Brass too short?

[RacerX]

I was prepping .308 cases... tumbled, sized, deprimed then hit them with my WFT. I should have double checked, but the trim length shifted and now I have ~50 cases that are trimmed too much.

The Lee book calls for the sized, trimmed cases to be 2.015”. My cases are running closer to 1.984”-1.995”. That’s roughly 7 sheets of paper too short.

I’d love to use these cases, but what impact will this have on accuracy out of a precision bolt rifle? Should I just set them to the side for my AR10 that eats about everything accurately?

Thanks!

 

[Get Off My Lawn]

Brass too short

That’s what she said.



I have a bit. Lemme know if you need some clean 308 brass.

 

[Jabroni]

I wouldnt worry about it. I trim to 2.00.

Iirc 2.015 is max trim length, 2.05 min.

 

[Catfish]

Saami says your shortest is 0.011" under minimum. Cartridge case length spec is 2.015-0.02, or between 1.995" and 2.015"
That's not a lot but it's out of spec, FWIW.

https://saami.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/ANSI-SAAMI-Z299.4-CFR-Approved-2015-12-14-Posting-Copy.pdf

page 110

 

[BowWow]

308 seats from the shoulder of the cartridge.......you have only trimmed the neck a little too much. You should be OK to use that brass in either rifle. An issue of that type of cartridge being too short would be not having enough of the neck present to "grip" the bullet. The .308 Winchester has a long enough neck that being .020 too short won't hurt anything.

For precision, keep them separate from the longer brass. Next time you trim a batch of brass, just measure what you have just before you trimming.... Set the trimmer to your shortest piece of brass and trim them all to that length..... that way they are all the same.

Norma made 7mmSAUM brass for a while that was made about .020 under spec IIRC, it didn't stop me or anyone else from using it!

 

[RacerX]

Thanks guys!

 

[Slacker]

Test it out and see for yourself.
I don't see it being a safety issue.
I have found factory new brass (once fired) under the published length.

 

[Jmoser]

Federal factory .223 ammo gives me cases .030” or so shorter than ‘standard’ (at least used to be that way. )
For a bench rest match skip it but for normal use it should be fine.

 

[Schattenreiter]

That’s what she said.



I have a bit. Lemme know if you need some clean 308 brass.

That ain't what she told me.