A lot of guys may already know this but I learned it today. I have been very happy with my lapua brass in my 30BR and was thinking of trying it in my 708 but they only make 308. A guy at the range today gave me some 308 brass to play around with to see how they sized.

One pass through the full length 7mm08 die and I had 708 brass. That was just too easy and they fit the chamber just perfect. Now I can buy some lapua 308s but now which one since they make it with large and small primer pockets now. I have both size primers. Wonder if there is a benefit to using the smaller primer? Any opinions?

I know the benchrest crowd uses the small rifle primer for improved accuracy. I don't know how that would translate into hand held shooting.

I'm assuming you made up either a full round or a dummy round. How is the neck thickness on the resize? I wouldn't think there would be too much brass but I wondered.

I've had trouble with CCI small rifle primers in my 17 Rem with 4320 powder in cold weather, down in the teens and rounds in the chamber and mag while waiting for a shot. The primers lit off but didn't light off the powder. Pulled the bullets and the powder was scorched.

Lapua also makes 243 and 260 brass that will work as well.

And similar problems when I did some testing in my 22-243 and small primer with Remington 6mm Bench rest cases way back...I still use 4320 in the 17 Rem and it happens to be the most accurate with 20 VMax in my rifle and because I have 8-9 cans left, but went to Fed Gold Medal 205 Match which seems to have fixed the cold weather problem.

I've used several brands, IMI, Lapua, LC, Fed, Rem, Win, etc, in 243 and 308 cal to make brass for my two 7-08's. I've also used 6mm Rem, 7 and 8x57, 25-06, and '06 for various testings. This batch of 50 for my XP is LC 99 and for my Ruger swith barrel, 25 are 308 Lapua and 25 are 7-08 Win...two different bullet weights for th long gun.

As to which primer, it would depend on what your use is...competitive target only, small primers seem to be more accurate...hunting, no question - LARGE rifle.

Luck

As clarification, Lapua doesn't make 260 brass.

Nosler does however.

I've been using Lapua 308 WIN necked down for my 7mm-08 for quite some time. The best way to go in my opinion.

Kevin

Thanks guys. I will stay with large primers since my 708 is a hunter. For the question about neck wall thickness I did not check it and did not load a dummy because I know I have to turn mine anyway since my chamber is a .312 neck.
I chose the .312 neck because the Rem brass had to be cleaned up so a loaded round came out to .309.
Lapuas may not need to be cleaned up but they will get turned for sure for a good fit and to take care of any excess thickness that may come from the downsizing from 308 brass.

I've used a lot of 308 brass for my 7-08AI. In addition to having plenty of neck thickness to do a good neck turn, you can size the neck ONLY as far as you need for chambering, so the neck self centers in the chamber.

Does a LR primer comntain more active matter than a SR one? If yey, I'd prefer the former for practical purposes.

quote:

Originally posted by DUK:
Does a LR primer comntain more active matter than a SR one?

Yes, a LR primer will contain more primer compound compared to a SR primer.

It seems there is a tendency to move towards less primer for absolute accuracy applications these days. That probably started with the PPCs having a SR, and continued in cases such as 6mm BR, 6.5x47 Lapua etc.

- mike

Can one of you guys give me the case weight of one of your 708s formed from a 308 lapua brass.I am curious to see how close it is to my Rem brass that I have already turned to fit. The majority are 160 grains unprimed. If the lapua is heavier I may have to back off my charge for the thicker walls.

Lapua does make 260rem brass. Just handled it last week at the SHOT SHOW.

Nobody has mentioned that the resulting case length will be less when forming from .308 brass. not sure about .260 or .243 though. IIRC it's .020.

If you can live with the shorter case necks, then it's no concern, BUT it bothers me.

The trial run that I did with some PMC 308 brass were .015 short which is small and I have trimmed that much before to get a group of brass to match up. Probably after turning and first fireform they may grow a little.

Which way the brass goes depends somewhat on how well your dies fit your chamber and what type of dies you use...neck and bushing dies move less brass around and FL non-bushing using a sizing bushing does the most brass work.

I like Redding FL bushing type S dies the best because I've found that FL sizing with the die hard against the shell holder(no slope or over center) also keeps the cases more square.

I also polish the inside of all my sizing dies and use Redding comp shell holders to keep the shoulder set back and also the sizing to a minimum of about 0.002" depending on whether it is a hunter, varminter or target shooter.

Luck