reloading 308 brass

[soggybottom 0]

[OpFlash 0]

The ones that have two flash holes are Berdan primed. They can be reloaded but only with great effort. What you want is commercial boxer primed brass. You can also reload military boxer primed brass but from what I understand you need a special tool to remove the primers from military brass because they are crimped on. Also military brass is thicker and although it will last longer it is harder to reform and may not fit in some commercial .308 chambers.

 

Buy some commercial ammo, shoot it and then reload the brass or buy once fired commercial brass to get started.

Edited December 9, 2006 by OpFlash

[ironhead7544 35]

You can reload the berdan style cases but it is hard to find the primers. You can find some mil 308 boxer brass that has been processed with the crimp already removed. The Mil brass is thicker and you have to reduce the max charges by 5%. The 308 is easy to reload. I use Reloader 15 that the Army is reportedly using for their sniper loads. With a minimum load of R15 and a Speer 168 gr match bullet my 308-1 shoots into 1/2 inch at 50 yards with the iron sights.

Edited December 10, 2006 by ironhead7544

[Zoojelly 0]

I just started gathering reloading tools too and have found the above to be all too true,Sure you can buy a special tool to remove primers in 4x the time it takes for boxer primers but then you have to pay exxtra for the primers which negates the cost of brass then hopefully your primer install tool will fit berdan primer size.

 

I'm hoping this primer removed mil spec brass will work

http://www.patsreloading.com/patsrel/whatsnew.htm

and hoping the thicker brass will last more reloads

[GreggD1125 0]

I just started gathering reloading tools too and have found the above to be all too true,Sure you can buy a special tool to remove primers in 4x the time it takes for boxer primers but then you have to pay exxtra for the primers which negates the cost of brass then hopefully your primer install tool will fit berdan primer size.

 

I'm hoping this primer removed mil spec brass will work

http://www.patsreloading.com/patsrel/whatsnew.htm

and hoping the thicker brass will last more reloads

 

 

If this is military brass, you'll need to ream out the primer crimp, if it hasn been removed already, or you'll ruin every primer you try to press in. I found this out the hard way many years ago when I got some PMC 7.62x39 FMJ.

[lazlong 0]

I got some once-fired Lake City brass from a guy on eBay. I'm using a universal decapping die and an RCBS Primer Pocket Swager Combo (p/n 9495) to deal with the crimps.

 

I found that my Lee RGB resizing die was a bit too tight for this brass, but the RCBS die works fine.

 

Lee's decapping dies are better, because when they meet too much resistance, they'll push back in the die instead of bending or breaking.

 

I also use the same dies for decapping and swaging the primer pockets in my surplus 30-06 ammo. I've fired a lot of Lake City and Korean surplus through my Garand, and the brass is great.

 

Edited to add: I use CCI #34 primers to avoid potential slamfires.

Edited December 11, 2006 by lazlong

[Bossman 1]

Good thinking to use the hard primers but the saiga .308 has a spring loaded firing pin-slam fires will not happen.buy standard primers or even match primers and you`ll be totally safe.

Bossman

[lazlong 0]

Good thinking to use the hard primers but the saiga .308 has a spring loaded firing pin-slam fires will not happen.buy standard primers or even match primers and you`ll be totally safe.

Bossman

 

Thanks for the info. I got 5K of the CCI 34's for under $100 for my Garand. I figured since I have them on hand, I may as well use them for the .308 as well. They've worked fine so far in the reloads that I've gotten to chamber. I hope they're as reliable in the .308 as they are in the Garand.

 

You seem to have a bit of experience at reloading. Have you found primer choice affects accuracy, all else being equal?