forming 7mm-08 brass

[topclass2017]

Looking at acquiring a 700 BDL with a factory varmint (heavy) 7mm-08 barrel and am thinking about brass. From what I've read here on the forum there seems to be two schools of thought re forming brass: neck down .308 or neck up .243. I'm leaning towards necking down .308 as I have a fairly decent supply of fired Lapua brass that I could anneal and go from there. Again, from what I've been reading, some say neck turning is necessary, some say not so.

I'm looking for input to help make a better informed decision.

 

[hoz53]

Looking at acquiring a 700 BDL with a factory varmint (heavy) 7mm-08 barrel and am thinking about brass. From what I've read here on the forum there seems to be two schools of thought re forming brass: neck down .308 or neck up .243. I'm leaning towards necking down .308 as I have a fairly decent supply of fired Lapua brass that I could anneal and go from there. Again, from what I've been reading, some say neck turning is necessary, some say not so.

I'm looking for input to help make a better informed decision.

i would not make a blanket statement about neck turning your brass- the neck wall thickness will vary depending on lot, make, ect. i would check the different brass to see if neck turning is needed.

 

[Fuj]

You also won't worry about neck turning until you find out what the
chamber's neck was reamed to. The other deal with necking down
brass is donut formation. May need to ream or may not especially
if seating bullets deep...... My preference has been always to size
down whenever possible.

 

[Phys86]

Why not just get some alpha 7mm08 brass?

 

[std7mag]

I'm taking it this is a hunting rifle.
My first thought was " why the heck would you neck another cartridge up or down to get 7mm-08 brass?".
Then saw you already have supply of Lapua.

I prefer to neck down also.
I'd probably just run through full length 7mm-08 die and trim.

If your worried about the "dreaded donut" i'd inside ream instead of outside neck turn.

 

[XTR]

with the right bullet and appropriate freebore the doughnut isn't an issue, and turning necks isn't that big a deal anyway if you do get thicker necks than you want.

That said...

Personally I bought 7-08 brass even though I have thousands of 308 cases for the simple reason that I wanted the correct headstamps. I have a hard enough time keeping all my 308 based brass (243, 6SLR, 7-08 and 308) seperate w/o it all saying 308 on the bottom.

 

[WAMBO]

I've necked down 308 brass to 7mm/08 quite a bit, never had a problem, run in a 7mm/08 sizer die and load up.

 

[dthomas]

I agree with std7mag and xtr just use 7mm08 brass.

 

[ChrisNZ]

I'd personally neck up .260 brass as necking down .308 produces short necks. Not that the latter seems to matter much for rough hunting ammo- I did it for a short while til I got some proper 7-08 brass. Never suffered a carbon ring build-up at the front of the chamber but that was after only about 100 rounds.

 

[Idaho-Lefty]

7mm-08 Brass from, Starline is,.. CHEAP !
My son, likes it for, His, Tikka
Necking up, .260 Brass would be OK, too !
NOT a Fan of, squeezing chit,.. "Down", tho.

 

[dryhumor]

I’ve resized Peterson 308 to 7mm-08. If you are going to resize, I’d recommend sorting by weight around 20 cases and shooting them. That way you’ve only got 20 cases tied up in it to see if that’s the way you want to go.

That said, I got some 7-08 from Alpha Munitions once they came off the unobtainium list.

 

[XTR]

If you do get that 7-08 I’ve got a box of Lapua 7mm-08 brass I could part with. Picked it up off of a prize table yrs ago

 

[Pyscodog]

I made my brass from Lapua 308. Ran it through my die and loaded it up. Seems to work just fine for me. Not saying it's the correct way to do it but it works for me.

 

[std7mag]

I have necked LC 7.65X51 brass down to 7mm-08 before with no noticed sizing issues.
Just start loads low and work up.

I got PVRI Partizan (PPU) brass from Grafs when money was much tighter.
Shooting 140gr Berger VLDs i was getting ES-6, SD-2.

Just because it's inexpensive, doesn't mean you can't get good results.

 

[FilippoMo]

Norma manual:7 08 we used 308 cases
necked down.

 

[std7mag]

Norma manual:7 08 we used 308 cases
necked down.

I think i recall several manuals stating necked down 308 brass.

I would have to dig around to see which ones.