30-06 Case Length... too short???

Saami case length 2.494, tri. Length 2.484 I would think that if there is at least 1 bullet diameter of case neck left for bullet tension you should be OK. The downside might be a carbon ring forming in ghe throat so a good cleaning would be nessasary. The process of shooting reloading, specifically, the expander ball in the sizer die makes the cases stretch during the reloading process. There are other factors but over time the cases will lengthen out.

Mind carbon ring in the chamber neck, otherwise, you’re largely fine.

In any other era when brass is readily available, I’d recycle them and buy more - then trim exactly to fall just short of my chamber neck step.

You will be fine, unless you are one that loads to the lands to squeeze out the last bit of accuracy. If you are not comfortable than you can use the brass for other calibers that use this type of brass as the parent case.

Oops, dropped a digit there. Sorry about that. I have shot cartridges trimmed down to 2.467 and they shot ok, but by trimming more than that isn't going to give you much neck tension. I talked with reloaders much better than myself and they suggest scrap the brass and start over OR use them knowing you might have trouble feeding them and crimp the bullets. At .60 cents a shot or more these days, I would personally
scrap them.

Thought 3006 was 2.494 max length, or are you referring to a different cartridge.

Thomasss said:

regularly trim to 2.83 which is the same size Hornady uses for their comperator tool. You must

Click to expand...

My father had and hunted with a model 95 Winchester chambered in 30 US model 1903 (30-03) for years. He used 30-06 in it as 30-03 was unobtainable. The 30-03 neck was shortened by .070" and loaded with a 150gr bullet to come up with the 30-06 but the shoulder that it headspaced on remained the same. This is eccentrically the same situation you are in with the shortened case necks. While not ideal as said above depending on what you brass situation is in these times of shortages I would not hesitate to use it if needed. It is said that you will loose accuracy with a shorter neck but a lot of deer and elk where unable to tell the difference.

I use 3006 brass to form 270 win. Ends up about .050 short. It works fine. Never have to trim.