapua brass simply run through the 7mm-08 full length size die. Easy & the brass will last many, many reloads. No prep do be done like wichester or Remington stuff.
Preacher
Gold $$ Contributor
Any one that says Lapua brass don't need a little work are kidding themselves.
The last batch of 6 BR cases I did for skeet-lee had very noticeable chips in the primer holes from the punch that was used to poke the hole. Also the last batch of 6.5x284 necked up to 7mm had the same problem... Some of them had a 1/4 of the hole filled up... If I'm going to prep brass I would as soon it didn't cost a lot..
I'll use and prep Winchester brass when ever I can...
The last batch of 6 BR cases I did for skeet-lee had very noticeable chips in the primer holes from the punch that was used to poke the hole. Also the last batch of 6.5x284 necked up to 7mm had the same problem... Some of them had a 1/4 of the hole filled up... If I'm going to prep brass I would as soon it didn't cost a lot..
I'll use and prep Winchester brass when ever I can...
Ya that inside flash hole is an issue with ALL the new brass I've messed with.
Seems like 50% are OK, 30% you can feel a little chips comming off, but that last 20% or so there's a BIG chip your knocking out. If nothing is done that big chip sure could bend the primer flash to the side real easy.
Seems like 50% are OK, 30% you can feel a little chips comming off, but that last 20% or so there's a BIG chip your knocking out. If nothing is done that big chip sure could bend the primer flash to the side real easy.
I must have had a good run with the Lapua brass I've had as I've not had these issue's & I'm a fussy bugger when it comes to brass Prep. Apart from uniforming the primer pockets, trimming case necks to square / length I've not had issues with flash holes as outlined above. Sounds like Lapua's quality control must be starting to slip. I'll be sure to now not take it for granted and check any new lapua brass I get. Thanks for the heads up.
bozo699
Gold $$ Contributor
Fordnutter,
I was doing some 6br prepwork today with my son and noticed the flakes mentioned above,I have bought Lapua brass many times before and @ least never noticed any problems with it. I have always done complete brass prep on my 6.5*284 and .308 and 22-250 brass. I was reading a article a while back on here that you shouldn't mess with the primer pockets and flash holes on 6br brass as you might hurt rather than help your accuracy,it also stated flash holes may need slightly cleaned up because of flakes in them. I had forgotten about the article and was doing normal prep work when I noticed the flakes got the flakes out and it shot great.
Wayne.
I was doing some 6br prepwork today with my son and noticed the flakes mentioned above,I have bought Lapua brass many times before and @ least never noticed any problems with it. I have always done complete brass prep on my 6.5*284 and .308 and 22-250 brass. I was reading a article a while back on here that you shouldn't mess with the primer pockets and flash holes on 6br brass as you might hurt rather than help your accuracy,it also stated flash holes may need slightly cleaned up because of flakes in them. I had forgotten about the article and was doing normal prep work when I noticed the flakes
got the flakes out and it shot great.Wayne.
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