i bought a whole mess of Hornady bullets to load ammunition for an SKS. the bullets are 0.310". however, i looked at the Hornady catalog to select the dies and the information shows the dies to be set up for 0.308" bullets. on Huntington's site, they show the RCBS die as ".308/.311". what do you suppose that means? it seems like the .308 die is going to swage a .310 bullet. am i wrong about this?

1. does anyone make a die for the .310 bullet?

2. if i try to load the .310 bullets using a .308 die, am i going to regret it?

thank you all for your advice

The die will size the neck to accept .308 diameter bullets. A .311 diameter bullet is only 3,000ths of an inch bigger; the brass will stretch enough to accept the larger bullet.

The bullet seating die should work fine as well. It's not going to swage the bullet at all; just seat it.

Of more concern is the fact, according to some, some SKS rifles have a bore diameter of .308 rather than .311. That might cause a little higher pressure (probably not dangerously high though) and might mean you would get better accuracy with .308 diameter bullets.

I was rather impressed with an SKS my son reloaded some Winchester .311 diameter bullets in. With iron sites off the bench at 100 yards, it got 5 shot groups of about 2 inches. Of course, the sites aren't easily windage adjustable, so one has to use Kentucky windage with it.

You're good to go. The neck will expand that little bit as you seat the bullet. If your bullets have a very sharp base, you may need to flare the necks very slghtly with whatever tapered object is handy.

Some die makers include both .308 and .310 expanders and some don't. You can buy the larger expander separately if you are really fussy, but I would not for an SKS. They typically have sloppy chambers and limited accuracy potential so the niceties of reloading are wasted on them.

That's not to disparage either the cartridge or the SKS. It's a very decent 150 yard deer combination, just not for fine target work.

My set of Lee 7.62 X 39mm dies came with two diffrent neck sizing stems, one marked .308" the other .311. Since my Mini Mauser has a .311" bore I use the latter, it makes bullet seating easier.

i do appreciate the input..many thanks.