I have found that annealing the neck and shoulder before resizing helps tremendously

That's pretty cool. I almost never see people backing the brass out to show us the brass as it is taking shape.

It's 2022 and brass prices are out of sight if you can find some, 357 brass is unobtanium. Because I'm an old National Match shooter I have, must be 10k 308 cases in my basement. I bought a Savage 12FV in 6.5 Creedmoor to see what all the fuss was about well, it's become my favorite for paper punching at local meets. Brass is a real problem now and using your method really looks feasible for converted brass. Might make a buck or two at it also. Thanks. Update: It's 2 months later and I have converted 700 rounds from 308 to 6.5 Creedmoor. What I do is I use Hornady Case Wax, put a little on my fingers and lube the cases including the necks in and out and shoulders, sparingly. I run it into the die slowly untrimmed and it comes out perfect, haven't crushed a case yet. I then trim with a Frankford Arsenal Power Case Trimmer to 1.910" and finish the mouth of the neck. I anneal the neck and shoulder, blueprint the flash hole and resize again as normal with my homemade case lube. Loaded with PPU 120gr OTM bullets and a mid range charge of Win 748 they are shooting my best groups at .048" for a 5 shot group at 100yds. They tend to lengthen around .002-.003" after the first firing, haven't had any stretch any more than that through 3 firings, I only bump the shoulder .002" when resizing. Thanks for the idea, it's saving me a bundle.

Always check your neck wall thickness on every case. When sizing down from larger a larger caliber the neck will git thicker. Every brand and even lot of brass will be different and some may be fine but chances are it will need trimming. The expanding and decapping button will not work to properly thin the neck. How the expander works is first the case is pushed past the expander probably not even touching it than the case goes further into the die and when it hits the end of the stroke it has been fully sized on the outside of the case encluding the outside of the neck. Now the outside of the neck has been reduced smaller than the chamber so that it fits and depending on neck wall thickness the inside diameter will vary. This is where the expander comes into play as the case is removed from the die the expander is now drawn through the tight neck expanding it to have a proper friction fit on the bullet. If the neck is to thick than it will now either not fit in the chamber as in the case of Chase Good below or there will not be enough clearance between the neck and chamber but it fits. If it fits but does not have enough clearance when fired the chamber pressure will drastically increase causing excess wear or a potential for catastrophic failure which could lead to injury or death.

Paul Bike makes a set of form dies that is nothing short of amazing with the 30* shoulder angle. There are various sizes of dia bushings that are used to neck down in steps. I purchased a headspace gauge, and set headspace on a large dia bushing and br4713's advice on the 30 br body sizer is a great first step. Some are freeks on proper case head markings and concerned about mixing up cases. To mark your cases that are formed down, dip the case in some INSTA BLUE of some brand, and a small part of the brass will turn BLACK for instant identification. Two concerns on forming down brass from a larger piece of brass: A. formation of doughnuts at the shoulder-neck junction. To check for doughnuts, after firing the brass, insert a bullet into the case mouth past the shoulder-neck junction. B. There will be issues of neck thickness. I highly recommend anyone serious about forming cases to purchase a TUBE micrometer, and they are not expensive. C. Neck thickness when formed down may require neck turning, and I refrain from internal neck reaming having done many thousands this way. D. I learned to anneal the brass with a propane torch and pan of water, still using this method today. Back in the late '60s, we bought 55-gallon drums of once-fired military 30/06 brass for cheap money, and we made many different cartridges out of the brass with RCBS form dies. I worked for a commercial reloader as a teenager, and at that time, a box of 20 rounds of 30/06 reloaded with Sierra bullets sold locally for $3

Tried it and your process works. Don't like all the trimming but it does produce Creedmoor brass. Thanks. J.

Thanks... you saved me a lot of work

Nice work brother... Like justin mentioned... Nice to folks backing the brass out TO SHOW OTHERS WHAT TAKES PLACE. The SEAL adage fits alot of niche's. Slow is smooth... SMOOTH IS FAST! Thank you for sharing your info with us.

