308 into 243

casterpollox

casterpollox

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I tried doing a search but I couldn't get it to work with the numbers...

so...

I'm having issues finding once fired brass for my .243. I would buy new stuff but I thought I would try asking this question first.

How hard is it to resize from .308 to .243? Also, can you use the 7.62 surplus brass and then resize into .243?

Thanks in advance.
 
resizing

With my ordinary press and dies, I sized 308 down to 243. The problem is it makes the necks thicker, and care must be used to see that they are not so thick that they would jamb in the throat, thus making the bullet too tight and raising the pressure.
For that reason, I would not resize military ammo down to 243, because the military brass is thicker to start with than most civilian brass.
The length must also be checked, and probably trimmed.
 
A few years ago I was given a couple of thousand 7.62 mil surplus brass and as I needed .243Win. brass I started to resize these to .243 using RCBS dies an A JR press. I found very quickly that I was breaking decapping pins because the 7.62 primers are crimped in place.Note that the .243 brass uses a smaller flash hole(and smaller decapping pin) than the 7.62 rounds.In order to solve this problem I purchased .308Win. dies and ran all the rounds through that resizing die first.Then all the brass had to have the primer pockets swaged to get rid of the crimp(see previous threads).Then the brass is resized in the .243 die.After this operation,the brass SHOULD be annealed(see previous threads).The brass then had to be length trimmed and the necks had to be checked for dia. and trimmed as necessary( not all the cases required it).Now you can start reloading BUTwith caution.As previously mentioned the flash holes are larger dia. so work up the max. loads with caution.I reloaded this same brass (neck sizing only) over 25 times each with no problem.
Is it worth the trouble?Not if your time is worth anything.If you look at it as a learning process of what can be done with brass,well it's your call. ENJOY.
 
I have been using 308 brass resized to 243 for longer than a coon's age. The only kicker I have found was the thicker neck wall after resizing the 308 to 243.
It is a good idea to outside neck turn the sized 308. No big deal on my end as I outside neck turn all my brass.

Cheers
 
"...the thicker neck wall..." It needs to be reamed inside and turned down outside anyway.
On the whole, making .243 out of any .308 brass isn't worth the effort. New .243 brass is inexpensive and plentiful.
 
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