i screwed up the other day and mixed .308 brass that came out of my rifle with brass i picked up from our range bucket and i have a neck sizing die for the .308. when it comes to consitency, what can i expect from the different brass?

The best you can do now if your going to use this brass is seperate it into lots of manufactor and keep them seperate that way. Like Rem together,Federal,Win. like that. van

I wouldn't use it as you neck size only.

I have two 270s and only neck size them. One uses RWS brass, the other Norma.

I went to the range with both guns and mistakenly put the Norma into the RWS rifle. I had to really push to close the bolt. I immediately knew what had happened (the switch), ejected the cartridge to confirm it.

If the "found " brass was from a chamber cut smaller than your rifle, no big deal it's as if you had FL sized it. Now if the chamber is bigger than yours and you shove the brass in....
I wouldn't pull the trigger- I've had case failure tattooes before.

In all seriousness, spend the $10.00 and get a 2 piece Lee die set, FL once ? or whatever. roger

damn FMC, my dumb ass never thought of that until you mentioned it, ive only just started picking up scrap brass to make some plinking rounds. thanks for bringing that to my attention.

model7LSS, I'm not sure just what problem you think you have.
I completely disagree with FMC.

For starters, can you seperate your brass by the brand. If not, no problem. As a poster already said, seperate into lots by brands, check all visually for age/flaws, and run them thru your action. If they fit your in business.

Usually dies are sold with a FLS die whether you want it or not, so I'm supprised you don't have one. If you have much brass that won't fit in your rifle you will need to FLS them just enough so that they do. (Don't forget to lub. the cases first.)

As far as I know, any case that you have the power to get into a chamber will be safe, the big problem is if it doesn't go right in, is getting the damn thing back out. After all the pressure on fireing will be a bit higher than any pressure you can apply by hand on the bolt, and it doesn't take much of an oversize case to get stuck on the way in.

I don't know if you know anyone with a redding body die. If you had one you could resize even the loaded brass. I bought one for my two most popular calibers....a 30-06 and 300 wby for the same reason.....If the brass was set up for one gun and I want to shoot it in the other I can resize it down to match the smaller chamber.
If you loaded a bunch maybe someone here could loan you a die. You should be able to pick one up for about $20. Sooner or later neck sized brass will not chamber without considerable effort and you will either need the fl die or body die anyhow.

In my opinion, there are only 4 reasons to pick up brass at the range:

a. you dropped it
b. you forgot your screwdriver, don't have a dime or penny, and need a rimmed case to adjust the scope (.30-30 works great)
c. it's a cartridge you don't have in your collection
d. to put in your scrap-brass bucket for sale later at the recycling place

All my rifles are normal, in-production calibers so brass is available, plentiful, and sometimes cheap.

Well that depends abit. I've seen shooters hanging around someone known to use factory ammo and not reload.
And once I hung around a local swat team using m16's. Got a few mags to shoot off and left with a bucket of brass that seems to last forever.

quote:

Originally posted by JAL:

And once I hung around a local swat team using m16's. Got a few mags to shoot off and left with a bucket of brass that seems to last forever.

Me too. More than once; mostly Fed. Match brass. roger

quote:

Originally posted by bartsche:

quote:

Originally posted by JAL:

And once I hung around a local swat team using m16's. Got a few mags to shoot off and left with a bucket of brass that seems to last forever.

Me too. More than once; mostly Fed. Match brass. roger

I hear you. I have a buddy in the Border patrol and he gave me almost 1,200 rounds of once fired Federal match brass. My .308's are happy campers.
Paul B.