Neck up or down Lapua brass for 7mm-08

[sbisch]

I would like to use Lapua brass for my 7mm-08; however, Lapua does not make 7mm-08 cal brass. I was thinking of either necking up .243 Win Lapua brass or necking down .308 Win Lapua brass. Has anyone tried this? Suggestions? Thanks

 

[BHarvey]

Necking down is easier, but the .308 case is .020" shorter than the 7-08, 243 or 260 case. You will gain some of this deficit back when necking down, so the difference will be closer to .015".

Necking up is a pain and brings forth other issues.

Neck down 308 and be done.

 

[dennisinaz]

I have to go through the same thing for my 260 Remington. I had back luck necking up UNTIL I got the K&N,I think?) expander mandrels and used them. I use STP for necking up or Unique case lube. This is exactly what they use at Brunos for making 6PPC from 220 Russian.

I still prefer the 308 brass for one reason- I have to neck turn the Lapua brass and IF I neck turn it while still 308, the bottom of the neck becomes part of the shoulder and no donut!

Try both if you want, but you will want the special busing and mandrels if you want good results without inducing runnout into the necks.

Back in the day, I was too poor to buy 7mm-08 brass and just resized literally hundreds of 308 cases from Gold Medal Match shot in tactical rifles. In a factory chamber, this worked fine!

 

[Preacher]

Neck up the 243 Lapua brass with K&M mandrel's, and I would do it in steps of .010 at a time for as good as it will get.........

 

[PAshooter20BR]

Lapua doesn't make 7mm-08 brass but Norma does, may just give you enough time away from the reloading bench to get to the range and do some shooting!

good luck

 

[SilverEagle]

Lapua or Norma, I herd a rumor that both are made on the same production line. Once I even got a box of Lapua that had a few Norma headstamps in it.
I just picked up 100 rds of winshester, after I drilled my flashholes, uniformed primer pockets and trimmed them to length I sorted them by weight, get this 96 total cases all within .5 grains.....

 

[Forum Boss]

Lapua or Norma, I herd a rumor that both are made on the same production line.

Not so. These are two very different companies. Different parents, different assembly locations, different countries--and they are very competitive in European shooting matches--like Ford vs. Chevy in NASCAR. Nammo/Lapua is based in Finland. Norma is based in Sweden, though Norma is part of the RUAG family, which is based in Switzerland.

"Once I even got a box of Lapua that had a few Norma headstamps in it."

That is truly bizarre and I can't possibly explain it.

 

[sbisch]

Last time I bought Norma brass,.280), I was disappointed in the variability in case neck thickness. I've measured batches of Remington brass with more consistent case neck thickness than this particular batch of Norma, and the Norma brass is a lot more expensive. Maybe I just got a bad lot?

 

[dennisinaz]

I have had good accuracy with Norma brass, but the last lot of 22-250 I bought had such tight primer pockets that I had to ream every single one of them or I couldn't seat primers at all! I know they shot good because I won a match with that brass but it was a lot of work.

Norma made WBY brass is heads and shoulders better than Remington made brass in WBY calibers.