Hey all got a quick question.. I have a ton of old 243 brass.. Now i no you should be able to take that to 7mm08 without to many problems.. The question i have is this.. When i run the 243 brass through my 708 FL die it seems rather hard almost like i really have to force it.. When i look at the neck some of them are slanted and the next one will be preaty flat.. Is that normal? Also i have noticed that the expander left groves in the inside of the case as well... When i run regular 708 brass everything is nice and smooth in the inside and i have no croked necks as well? Any suggestions? Also i have a question on case legth normal 7mm08 has a case length of 2.035 or real close and the 243 is only at 2.012 or close to that.. Is that gonna be to short or after the fireform will i gain a few? Thanks for the help..

6.5 Bandit

I ran into similar with my 8mm brass to 358STA. My expander ball had the knurled part doing most of the work. Took alot of force and left grooves inside the neck. With the .308 cases, the neck is already oversized, hence, no work done on the up stroke. Wouldn't be suprised if this is the same scenario.
'Course I could be wrong as I'm just a newbie that ain't even loaded a round yet.

6.5 Bandit

To resize 243 to 7mm-08 is a big step up & is best done in stages,25 cal then 6.5 then 7mm,you can use the expander from a 257 roberts or a 6.5x55 or 270 if you have them or some dies have a tapered expander & thats probably the easiest way.

I bought 75 lapua 243 cases that I was going to resize to 7mm-08 but had all of the problems you had so after resizing a couple I looked at other options,using the different expanders as above was one but a very time consuming one so I decided to fireform them,this is what I did.

I loaded the cases with 10 grains(tried 6 then 8)of a fast burning powder in this case nobles no 60 shotgun powder,federal 210 large rifle primer then filled the rest of the case up to the neck with baby cerial(fine crushed grain)then compacted it in & sealed it off with some candle wax(melted a couple of candles into a shallow dish & pushed the case necks into it)& then fried it in my rifle,putting the muzzle into an old foam mattress,sounded just like a 22 going off but when I opend the bolt I had perfectly formed 7mm-08 cases.

The whole procedure took about 2 hours including experimenting & produced almost perfect cases.

I was not happy using the resizing method as it required too much pressure & i'm sure some of the cases would have been damaged & maybee the die too but can recommend the fireforming method.

I've fired these cases with full loads twice now without any problems & have just bought 100 new 243 cases.

Give it a try

Alan

Thanks for the replies.. Think ill try and fireform them once see how it works out. Should be alot faster as well.. We will see this weekend.. Thanks again

6.5 Bandit

Depending on your die set, you may be able to purchase a tapered expander which will easily solve the problem. Hornady has had them for years, and Redding now has them as well. Redding doesn't even feel the need to recommend an intermediate step between .22 and .284.

I have formed many .260's from .243's with Hornady dies without problems.

Gabe

ah, sorry to be the sour puss..

243/6mm to a 7mm is a ONE PASS event. I do 305 to 358 and 243 to 708 with some frequency, ONE PASS

but, 708 is soo cheap these days....

jeffe

Intresting.... The dies i have are brand new redding dies might just be the brass as well.. I agree 708 brass is cheap but hey if you have something laying around why not use them.. Besides i no longer have a 243 and no plans anytime soon to get one lol.. Ill give redding a call and see about getting the tapered expander.. Thanks again

6.5 Bandit

.243 to 7-08 is a one step action. I took the expander ball out of the die and chucked it in a drill and stoned a little more taper to the nose. I also put a cleaning brush in my drill and ran it in and out of the necks of the brass a couple of times. Finally, I used some mica on the inside of the neck. I have some .243 brass treated thusly that has got to be 15 years old. The difference in length is a non factor. Having said all this, I think Tumbo's way would be more fun. However, I would use a beginning load of a quick powder and plug the case mouth with wax and let drive.

I wonder if the case necks are hard from resizing. I suspect that if the necks are annealed the operation would be much easier.

Jerry

The amount of pressure I had to use seemed excessive to me,had to use both hands with a lot of pressure on the downward stroke,the cases were new lapua,they had been annealed & were liberally lubricated inside & out,the cases just didn't look right at the end & I would not have had enough confidence in them to use them.

I talked this over with a friend of mine who has been a seroius reloader for more than 30 years,he said to either use a tapered expander or fireform them(his preferred method)& he told me how to go about it,he said that steping up from 6mm to 7mm in one go could cause excessive wear to my dies or possibly missform the cases,he suggested it would be ok to go up one step or maybee 2 at a time(eg 243 to 25cal or 6.5 but no more)so I took his advice & i'm glad that I did as the fireformed cases are finished off much better than the resized ones.

I could now fireform 100 cases in about 11/2 hours with an end result that i'm much happier with admittedly i'll use 100 primers & a bit of powder but wouldn't have to use all that force & risk damaging my dies or having slightly missformed cases.

I'm also using new redding dies

Alan