I have a ton of .308 Winchester brass, and I want to neck some of it down to .243.

I did this several years ago, but IIRC, got some shoulder dents.

Any tips or info would be appreciated!

quote:

Originally posted by michauxii:
I have a ton of .308 Winchester brass, and I want to neck some of it down to .243.

I did this several years ago, but IIRC, got some shoulder dents.

Any tips or info would be appreciated!

I necked down a bunch of Winchester .284 to 6mm, used a collet on my South Bend lathe to do the first squeeze, then used the sizing tool on the reloading press to finish the job.

as a novelty when i was a kid.. like 14 or 15, i used lots of 30-06 lc match brass for my .243.. i had a file type case trimmer for a 7x57 mauser... used that first with rcbs lube... cut it to length, then used a rcbs file type case trimmer for the .243.. had to ream case mouths... loss rate was about 30%...if i'd been more diligent, slower, used better lube, cleaned cases better, etc, i think it would have raised my success rate...

Unless You have the inside neck reamer already...Why not SELL some .308 brass, then simply BUY some .243 ?? Heck of a lot simpler.

FN in MT

#1). You can get a much better "balanced" workout at the "Y" or Golds or ???
#2). Assuming you are committed (and maybe should be committed) with the explosion of "knock offs" of the .308... collect a bunch of dies and you should be more fine than the last time. 7mm/08? Or .260 Rem? I would lean 7mm...first. WELL lubed, of course. Lanolin is the old standard but others rival it today. Then if handy and you feel a need to be precise... use a .260 too... From there, with any good lube, full length .243 and you should be almost done, except for neck thickness. I know 'smiths who shot them this way, but for best accuracy and safety, check the neck thickness and ream or outside turn, your callllll... Shoulder dents are usually too much lube... at least that is what everyone says. And after all this work, I would neck anneal too. Dip, uncapped case, of the neck in molten PURE lead is good. Drop in water. Best temp, per Narramore as I recall, was around 650 F and this is around 610 F. Enjoy your exercise plan. luck.

pull the expanded out of a 308 FL sizer. same thing with a 260 sizer then down to your 243 sizer. probably will have to turn the necks to thin them out some. pulling the expander out of the 1st 2 dies will size the necks down without opening them again. watch your first loads cause the 308 LC brass is going to be a bit thicker than commercial so max loads will probably be a bit less. you will end up with better 243 cases than what you could buy

Thanks for the replies!