Hi guys,

Well my rifle is ready, the gunsmith is just changing over the registration and sending it off. I had a Rem 700 VS 308 win and converted it to a Lilja stainless barreled 338 Federal. He blueprinted and trued the action, kept the same varmint contour and bedded it again into the stock HS Precision stock and also had a Badger Ordnance bolt knob installed.

I bought the 338 federal dies from Redding, but the 'smith told me not to use once fired brass, but to buy new 308 brass, anneal the necks, then fireform before running them through the die.

Do you guys think these steps are necessary? I've never read anywhere on the net that these were mandatory steps to necking up one calibre!

I am quite familiar reloading different calibers in rifle and pistol but this is more complicated then what I'm use to.

What are your opinions?

Thanks,

M

quote:

I bought the 338 federal dies from Redding, but the 'smith told me not to use once fired brass, but to buy new 308 brass, anneal the necks, then fireform before running them through the die.

Curious as to how he planned to fireform.

For 308 to 338 I would buy new brass(always best to start new in my opinion) run the brass through your 338 die load and fire. If he is concerned about the headspace you can jam the bullet into the lands or neck up to 358 and then back to 338 forming a false shoulder for a crush fit.

This weekend I took a new 243 case up to 375 in steps with no problem.

I neck 30-06 brass up to 338-06 without a problem. Make sure you have a tapered expander button. After fire forming size the brass in small chunks until you can get the bolt handle to close with slight pressure with empty brass.

berretta 96,

You could always just buy some cheap factory ammo. I bought a couple of boxes of 338 Federal factory loads loaded with the 200 Grn Fusion. I intend to break in the barrel on my new 338federal with the rounds and then I'll have some properly head stamped 338 fed brass ready to go for load development.

The factory loads were only 19.65 a box at Mid South.

Good Luck

Reloader

quote:

Originally posted by beretta96:
Hi guys,

I bought the 338 federal dies from Redding, but the 'smith told me not to use once fired brass, but to buy new 308 brass, anneal the necks, then fireform before running them through the die.

quote:

Do you guys think these steps are necessary?

No.

quote:

this is more complicated then what I'm use to.

It’s not really more complicated. Lube the inside of the necks with Imperial Sizing Die Wax or better yet, Lee Resizing Lube with a Q-tip or other brush type applicator and go to work. Follow the advice listed previously about bullet seating to the lands and you’re done.

I've used Lee dies to neck 7mm mag brass new and once fired, and routinely use 300 Win Mag brass, up to 416 Taylor - in one pass, no problems, but Lee uses a very long tapered expander. That's over a tenth of an inch larger in diameter than going from 308 to 338, all in one pass.

Or if you want to complicate things, you can fire form with the old tried and true trick of pistol powder and corn or oat meal. Sometimes even a small bullet shot down a larger bore will fire form the brass, but don’t know how reliable or desirable that would be and besides, corn or oat meal are way cheaper than bullets of any sort. Only problem I see with shooting a smaller bullet from the otherwise same size case is the only thing you are reasonably sure to hit is the ground.

David

I neck up 223 brass to 308 for a 300 Whisper and do it in one step- as others have said, lube the inside of the case mouth lightly,
I use Rooster's red lube or Imperial Sizing Lube with great results.
Have the most splits with military 223 brass as it seems to be a tad thicker but if you go slow all usually is well.

thanks for all the advice. I'd like to use 338 Federal brass but it's still pretty hard to get over here. The only stuff available so far is with the accubonds at $46.95 a box!!!!!!

I misunderstood what he was explaining to me. I called him and went over it again. Fireforming was an option using pistol powder, cornmeal and a wax plug. At first he didn't realize my die had the expander ball so he suggested his method of annealing then sizing after lubing the necks.

He told me to put say 50 NEW cases in a high cake pan with cold water almost up to their necks. In a dark room, using a propane torch, warm them up one at a time until they just to say glow and then knock it over. He said 50 usually only takes 10 minutes or so.

Is this a one time deal or do I need to do it again?

Thanks again guys,
M

quote:

He told me to put say 50 NEW cases in a high cake pan with cold water almost up to their necks. In a dark room, using a propane torch, warm them up one at a time until they just to say glow and then knock it over. He said 50 usually only takes 10 minutes or so.

I sure wouldn't worry about annealing for a simple increase from 308 to 338. I do anneal my cases after the 4th or 5th loading. Do a search on "annealing" on this site there are a number of good suggestions and links.

Here is one I like. http://www.6mmbr.com/annealing.html

I just did 60 .223 WSSMs to 25 WSSM in two steps and lost none. I used graphite to go from 223 to 243 on an expander mandrel and Imperial wax from 243 to 257 in the FL die with a polished button. Jim

quote:

but the 'smith told me not to use once fired brass, but to buy new 308 brass, anneal the necks, then fireform before running them through the die.

New brass is already annealed. Just use a tapered expander and load. The necks will probably be a little short.
I use 7.62 Nato once fired for the .358 Win like this but I anneal it after the first firing.

I resize once fired 30-06 commercial brass up to 338-06 with a single pass through a full length rezing die. You should be successfull doing the same with 308 to 338 federal. It is worthwhile to lube the inside of the neck. I recommend imperial sizing wax.

As an aside when I set the headspace on this rifle I used the full length resized case from my die set as my headspace gauge. I screwed the barrel down lightly until i had secure engagement on the case, then backed off three thousandths and set the barrel. (this was a Savage 110). Then I cut a 5 thousandths thick piece of shim stock to fit between the bolt face the cartridge rim to make sure the bolt would not close. It worked great and I knew I had the headspace set for my dies.

Others might suggest a different headspace number, but this is a hunting rifle and I don't expect to get 10 reloads from a case. So far all the brass that have been through 3 cycles ( the original 30-06 and 2 338-06 firings) are still good.

quote:

He told me to put say 50 NEW cases in a high cake pan with cold water almost up to their necks. In a dark room, using a propane torch, warm them up one at a time until they just to say glow and then knock it over. He said 50 usually only takes 10 minutes or so.

Is this a one time deal or do I need to do it again?

Thanks again guys,
M

There is no need to anneal new or once fired brass to form the cases. As ramrod340 said, you may want to anneal and check the case length after 5 loadings or so.

David

That's a big help guys. Actually it doesn't look like that big of a deal. I thought it would have been worse than that. Thanks again,