Mixed brass

[JackSprat]

When I got my 7 mm-08. I ordered some Winchester brand 308 brass that Midway had on sale..I developed my load with this brass,and am well satisified..I recentally had a friend give me a good bit of actual 7 mm-08 brass,mostly hornady,but some Federal,and Winchester..My question is two fold...Should I trim all the 7 mm-08 brass a little short to match the 308 brass since it's a hair short,and secondly will the mixed brass affect accuracy enough to matter in a hunting situation?.

 

[Grumulkin]

So, I take it you resized your 308 brass to 7mm/08.

1. You don't need to trim the brass unless it's over the maximum length for 7mm/08.

2. Whether accuracy will be affected enough to matter in a hunting situation depends on the situation. For ground squirrels at 100 yards, probably. For coyote at 200 yards there's a good chance. For deer at 100 yards, probably not.

 

[JackSprat]

An inch,or so at 100 yards won't bother me,but I don't want to give up much more than that,I also don't want to shoot up all my components re-zeroing for different head stamps.I would be better off to just order more 308 brass..I was just thinking about how nice it would be to load it all up at once some day when I'm bored,and be done with it..

 

[kingmt]

I doubt you open up another inch. Depends on the groups your getting now if you'll see a difference. Powder types & bullets usually mask big changes. Brass & primers make little difference. Most people I run into at the range are happy with pie pan sized groups & talk about how grate their gun shoots. Those wouldn't notice a difference at all. Others aren't happy if their group is. 75" @100 yards. Those may see a difference.

 

[theleo]

I'd save the 308 brass for hunting as it's the larger more consistent lot. I'd load target practice loads or varmint loads in the 7mm-08 brass because it varies more. The reason for separating the brass that way is so with a quick look at the head stamp you'll know if it's practice rounds or hunting rounds. I do this for a 338-06 and 280ai.

 

[Swampman]

Shoot a five round group with each load and see if there's any noticeable difference in group size or point of impact.

Your rifle will give you a much better and more valid answer than any number of people speculating on the internet.

 

[Leatherstocking]

Good advice Swampy!

 

[jmr40]

I have brass from Winchester, Remington, Federal, Hornady, and Nosler for my 308, probably close to 1000 pieces. I keep it separate when loading. For instance I may load up 50-100 rounds of 150 gr SST's in Remington brass, and use the Winchester brass for Berger 155's and the Hornady brass for 165 gr Nosler Accubonds. With all but the Federal brass I've found that I can use the same loads with very similar results. Nothing wrong with Federal, it is just different and I usually use that brass for plinking loads. But I wouldn't sit down and load up 100 rounds using a mixture of different brands of brass.

If you only use one load you might want to separate the brass and load them all the same. But I'd use up one before moving on to the other loads. You may, or may not need to tweak your scopes zero when you move on to the other brass. I'm betting it won't be much different if at all. But you never know until you try.