First I would like to say hello to the Forum. This is my first post. I have been involved in shooting most of my life but mostly handguns and semi- auto battle rifles since the mid 70's. I am now the owner of a Remington 700P DM in .308. This rifle is N.I.B. and from the late 90's production. It has a Leupold V-III Tactical 4.5x14.5 power { I believe} 40mm Obj scope w/ mil-dot reticle. I bought it from a friend that never shot it even to break it in so I am starting in from the beginning on everything and this seems to be the place from what I can tell to find advice. My first question is: I have 100 new Rem. cases and 100 new Win. cases for this rifle that were bought at the time the rifle was purchased. I miked the necks as I want to use a Redding Type "S" F.L. sizer and was figuring out what size bushings to get. The deal is the Remington brass at its best {less than 0.001 variation} is about 0.014 where the Win's best is 0.012 with the average about 0.0115. First of all since I do not have loaded rounds to measure, I was going to do the math on case walls and bullet diameter but I do not know what to expect from current production brass. I know I should just buy 500 new cases but this stuff is in hand and with the purchase of the rifle I am still trying to find a way to tell the wife about the new rifle.......So my question is what can I expect in the future on new brass as I am not going to buy bushings for both these sizes right now.If I need to set aside one of these batches for now that is fine. I would really just like to try to standarize my tool selection to start. I hope this makes sense and I am sorry for being so longwinded but I wanted to make sure I explained it right. Looking forward to your responses and I am excited to be getting involved in this type of shooting. I will have access to a 600 yd range about 30 minutes from home although I am going to start at a shorter distance to practice my technique and to find a load that will shoot ok. I will probably have some questions about this rifle in the future. Thanks and please bear with my "FNG" questions. Andy
Is this wall thickness average for .308?
- Thread starter AndrewWilliams
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Re: Is this wall thickness average for .308?
Welcome to the Hide! The Win case neck thickness seems a little thin to me. But, if your measurement is an average is .0115 (times 2 plus .308, and minus .003" for neck tension), I would run a .328 bushing. This will still give you enought neck tension for sizing any other brass.
Welcome to the Hide! The Win case neck thickness seems a little thin to me. But, if your measurement is an average is .0115 (times 2 plus .308, and minus .003" for neck tension), I would run a .328 bushing. This will still give you enought neck tension for sizing any other brass.
Re: Is this wall thickness average for .308?
Thanks Chad.... From your answer I gather I can expect on average a thicker neck wall on current brass? Does that 0.328 bushing size you recommend eliminate the thicker Remington brass from being sized with that bushing? The thing is both these batches of brass have about 2/3 of them below 1 thou variance so they seem to be good stuff. Thanks for taking the time on this.
Thanks Chad.... From your answer I gather I can expect on average a thicker neck wall on current brass? Does that 0.328 bushing size you recommend eliminate the thicker Remington brass from being sized with that bushing? The thing is both these batches of brass have about 2/3 of them below 1 thou variance so they seem to be good stuff. Thanks for taking the time on this.
Re: Is this wall thickness average for .308?
Winchester .308 brass always has been thin - 11-12 thou - in my experience. Other brands tend to be thicker - Lapua 13.5-14.5, Federal 14-15+, haven't measured any Remington stuff. Thats the way they tend to run, doesn't seem to change a whole bunch year to year.
Winchester .308 brass is pretty good stuff. Thin = lighter = more case capacity for a given volume (chamber), so you can stuff more powder in there if you have the desire. As you found, they are fairly consistent in thickness, and they are tough enough to take a little abuse without loosening up the primer pockets quickly. The biggest downsides to them (for me, and neither really affects their performance) are a) they tend to come out of the bag awful short - like less than minimum trim-to length, and they vary a bit more than I'd like, and b) the case head is way undersized - I've seen 'em down around .467-.468, vs. .470-.471 for Lapua.
They still shoot awfully well.
YMMV,
Monte
Winchester .308 brass always has been thin - 11-12 thou - in my experience. Other brands tend to be thicker - Lapua 13.5-14.5, Federal 14-15+, haven't measured any Remington stuff. Thats the way they tend to run, doesn't seem to change a whole bunch year to year.
Winchester .308 brass is pretty good stuff. Thin = lighter = more case capacity for a given volume (chamber), so you can stuff more powder in there if you have the desire. As you found, they are fairly consistent in thickness, and they are tough enough to take a little abuse without loosening up the primer pockets quickly. The biggest downsides to them (for me, and neither really affects their performance) are a) they tend to come out of the bag awful short - like less than minimum trim-to length, and they vary a bit more than I'd like, and b) the case head is way undersized - I've seen 'em down around .467-.468, vs. .470-.471 for Lapua.
They still shoot awfully well.
YMMV,
Monte
Re: Is this wall thickness average for .308?
Thanks Guys.That is what I wanted to know. I am planning on using Win. brass as from what i have heard it appears to be well liked when compared to the other lower priced brass. I just was not sure what to expect with new Win brass I may buy since the stuff i have is 10 yrs old. i am hoping to find a consistent load as quickly as I can and then tune it when my skill improves. If anyone has experience with the Rem 700P I would sure appreciate any pointers about load choices or tips on loading for this particular rifle model. I am flying a little blind and do not want to spend time on things everyone has already discovered. Thanks again
Thanks Guys.That is what I wanted to know. I am planning on using Win. brass as from what i have heard it appears to be well liked when compared to the other lower priced brass. I just was not sure what to expect with new Win brass I may buy since the stuff i have is 10 yrs old. i am hoping to find a consistent load as quickly as I can and then tune it when my skill improves. If anyone has experience with the Rem 700P I would sure appreciate any pointers about load choices or tips on loading for this particular rifle model. I am flying a little blind and do not want to spend time on things everyone has already discovered. Thanks again
Re: Is this wall thickness average for .308?
I have both types of brass and also run the Redding S-type bushing dies. I measured my loaded Rem brass at ~.338 and my WIN brass at ~.335. So I'm running a .336 bushing for the Rem (and FC, btw) brass and a .332 for my Win brass. Redding says to go .001 below the loaded round. many here say they go .003 below, so I decided to split the difference - hence the .002 less. It seems to work very well for me.
I have both types of brass and also run the Redding S-type bushing dies. I measured my loaded Rem brass at ~.338 and my WIN brass at ~.335. So I'm running a .336 bushing for the Rem (and FC, btw) brass and a .332 for my Win brass. Redding says to go .001 below the loaded round. many here say they go .003 below, so I decided to split the difference - hence the .002 less. It seems to work very well for me.