I've also done this kind of conversion for one reason : getting more neck wall thickness after neck turning. I've used these dies .30BR body die (to lower easily the shoulder), .30 TC, and a 7-08 (to reduce the neck diameter) without expanders. It was long but the Lapua .308 Palma brass is cheaper than the 6.5 creedmor, and the clearance of the round into the chamber neck is minimal (.003')

Awesome video and well explained thank you very much. Same kinda deal, had a military buddy give me a ton of 308 brass and I'm starting in the 6.5 creedmoor world and this will be great to try out

Thanks very much for posting this info, we also have crazy pricing for 6.5 creedmoor brass. I just dont see the reasoning for the massive price difference between the 243, 308 and 6.5 creedmoor as its virtually the same case. I can only assume that its the popularity of use in the other calibre's that they use as an excuse for pricing. I daren't even look at the price of 6.5 Lapua brass because of this stupid pricing difference. I will be converting 243 or 308 brass from now on and they can stick their crazy pricing where the sun dont shine.

Thank you for showing the process.

the expander ball does not set neck thickness, it just expands the inside diameter of the neck to final diameter.

Thanks for sharing this info, just tried it and it works perfect!

Great info.

That is so neat, I have a 257 weatherby and can't find brass in my area so I'm going to give this a go but starting with 7mm brass.

Awesome video

7mm - 08 also works .

I'm a big fan of rifle cartridges using the 6.5mm bullet. However, I have never jumped on the the 6.5 Creedmore bandwagon and just stayed with the 260 Remington. Anything the Creedmore can do the Remington can do as well or even slightly better (especially when shooting at targets over 900 yard). The biggest advantaged of the 260 Remington over the 6.5 Creedmore is that it is way easier to form 260 Remington cases from a 308 Winchester than it is to from a 6.5 Creedmore case from a 308 Winchester.

I just resized a batch of mil match grade brass. Empty case chambers fine but after loading the round won’t chamber so the bolt can’t be closed. I just miked it out and apparently the neck is to thick. I know them can be turned or sanded down but I don’t know the exact procedure. For the hours I have invested in 100 rounds of brass and still have to pull bullets turn cases and reload I think buying a 100 rounds is the safest and easiest.

Annealing before doing this resizing Is that way to go. That much stretching is doing a lot of hardening

been doin what you showed for 200 rounds I cannot get my necks thin enough without having to trim neck diameter ...and just ordered a .262" reamer to remove the material before firing ... unlike the reamers LE Wilson makes that do us NO good reaming after firing... Obviously NOT for us guys forming brass from 308 ...

Thanks

Very interesting, have you thought about annealing the 308 brass before running it thru the 6.5 die, not long, 5 sec, 10 sec, 15 sec and see if there is an improvement in ease of resizing.

That is so useful. I am going to give this a try.

.243 trim down to 1.20 and .308 trim down to 1.930 correct?

Try a 7mm-08. Very good to convert to 6.5

Great Video! I know some people try to trim 308 into 6.5 Gren, but 308 brass has a diameter of .473 & Grendel brass has a diameter of .440, so that will not work.

Thanks for the info, sir.

Freaking awesome

Warning do not use 308 brass once you neck it down to 6.5 and press bullet in the neck wall is a thousant over. The bullet will be sqeesed so tight in the brass if you manage to close the breach the bullet will cause exstream presure that you could be in exstream danger of barrel damage or yourself but you could use 243 the brass walls are the same thickness after pressing bullet in the brass but the 308 wont be !!!!! do a sample brass with bullet in the 308 brass measure it at neck then do a 243 the same way you will get the same measure you get with 6.5 creedmoor brass.

I have been experimenting with this. I tried 243 brass with no success. I was crushing cases. 7mm/08 brass was perfect but I only have a dozen or so. So I sorted a couple hundred pieces of 308 Perfecta brass. In my Hornady dies I do one slow double pass and trim. It fits perfectly in a Hornady case gauge. So I started loading ladder with some Spear 140 HC flat base bullets. The bullets kinda pop into the case at the start. Maybe i have too much neck tension? I'll have to check measurements. And see if the neck swelled during loading and is out of spec.

