.308 to .243?

JuanTFatass

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Stillwater, OK
I have a good supply of .308 brass for the foreseeable future, but recently picked up a .243. .243 seems as scarce as hen's balls. I used to reload a little, but never went from one case to another.

How difficult is it to make .243 out of .308 brass - is it worth the effort? What do I need to do this?
 
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I used to make 06 brass into .44 automag pistol brass. The process of changing calibers using a parent case is not that difficult, but is a PITA.

Going to the .243 is going to leave you with headstamps of a .308. If you don't own a .308 the confusion factor won't be an issue, but if you do, proceed with caution when storing rounds.

Some say to lube the heck out of the outside and inside the neck and use a standard .243 sizing die. Be aware the neck getting squeezed might cause excess thickness, and neck turning might be in order. Reamers are available from Midway or Brownells.
I recommend Brownells as using our link on the home page doesn't save you any money, but gives BS a referral reward that helps us keep the site running.

The major die manufacturers sell resizing dies to do what you want, but I'd try a few cases using normal .243 dies, and measure them against a factory .243 brass. Do what you have to do to mimic the factory brass.

Annealing the brass might be something one needs to do as well. Try it first without annealing, and you will get an idea if its necessary.
 
I've never bought anything off ebay, gunbroker, or similar. Always leery of internet purchases from "individual sales" sites. Seems like a potential magnet for fraud.
 
A good portion of stuff on gunbroker are items listed by businesses. Some of them with thousands of transactions.

If you choose to limit yourself to what you can find locally it really limits your options.
 
I used to do it. A .308 die will resize the neck down to .243 size. The inside of the case neck will need to be trimmed out to the proper dimension. Specs of the cases should be in the reloading manual or found on the net. Not hard to do at all.
 
There are places you can order so unless you just WANT to make 243 brass then don't let me stop ya but a little searching will yield results of several places that have it. I did make all my 25-06 brass from 30-06 brass though cause at the time I could pick up ogles of it at the range :) Later,

Kirk
 
JuanTFatass said:
OK - would one use a neck reamer for this or something else? I'm not sure how this works.
Reamer was the word I should have said instead of trimmer.
Dustin Cantrell said:
I could use some .308 brass...
I have some for sale in the classifieds.
 
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