.308 Case trim verification.

[eric90503]

Greetings,

I've just sent off a batch of x1 fired .308 brass to Danny at Custom Brass Processing for the first time. He asked what case length I would like to have the brass trimmed to.

2.005" is the recommended trimmed length, but I've seen other people have different trim lengths?

Is 2.005" a length that I should go with?

The brass is going to be used for my FAL, and Remington 700 26" VLS.


Also Danny has the option of belling the case mouth. Do you guys who use brass processors opt to bell the case mouth or do it yourself?


Thanks guys


Eric

[joelogic]

Length seems right. 2.015" is max. The belling only matters on the base of the bullets you are using. Flat base, bell. Boattail, no bell.

[brando]

Yup, 2.005" is spec and while you can dial the trim length out a bit to better fit the chamber on a rifle, you don't want to do that with autoloaders. In fact, it's a general rule of thumb to always size and trim to spec for autoloaders. With boltguns you can neck size and trim closer to chamber length. Just so you know, trimming to chamber length can be a bit dangerous as too much length will often result in pressure spikes as the brass has nowhere to expand but inward on the bullet.

[eric90503]

Thanks

Thanks guys,

I will be loading these:

http://www.midwayusa.com/viewproduct/?productnumber=146583

&

http://www.wideners.com/itemdetail.cfm?item_id=8441&dir=278|281|727

This will be my first time loading .308 as if you couldn't tell from my questions... I'll give a range and hunt report after I get them dialed in.

Thanks again

[joelogic]

Boattail no bell.

[eric90503]

A smooth chamfer on the mouth will be fine if you don't rush through things. Bellmouthing is fine for straight wall pistol but all it does is work-harden the mouth and neck. You will get split necks sooner and no advantage to the bell mouthing.

Some folks trim to a simple 2.000 without trouble but you can stick to the published lengths. The problem I see the most is shoulder 'pull back' when the neck sizer button pulls back out. You gotta really watch the lube and the amount of pull back. If you trim too close to the max brass OAL, when you resize you'll go over and will need to trim again.

Thanks Brass, that makes perfect sense. I just picked up some Nosler 165g spitzer Accubonds, BCL-2, and Federal primers. Going to be loading them up in some once fired Federal match brass that Danny @ Custom Brass Processing is taking care of.

I'll be sure to watch the pull back!

Thanks again for your help.

Eric