Hey I've done this but have issues with the neck walls being too thick and not wanting to chamber nicely.

If you are using 7.62x51 Nato Brass you can take it down in ONE Pass of the Press. It's actually better on the Brass this way your Neck does not get overworked. Keep in mind the NATO brass has Less capacity, and you can not use regular Creedmoor Loads as your Case will be Smaller. Check out my 6.5 NATO video as I use a alternative method. Also you should spin or turn the case every time you Press the case to keep everything straight.

Try WD40 dry lube for sizing your brass.

why would you trim first and than size? doesn't sizing stretch the neck requiring trimming again. Ultimately isnt 6.5CM same case as 308 renecked for 264 bullet?

fist time i did it , 3 years ago , your video helped me out. i resized 300 shell.. now i 'm trying agan ( i had for free another 300 rounds..) but i'm keepi g crishing the shelk at the base of the neck.. I trimmed first the shell at 1.910 rhan i lube only under the neck.. use firs rcbs die. with no pin than i will like to do the second shot with hornady full die... but..didn't get the chance.. they keep crushing on first step even i go VEEERY GENTLY.. 308 WIN BRASS.. ANY ADJUSTMENTS TO DO? THAT I FORGOT? PLEASE

That what she said.

Thanks for the great information Data recorded in my big Hornady book on both pages 308 and creedmore. ( in pencil😜) Now what about head stamp change?

Is the same with my lapua .308 brass once i traded in my .308. I wasn’t letting that brass life go

Anyone thinking of using this method be careful. If the case neck is too thick it WILL result in over pressure and can be extremely dangerous! If done right it can be a great way to save some money shooting but again it is EXTREMELY dangerous if you do it half assed. Happy shooting everyone

Y did you cut it before u sized it? Also I was told make sure I lube the neck and shoulder good! Pls help ! I’m about to make 7mm-08 out of 200 pieces of .308 brass

What about 7.62 brass to 6.5?

Warning for people changing 308 to 6.5 creedmoor, the neck in the chamber of these rifles are not like regular rifles these chambers are tight. If you are going to do this then get yourself a factory loaded round check the neck measurements, it should be 0.292" some of the 308 brass after loaded to 6.5 creedmoor will measure 0.299" that's 0.007" differents at this point it will.not chamber , danger i say again danger. Check your neck after it is loafed make sure it is at factory spec. If it isn't your neck will have to be turned down to factory spec. Again 6.5 creedmoor needs that clearance it just barely opens enough to release the bullet. If it doesn't have clearance it will cause deadly pressure ....

When you neck down the 308 to 6.5 creedmoor does it have the same volume capacityas the 6.5 creedmoor does.

Have you shot this brass in your 6.5 creedmoor? Any issues with it?

Curious was that only neck sizing or full sizing die?

Great vid!!!! Can I buy some .243 brass or some .308?

You putting you shell holder all the way against you die ,that tells me you are not using bump gauges to set your shoulders and dies If you will do a full length 308 resize first then you can set your 6.5 dies to factory spec on your shoulders using the bump gauges. I've had one die that I had to put in a lathe and take a few thousands off the bottom so the shell holder could push the case deeper so my bolt would close , then I've had a die that was just the other way , I tryed to guess and not use a bump gauge and the die would set the shoulders so far back that when I put it in, it went so deep that the gun extractor couldn't lock on . No problem to get out , turn the gun and it would fall out ... the answer is use that bump gauge ,just better ammo.

What Ben said!

Have you tried anealing the case first?

I tried this from start to finish, I've watched your video over and over. I successfully worked the .243 however when I did the .308, it would not chamber. Not sure what to do. Everything seems the same as creed brass but won't chamber correctly, can some body please advise on how to correct this? Thanks!

Hi, all I need is a way to trim my 308 brass down and the rest is done with my 6.5 die right? sorry if this question is dumb but I am very new to reloading (3 weeks) thanks.

I have tried this before I ran the LC 308 brass threw my RCBS small base 6.5 CM die and they look great but I can’t close the bolt down on the brass in my 6.5 tikka or my 6.5 AR rifle. Something isn’t resizing right ?