308 Win. reloading

shadowdrak · Rookie Member Joined: May 18, 2008 Posts: 13

Fired my first batch of reloads. Since I'm typing this, I must have done decent...lol. I was able to handle up to 45.7 grains of Varget (Lyman manual), but started from 41 grains. I've noticed two things that got me wondering though. One, I remeasured some of the cases and noticed that they shrinked a little. I had them at 2.005" and some (not all) are at 1.998-1.999. What could cause this? I thought the case necks would stretch after firing like some others did, though some are still at the trimmed length. I had about 25 rounds trimmed to length and set at the same COAL, case necks turned, and same powder weight of 45 grains and these ones had a lot of variation. The second thing is I found that seating the bullets 0.020" from the landings gave me that slightest bit of accuracy and the COAL is 2.922" to get there. When I tried fitting them in the rifles mag (non-detachable), found that I could chamber the rounds that staggered towards the right side, but the ones that staggered towards the left won't chamber. The bolt is basically sliding over it and even stratching the case.

PaulS · Posted: Sat Jul 12, 2008 12:16 am Post subject: Re: 308 Win. reloading

Cases that are smaller diameter will get fatter when fired and the metal that goes into making it fatter comes from the length. If you only size the case so that the last 1/32" of the neck is left unsized that will eliminate working the case so much and your brass will last a lot longer. It might even give you a bit more accuracy.