7-08 small base die

[badnova]

Does anyone make a small base die for the Remington 7-08?
Resized military brass reloads don't want to chamber easily like maybe they were fired in a machine gun with a loose chamber.
I thought about using a small base .308 die for the body of the case

 

[rcmodel]

Smoke a sized case with a candle flame and try it in the rifle.

You might be surprised where it is getting tight!

Dollars to donuts it's the shoulder, not the base.

PS: Have you trimmed them after re-forming them?

rcmodel

 

[snuffy]

Smoke a sized case with a candle flame and try it in the rifle.

You might be surprised where it is getting tight!

Dollars to donuts it's the shoulder, not the base.

PS: Have you trimmed them after re-forming them?

rcmodel

+1. I'd bet the shoulder is NOT being pushed back far enough.

RC, the .308 brass should end up about .020 short of what the 7-08 should be.

 

[badnova]

I check length on every case in every caliber I reload. I've used military in my 7X308 XP100 and nerver had a problem.
I appreciate your suggestion and will try it

 

[badnova]

Interesting because with the 7-08 FL size die set tight you would think it would set the shoulder correctly?

 

[rcmodel]

Well, there is tight, and there is tight.

Many folks set a rifle sizing die to just kiss the shell holder, and then press frame flex & linkage slack opens that up when FL sizing a case.

Set the die down against the shell holder, then keep going until you can feel the press linkage toggle over into top-dead-center with definite "bump" at full stroke.

That pre-loads the press linkage and frame, so the case actually gets full-length sized.

rcmodel

 

[MMCSRET]

You can use a 308 or even a 30-06 SB die, just remove the decapping rod and then full length size as usual in your 7-08 die to get the neck tension you need. should only have to do it once.

 

[GooseGestapo]

RCModel is probably closest to the solution.

I found out really quick something to consider when loading for the 7mm08.

My Remington M7 in 7-08 was very "tight" seating the first ammo I reloaded for it back in '04.

I recieved 3 boxes of PMC factory ammo with the rifle. After firing the ammo in the rifle and getting "high-pressure" indications with the factory ammo (cratered primers), I figured it was just a "hot batch" of factory ammo. (It chrono'ed over 2,900fps from 20" bbl w/139gr Hornady bullet!).

After reloading the ammo with 140gr Sierra and Remington 140gr bullets, I found that most of the ammo wouldn't even chamber !!! I had trimmed the brass to min. spec. and polished/tumbled, ect., but hadn't measured the neck diameter loaded.

Some reformed .308wcf brass that I had trimmed chambered w/o a problem.

I eventually found that the neck's were over thick on the PMC brass, and my rifle has a rather "tight" chamber. Neck turning the brass has produced the most accurate brass I have now for this rifle.

So, check the brass and see where it's tight............ Mil-spec .308 (7.62Nato) runs somewhat thicker than commercial brass and if it's over-length (did you trim the cases before loading, you should have !!), or over thick in the neck, will cause hard or impossible chambering.

FWIW; most 7mm08's have at, or near, match tolerance chambers, so, you may have a "tight" chamber like I do.

 

[MMCSRET]

Mine is a custom rifle built on a 1909 Oberndorf intermediate length mauser and has a very close spec chamber very highly and finely polished and is very sensitive to any generous spec. I find that I have better results even with virgin brass if I SB size first and then follow good and proven loading practices, all of which were mentioned earlier.