Brass question

[BudT]

Is .358 Winchester brass as strong as .308 Winchester brass? Heres the reason for asking. I have a .338 Federal and have tried forming brass for it by opening up .308 Win. brass and it works for the first loading, after resizing the necks are to thin and will not grip the bullet well. I can run the brass into a .308 die size them down and then run them again into the .338 Fed. die and they will hold well enough to use but it works the snot out of the necks and will have shorter life because of this. I had some older .358 Win. brass and for the heck of it I ran them through the .338 die and they reformed very nice, I can feel the expander ball drag a bit coming out. Seems good to me, my question is "is the .358 win brass as strong as the .308 brass"? the .338 runs in the 60-62 thousand psi mark. Anyone got any ideas? and yes I do have .338 Federal brass on order but it looks like it's going to be a while before we see this stuff show up on the shelf. TIA

Regards

BudT

[RED]

Using .30-06 brass instead of .308 might solve your problem... but the .358 brass should work although you may have to turn the neck after resizing. Lots of trimming on the '06 brass but the advantage is you shouldn't need a neck turning tool ($53 and out of stock at Midway). Hope this helps.:)

[madsenshooter]

Your 358 brass is just as strong as .308 and will work fine for making the 338 Federal.

[Sunray]

"...Using .30-06 brass...Lots of trimming..." More than just trimming. Moving the shoulder back half an inch for starters. Wrong brass for .338 Federal.
"...works the snot out of the necks..." Anneal 'em. What brand of brass are you working with?

[BudT]

Moving the shoulder back is not a problem when you use a file trim die cut the excess off with a hack saw file then trim a little. Run into the .338 Federal FL size die and you have a pretty good .338 Federal case that has enough neck tension to work right. .358 Winchester is also working well and with less work to make. But .358 Win. brass is a "seasonal" brass and is not much more avalable than the .338 Fed. is. All cases are Winchester brass except a few test cases I made up, some were old Imperial (Kanuck) and some were USGI WWII and Korean war vintage and all reformed very nice. If I do anneal it will be after the cases are reformed and finished. Sunray, please explain to me why the 30-06 case is not a good cse to use for the re-form into .338 Federal. Thanks to all.
Regards
BudT

[RED]

I have made hundreds of rounds of 8X57, 7.7 Jap, and 7.65 Argentine Mauser using '06 brass. I have an old Pacific trimmer that I set up to support the '06 brass while I cut about .33" off the neck with a fine toothed hacksaw. Then I chamfer and run the shortened brass through the size die with the expander removed. Then replace the expander then resize again. A final trim and chamfer and you are good to go.

It sounds like a lot more work than it really is. After you once fire the round the, I've found that neck sizing the brass it is good for several (6+) more loads. The '06 brass has the exact same base and rim diameters as the .338 Federal. Just my .02

[milboltnut]

John Donnelly says use 308 winchester..... in his cartridge conversion book. Anneal the neck, first and see how that works.

[BudT]

So far what I have decided to do until factory brass comes out is to use the .308 Win., .358 Win. if I can find some or make it out of 30-06. At this time I am using .308 win. but it presents a problem. Nothing that cant be over come but another step in the process. As far as how well it works, it works just fine.

Thanks

BudT

[Sunray]

"...make it out of 30-06..." .30-06 brass is a half inch longer than .308 brass.
Necking up will give you fewer steps than necking down more expensive brass. Midway lists Winchester .358 brass at $29.99 per 50. Winchester .308 runs $19.99 per 50.
Likely a whole lot easier to buy a box or two of Federal ammo though. Midway says they'll have Federal American Eagle brand .338 Federal 6 April, 2010. $17.99 per 20. Federal Fusion runs $26.99 per 20 now.

[Timberwolf]

Another area to watch out for is the extractor groove.

.308 is larger than 30/06.