Necking .30-06 down to .280 Rem

[ILoveBigRacks]

I've never necked down brass for reloading. Couple of questions...

When you neck down 30-06 to 280 Rem, does the neck extend and always require trimming or is it negligible? Seems to me that if you neck it down the neck would elongate a bit, yes?

Anything else to keep in mind? Is it as simple as running .30-06 brass through a set of FL 280 Rem dies? Any disadvantages to this? Loss of accuracy or weakening of the case?

 

[H4831]

I have never necked 30-06 to 280, but I have necked it down to 270. One pass takes it to 270, so should be easy to 280.
Regarding length, the 270 has a longer neck, so the resized case is actually about .1" shorter, so you just shoot it and let it grow.
Just run a 30-06 through the 280 die and measure the length, compared to what a 280 should be, and go from there.

 

[Why not?]

Be sure to set your resizing die so the bolt will just barely close on the resized case. That will give you perfect headspace and longer case life.

Ted

 

[brnolvr]

Base to shoulder is longer on the 280, the new resized brass will have to be fireformed to fill the shoulders out, 30-06 brass will be approx .1 short after fireforming.

Other than that it will work, but .280 brass is easy to get, I use rem and federal brass in mine, plus the headstamp is correct. Important to me because I own both a 30-06 and a .270 win.

 

[Ltbull01]

280 brass is easy to come by. Other than that, never formed 280 brass 'cause it is easy to come by!

 

[Boomer]

I've used .270 brass for .30/06 loads and vice-versa, when the correct brass has been in short supply. No issues come up and I tend to keep my necks slightly under book length in my hunting cartridges anyway. If your .280 from '06 brass runs a tad short it wont matter.

Just for laughs I just tried it. I ran a once fired Federal .30/06 case into a 7X57 sizer. The OAL of the '06 is 2.489" and the length of the new 7/06 is 2.499 which is still short of the .280's book length of 2.540". The neck length is .405". If I ever get a .280 it looks like I can use my 7X57 full length sizer.

 

[ILoveBigRacks]

Will give it a go. Picked up some Redding dies yesterday and have a bunch of 1x .30-06 brass kicking around. No .280 Rem brass yet but it's on the shopping list so I can compare results between the new brass and the resized '06 brass.

 

[mbogo3]

Been sizing 30-06 range brass into .270 for 20+ years...............Harold

 

[eric2381]

Resizing 30-06 to 280 is different than sizing 30-06 to 270. The shoulder is farther ahead on the 280, and it will require fireforming with care.