.308 reload

[LMWIS]

Here's something new! (This is a first attempt with .308.)

I was reloading with a friend last night, and he has no experience either. Armed with all the myth and misinformation I could carry we proceeded to load 20 rounds on the Forster.

My question is this; We are loading for a bolt action, so we are neck sizing only. The die came with two collars, 333 and 335. We chose the 335 at random, and it took a fair bit of effort to bang the bullet out of a dummy round, so if it's neck tension this addresses, I think I'm okay.

I know that a heavier hold on the bullet can increase pressure, so I'm not sure if I've got it right. I guess I'm asking, 'What's the difference?'

 

[Nevada Ed]

I don't use that system to load but I don't think "BANG" is normal in reloading.

Hope you can get a person that loads that way. Sounds like a little "Modification" is needed in your system.

Good luck.

Brucev;
I forgot about the smoked bullet trick.
Nice move............
I give you one "Ataboy" for that.

 

[brucev]

Neck sizing brass works fine if you are firing the ammunition in the same bolt action rifle. The collars give you a little leeway with various lots of brass. Due to variation in the thickness of the neck wall, there may be times when you will need to swap collars. Given that you did not crimp the dummy round, the about of neck pull/tension on the bullet is irrelevant. Do take the dummy round, load it in the magazine and make sure that it will feed and extract from the rifle properly. Soot the bullet and load the dummy round. Extract the dummy and examine the bullet. If you note that it is touching the origin of the rifling, turn the seating stem about 1/3-1/2 turn deeper.

 

[Paul5388]

Neck sizing IS fine, until you need to full length resize. You can normally get a few neck resizings before the brass will need to be full length resized for proper fit.

 

[Jellybean]

What's the difference? .002"

Neck sizing with bushings can be a real pain, partly because as you use the brass the bushing you selected may not work after a while.

Anyway, you need to determine which bushing you need to start with. You should start by measuring your case neck thickness with a ball micrometer, multiply by two and add the diameter of the bullets you are using and use the bushing of that size to load up a few rounds. If they work alright, load away, if they seem to be too loose or tight start working your way up or down the bushing sizes until you find the best fit. You can also start by using a micrometer to measure the neck on a loaded factory round and choose that bushing size and work your way up or down from there, but that might make a lot more work depending on differences in your brass from the factory you have available, especially if your brass has been inside or outside turned.

If you are only using case/bullet tension with no crimp, your pressure shouldn't be too high to worry about, especially if you follow the normal practice of starting low and working your way up. Standard neck sizing dies have been used for a very long time with no problems when used with brass and bullets of a wide variety of sizes.

In the Forster catalog I have they recommend their bushing neck sizing dies for intermediate to advanced reloaders.

 

[rwsmith]

You are saying??

Are you saying that you seated a bullet in a dummy round, then pulled the bullet? Is that what went bang? Please provide a little more detail about how you did it and what exactly happened.

 

[BigBill]

Remember the surplus military brass is thicker walled. This is probably why you have two different neck sizes one is for commercial brass which is thinner.

 

[scooter123]

I suspect that "Bang" was in reference to in inertial bullet puller. With a lighter bullet in a properly sized 308 case it' typically takes a really hard wack to get the bullet to move at all. Concerns about breaking my inertial is what led me to purchase a collet puller. That works slicker than a greased pig on wet ice.

As noted you will need to do some trial fitting of your sized case in the rifle it's going to be used in. One thing to look for is a bolt that requires excessive force to close or won't close at all. If you find this particular problem you will have to use a full length sizing die on your casing to "shift" the shoulder back a few thousandths. BTW, doing this can cause buckles on the shoulder so you need to make sure the case is well lubed and that as you feel the shoulder engaging in the die you have to use multiple partial strokes to SLOWLY work that shoulder back a little bit at a time. Another option is to set the die so that it barely move the shoulder, run a batch of cases, reset the die about 0.002 inch deeper, run them thru again, and repeat until you get a normal bolt lift with the empty cases. Note, Shoulders fire formed "forward" IMO come from cases that have been used in a rifle chambered for the NATO 7.62. I will purchase once fired 308 brass at times that come from a Police Range and about 50% of that brass needs to have the shoulder worked back. While it's a pain to have to do it I have trouble saying no to a perfectly good 308 case for 20 cents.

 

[LMWIS]

A poor choice of term. The 'bang' was indeed referring to an inertial bullet puller. In the initial dummy cartridges the bullet came out with one tap. The second ones took considerably more effort.

 

[rwsmith]

Taking a few good whacks....

Taking a few good whacks to pull a rifle bullet is about right on neck tension. One collar my be for lead bullets (that are usually sized a few thousandths larger than the bore) or jacketed bullets (that are usually bore size). If you try to seat a lead bullet in a too small mouth, it is likely that you will collapse the case or shave the bullet.

Does this seem to jive with the type of bullets you are using.