lapua 308 brass... what neck bushings

[greygoat]

i am finally getting my hands on some lapua and horn match brass in a few days for a rifle thats only fired fed gmm168s during a breaking in period... from what i've read the fired fed brass isn't much but i was almost desperate enough to reload it with two boxes of berger 175vlds on my bench i'd love to know what size bushings to order so they could be here when the brass is. i guess what i'm asking is does anyone know how thick unturned lapua or hornady match brass is so i can 2x + .308 - .002 and then order that bushing and one both + and - .001 larger and smaller for lot vary...

 

[expiper]

a .334" wilson bushing works with my Lapua brass..I dont know abut the Hornaday.....the Redding bushings usually run small,and erattic IMHO) so maby a .335 if you cant find "Wilson" brand....Roger

 

[BuckKliebert]

I use a Redding @.335 for loading in a 95 Palma chamber using Lapua brass.

 

[kelbro]

My batch of Lapua runs .337 with SMKs and I use a .334 bushing. Works great.

 

[greygoat]

thanks so much for help everyone... i think i'll order .335, .336, and .337 so i can play with tension

 

[greygoat]

ok, here we go again... while waiting on my lapua brass i ran across 200 pcs. of winchester brass that were too cheap to pass up... i ran a few of them thru my type s die without the bushing and loaded one as a dummy round to measure the outside neck and determine the bushing size for that brass. so i came up with .334 and that seems to be consistant with what i've read that most guys are using a .332 bushing with the winchester brass so i'll be ordering that bushing too.

i didn't mention earlier that my fired brass all comes out measuring .343... so i'm assuming my lapua brass will be worked from .338 loaded to .343 fired. and the winchester from .334 to .343 fired. is this too much? is my chamber ok?

all the winchester brass is too small out of the bag to seat... can i just expand it without the bushing and load it all to fire once? even then wouldn't sizing it back from .343 with the .332 bushing be alot of work on the brass?

i think i have the concept down i'm just not sure...

 

[greygoat]

can the .0005 to .001 bump that he mentions be accomplished with a type s FL die that is set up properly? or must i use a type s Neck sizing die? what do you do with the new brass? expander with no bushing, load, fire, then bushing with no expander sound ok? is .343 to .336 too much to size with one bushing anyway? what do you do?

 

[expiper]

You are gettin there...your chamber is typicaly BIG...most factory chambers are,,,no matter what you gotta make the brass tite enuff to grip the bullet....and yes it is a lot of movement ...that is why most custom chamber necks are desighned to be aproxx .003 bigger than your particular brass....Just live with it and when you get your own reamer or have someone else do it ...you will know what you want....
OBTW ...just running the expander ball thru the new case mouths usually helps with the dings and irregulairities,hahah) and gives the proper grip...Roger

 

[keithcatfish]

Not to hijack the thread BUT, try the Federal brass. My Fed 308 brass is the most consistent,.3% difference in H2O volume) I've ever seen, Lapua included. The primer pockets are still snug after 11 reloads with 50Kpsi loads, as per Quickload. On second thought, if you don't want to use it, mail it to me.

 

[greygoat]

my chamber is not factory... match chamber cut by baity's customs with .344 neck for fed gmm168s that measure .340-.341. it's also headspaced about .010 off with those factory feds i knew what i wanted i just didn't know those bullets were going to $35/20 when i built the $4500 rifle. no we're not talking factory chamber guys. i may have him cut it to fit the lapua once my throat moves enough or when i finally quit shooting thoses fed gmm's. all that and without answering a single question from my last post...