Noob to shouldered rifle brass questions.

[Poindexter]

I am (in Alaska) running .338 Federal out of a DPMS AR-10 platform for moose in heavy underbrush/ grizzly bear country. If I can get this thing nailed down I am planning to add a lightweight bolt rifle like the Kimber for Mountain Sheep and maybe a big long pretty Sako for moose in wide open country (both in .338 Federal) so I can keep my reloading hardware collection small.

What I am finding is my brass is coming up short very quickly. Published spec is 2.015" max, trim to 2.005". I got my case trimmer set to 2.005".

With once fired "FC 338 Federal" head stamp once I get them tumbled and sized at 2.005" I am _just barely_ getting the case mouth squared up all the way around.

With processed and then necksized by me to .338 LC .308 brass, same story the first time I load them, 2.005 barely gets the mouth square. Starting with processed LC .308 brass (at 37 cents each) I can fire them once, tumble, resize, and they are coming up at 1.991" to 1.996".

I am crimping 1/8 of a turn on my 7/8x14tpi RCBS die. I had one guy tell me for shouldered rifle brass I should not crimp the bullet at all, but coming from 500 (straight wall) Smith and Wesson generating 40,000+ psi with no crimp at all just doesn't sound brilliant.

I am thinking about maybe using the LC brass a second time for range practice only. I scrapped a fair amount of brass learning to adjust my seating die height. The shoulder is in the right place, and I can probably "get away" with .330 neck for a .338 bullet for just at the range, but I would want to not take any of those into the field by accident.

I did find some "Hornady 308 Match" brass at a range pickup, quantity five. After sizing to .338 average neck wall thickness is 14.8 thousandths. "FC 338 Federal" average neck wall thickness is 13.8 thousandths. Neck sized "LC + XX" averages 13.5 thousandths neck wall thickness for me after sizing out to .338.

I am well inside the published ranges, I have used some BL-C(2) that I do like and some H335 I am trying to use up. Published range for the H335 behind 200Gr Hornady SP is 42.0 to 47.0 Gr powder, I ran a bunch at 45.0 Gr and a few at 46.0 as my max. Dillon D-terminator scale, calibrates flawlessly. The factory primers are working harder to hang on than mine are. CCI 200 primers mostly, I like Federal GMM's when I can get them. Bullet eccentricity has been running not measurable up to .003" max.

With factory loaded 185 Barnes TSX the rifle is a tack driver. I did break it in by the book, fire once, clean the bore, fire again, clean the bore for the first 25 rounds, then 3 groups of 3 with cleanings in between and so on. From a bench with a Harris bipod, no sandbag under the butt and 2.5x scope I am plinking empty shotgun shells at 100 yards.

Is my experience throwing away shouldered rifle brass after one or two uses unusual? Should I really not crimp this stuff at all? Thanks.

[Unclenick]

Welcome to the forum.

Seems like something's confusing the issue.

Normal tolerance for .308 brass is 1.995"-2.015". (Some more lazy folk will trim below spec just to avoid having to trim agian during the life of the case. One author reported trimming to 1.980" for that reason, so he got around 13 reloads and would toss the case before it got to needing another trim.)

Lots of factory new brass is near minimum. I'm not sure what your neck expanding might do to that? But the brass should grow 0.003" to 0.005" with every loading and shooting cycle thereafter. That's what's normal for .308" and most bottleneck rifle brass, though pressures affect it too. If you load at or below about 30,000 psi, you will find cases can actually shorten with firing, rather than grow.

Crimping is needed in a revolver to prevent bullets from backing out inertially. This is not a problem in rifles, though recoil bumping the bullet noses with the leading edge of the magazine may shorten them a little. The bullets can also pull out a little inertially when the bolt is closed fast.

You don't normally need to crimp for rifle. It is, however, often done when the cartridge will see rough handling, like in combat and some other outdoor conditions. It is also done for cast bullets if the rilfe won't be loaded singly. The lubricated lead slips in the neck more easily than a jacketed bullet, which has good friction.

[steve4102]

Crimping for an AR or other service type rifle is quite common. However, if you are having troubles keeping your "Trim to Length" consistant and you are crimping bullets without a cannelure, scrap the crimp feature on your seating die and crimp with a Lee Factory Crimp Die. The Lee Factory crimp die will crimp all types of bullets and case length is not critical.
Lee does not make dies for the 338 Fed, but they can custom make you one for $29.
http://www.leeprecision.com/cgi/cata....html#CUSTOMFC

http://www.leeprecision.com/cgi/cata...ies-crimp.html

[Poindexter]

This is my first experience with shouldered brass. I'll look into having Lee make up a crimper for me.

I did make up 8 rounds today with no crimp and they did fine at the range. I think for me for being out in whatever the weather is I would rather have at least a minimal crimp on there. Maybe I'll get over it when I get older and wiser.

Thanks for your input.