First developed load

Finally put together a nice load that will work nice with my 7mm-08. Its nice to see rounds you made group so well. Target was hung at 100 yards

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I think you are a little low and left. You better take care of that

.243 using Winchester Supreme ammo. 100 yard 5 shot group.

Not disappointed in the group, but it sucks being left with the stupid silver casings. Not a fan of the ballistic tips either for terminal performance.

Kudos for working through it.

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Carter Johnson congrats. Definitely a sense of accomplishment!!! Just remember to watch for your brass to stretch and keep everything as consistent with brass preparation that you can. Been down that ugly road a few times…..

” but it sucks being left with the stupid silver casings”

Whats wrong with them? I know a lot of guys that reload them.

Some very good results there, Carter. You’ve officially joined the club, there’s no going back to factory now.

Also just to point out that old school powders like 4895 still WORK! Yes, this powder was invented by the ancient Phoenicians and was a favorite of Julius Cesar, but it doesn’t matter how old your reloads are, all that matters is how good they are.

The temptation these days for many starting out in reloading is to run straight for the modern powders with cool sounding words like “Longshot” and “Tactical” in their names. The reality is that the powders that have been on the market since the stone age have been on the market since the stone age for a reason.

Good work, Carter. Now we have to get you a varmint rifle so you can really start obsessing…

Grouse

Yeah shes a little low and left easy fix though. I try to stay as consistent as possible through the whole process. But grouse i do hear those older powders are “dirty” also a varmint rifle would be a great addition to the safe in the near future.

Randy Wieland wrote:

Carter Johnson congrats. Definitely a sense of accomplishment!!! Just remember to watch for your brass to stretch and keep everything as consistent with brass preparation that you can. Been down that ugly road a few times…..

” but it sucks being left with the stupid silver casings”

Whats wrong with them? I know a lot of guys that reload them.

The necks split. I lose close to 25% after the the first reload. Rarely get more than 3. Of course, I full length resize which no doubt shortens the life.

And yes, I trim cases before every reload. It’s just a very brittle case.

What are you using for cases, Carter?

Just hornady brass from some american whitetails that i sighted the gun in with. Havent had any problems with it but i will probably need some more soon. A range near me actually has around 100 hopefully once fired brass there. Its tough to find 7mm-08 brass for a decent price.

Both Craig’s List and E-bay prohibit advertising empty brass. I see it on Craig’s occasionally but if anyone flags it the ad is gone. The place to go is gunbrokers.com. Very similar to E-bay in structure but gun friendly. Excellent sorting feature allows exact displays of what you are looking for. I did a search for 7mm-08 brass & see there are currently over 30 ads. New, used, same head stamp, mixed head stamp. There is a registration procedure you must do in order to sell or bid. Another choice are the gun shows but that can be hit or miss.

Youbetcha wrote:

Just hornady brass from some american whitetails that i sighted the gun in with. Havent had any problems with it but i will probably need some more soon. A range near me actually has around 100 hopefully once fired brass there. Its tough to find 7mm-08 brass for a decent price.

If you don’t care about the headstamp saying 7-08, you could look into reforming .308 brass on your own. If I had a 7-08, I’d certainly look into this option as the .308 parent brass is about as cheap and easy to find as brass can get, so for any quantity at all, I think it would be worth investing in learning how to do this.

I don’t believe the 7-08 needs any special forming dies, but the thing you’ll have to look into is do the necks end up too thick and if so, what has to be done about it?

Grouse

I have heard of people forming .308 down to 7mm-08 and the necks do get too thick but they a something to adjust that i think its called reaming? But I for sure have seen .308 brass everywhere i just need a tool to get those crimps out of the primer pockets

Hornady brass seems to be good stuff. Was hoping the American Whitetail would shoot well for the donor brass. Best I could get was 1+ moa.

I think fireforming .243 would be easier. Could probably run it through a full length die and be pretty close.

Gixxer, my brother n law loads 2 30-06’s with nickel cases and loves them. Wonder why yours are so brittle. He has a Varget load on one of them and its a hot screaming SOB. Interesting.

Those american whitetails actually did give me decent results they were under 1 inch at 100 yards so pretty good for the cheapest factory loads I could find.

Youbetcha wrote:

08 brass everywhere i just need a tool to get those crimps out of the primer pockets

This is actually very easy to do. Just get a primer pocket reamer and it takes about 3 twists of the reamer by hand to remove the crimp. The crimp itself is about the thickness of 2 human hairs and it’s brass besides, so it’s pretty soft.

RCBS, Lyman, and others sell tools that include cutters for small and large primer pockets.

I can do 120 or more 5.56 cases per hour while watching TV and only half paying attention. There’s a feel to it such that you can tell when you got the crimp off because the reamer turns more easily. It’s not a difficult process and you only have to do it once.

Grouse

I shoot a 243wssm in model 70 Winchester. It also splits the necks. I would say close to one out of five. Even new brass both nickel and brass. The gun has almost became a wall hanger/ deer hunting only because can’t find factory ammo anywhere. Even new brass is quite rare. Love the gun just hate trying to conserve ammo.

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At least those cases look cool jon

Yeah best gun I own. Just suck this was out of one 20rnd box.

Randy Wieland wrote:

Gixxer, my brother n law loads 2 30-06’s with nickel cases and loves them. Wonder why yours are so brittle. He has a Varget load on one of them and its a hot screaming SOB. Interesting.

Annealing helps but seems like a waste of time for 2 to 3 reloads. I run a load of 4831SC on the light side and still get splits.

I’ve got 2 boxes left and then it’s on to something different.

jon amundson wrote:

I shoot a 243wssm in model 70 Winchester. It also splits the necks. I would say close to one out of five. Even new brass both nickel and brass. The gun has almost became a wall hanger/ deer hunting only because can’t find factory ammo anywhere. Even new brass is quite rare. Love the gun just hate trying to conserve ammo.

That’s exactly what happens!

What is the outside dimension of the necks on fired cases before sizing? If the chamber is oversized it will split the necks. I had a Rem 7mm rem mag that was notorious for that years ago.