neck down 308 brass to 260 ?

[kritos666]

Is this possible for the average joe? Is it practical? Is it a piece of cake with good dies and liberal amounts of case lube? Or am I going to spend copious amounts of time and energy? Would I have just been better of sucking it up and buying 260 brass?

Thanks for the input.

 

[harley_jeff]

Re: neck down 308 brass to 260 ?

Not sure about .308 but 7mm08 run through a full length .260 resizing die makes nice .260 brass

 

[michaeltx]

Re: neck down 308 brass to 260 ?

Everyone was using 7mm-08 or 243 brass to form before Lapua started making 260 brass. I think the problem was that you end up with too much material in the neck of the case with 308 brass.

 

[kritos666]

Re: neck down 308 brass to 260 ?

Would neck turning be a possibly.. or not worth the effort?

Thanks for the replies BTW

 

[turbo54]

Re: neck down 308 brass to 260 ?

You can do it if:

Your chamber has a GENEROUS neck diameter...certainly not at SAAMI minimum. Of course, this will cause excessive neck clearance when using actual 260 brass.

You neck-turn.

I'm having my AR10 260 chambered with a very loose neck, so I can simply neck down 7.62 NATO brass. The brass will form donuts in time, but ARs are tough on brass anyway, so I figure I'll get one or two hits on the brass before I lose it or throw it away.

 

[pjparker]

Re: neck down 308 brass to 260 ?

Kritos

This has been beaten to death on numerous postings, but in a nutshell, it can be easily done. Some, like myself, used a 7-08 FL die as an intermediate step to take .308 to .260. Was it really necessary? I think not if using Imperial. You Must know what you're dealing with in the neck thickness department and measure, measure, measure... I found that I ended up with thicker necks by necking UP Lapua .243 than I did by necking DOWN Win .308's - It it dependent on what you start with, not just going by someone's rule-of-thumb. With the Factory .260 brass that is available today, there really isn't the need to jack with altering some other case to make some .260's

Paul

 

[kritos666]

Re: neck down 308 brass to 260 ?

I'm looking to get a GAP10 in 260, so if thats the case, I think im going to say that's not idyllic. It sounds like ill have to suck it up and buy some new 260 brass.

 

[mnhntr]

Re: neck down 308 brass to 260 ?

I am using Winchester 7mm-08 run through a FL size die and they are fine. I will be buying Lapua brass when these wear out due to QC problems with some of the Win brass.

 

[harley_jeff]

Re: neck down 308 brass to 260 ?

I've had good luck with Nosler .260 brass lately.

 

[kritos666]

Re: neck down 308 brass to 260 ?

If I did end up buying new brass, I was thinking Nosler. They are local to me, I'm in Oregon. I have a bunch of 308 brass I was just wondering If I could re-purpose it.

 

[former naval person]

Re: neck down 308 brass to 260 ?

Neck it down. Measure a fired .260 case for your base line. Expand the neck of your sized .308 case with a .260 K&M neck expander. Turn the necks of a couple of your ex-.308 down to where they are .002 under the fired diameter. Full length size your cases and seat a bullet. Measure. If the case neck is at least .002 under the fired case neck diameter, go babe. If not, turn another case down another thousandth until those dimensions match. Then...size and expand and turn all you want. JMHO

 

[Explorer]

Re: neck down 308 brass to 260 ?

Possible - YES. Worth the time and effort? Only you can make that choice.
I did over 200 pcs about 8 yrs back when I could not find any 260 brass, just turned the necks for a second time last month. They probably have about 12-15 firings on them today (don't shoot that one enough); I set the clearances tight as I could and I work the necks very little.

 

[med17]

Re: neck down 308 brass to 260 ?

I used to make all my .260 stuff from .243 brass. Worked fine.

 

[427Cobra]

Re: neck down 308 brass to 260 ?

Problem with necking down 308 to 260 is the case is shorter than spec, simple and easy is to neck down Win 7-08, a single pass in a 260 FL die and you have 260 brass, I also neck up Win 243 brass, neck turn the donut away and it shoots no different than Win 7-08 necked down, I have some Win 7-08 cases with 25 reloads, annealing is required to get that many reloads but the primer pockets don't let go in 5-6 reloads like Rem 260 brass, cost of Win 7-08 is considerably cheaper than Rem 260 or Lapua 260 brass.