Neck up or neck down for .260 Rem?

[BarrelNuts]

Finding .260 brass in my area is apparently impossible - looked at four small shops as well as some of the big box stores to no avail. What is available in plenty is both .243 and .308 brass... wondering if the best plan is to buy .308 and neck down or to buy .243 and neck up? I have both FL and neck sizing dies if that helps with solving the problem...

[p-c-j]

.243 being closer to .264 than the .308 I would neck up but that's just me.

[LongRange]

Neck up unless you have neck turning tools.

[jonbearman]

Try some of the vendors like powdervalley, grafs, recobs, midway. If you can afford it get the lapua.

[BarrelNuts]

LongRange... not sure what that refers to so obviously I don't have it. My thoughts were that if you take a big diameter and compress it down you would have more material and thus (theoretically) the possibility of longer case life vs. the smaller .243 case neck getting stretched out. Of course reality is often far different from theory... will have to defer to your knowledge in this "case"... pun intended

[BarrelNuts]

jon... thanks; ordered a few parts etc. that I couldn't find locally from Midway and they are backordered right now on .260 brass; will check the other spots out. Good news is Midway did have the 129 gr. Accubond LR's in that I want to start out with... most of my longer distance shooting will be done on firebreaks without a lot of wind so I think the lighter bullet will be OK for me on the drift side of things but give me a little more velocity. Thanks for the tip!

[BarrelNuts]

Yup... checked them all and seems like either everyone is shooting .260 that reloads or nobody is making enough of them. Went ahead and ordered a 50 count of Hornady .243 brass to get started with; hopefully while working through them someone will get some of the good stuff in .260 in stock

[alphapygmy]

Bullets.com has both Nosler and Norma 260 in stock.

[fla9-40]

LongRange... not sure what that refers to so obviously I don't have it. My thoughts were that if you take a big diameter and compress it down you would have more material and thus (theoretically) the possibility of longer case life vs. the smaller .243 case neck getting stretched out. Of course reality is often far different from theory... will have to defer to your knowledge in this "case"... pun intended

.243 is the way to go....If you neck down the .308 your brass will be thicker at the neck and you will have problems unless you neck trim the brass...

They make inside and outside neck trimmers

Outside is like this one....

http://www.midwayusa.com/find?userSearchQuery=+90401

[LongRange]

LongRange... not sure what that refers to so obviously I don't have it. My thoughts were that if you take a big diameter and compress it down you would have more material and thus (theoretically) the possibility of longer case life vs. the smaller .243 case neck getting stretched out. Of course reality is often far different from theory... will have to defer to your knowledge in this "case"... pun intended

you are right about necking 308 brass down and having thicker necks but as far as case life goes i doubt it will help and may even shorten the case life as you will be neck sizing MORE to get a good neck tension as the thicker brass will have much more spring back....another problem is that the necks will most likely be so thick that they can/will cause pressure problems....you need .xxx amount of case neck clearance inside you chamber so that when you fire a round the neck can expand and release the bullet...guys that shoot tight neck chambers turn necks to get about .002 to .003 clearance...another problem necking down is doughnuts...when you neck brass down it pushes some brass down into the shoulder/neck junction and when you fire form that brass wants to move forward and will cause a doughnut at the shoulder/neck junction inside the case.so unless you plan to outside neck turn your necked down brass id suggest you neck up 243 brass or better yet as everyone else said just buy 260 brass and the best bang for your buck is lapua...the hornady you ordered is cheaper but isnt going to last long...bruno shooter supply has 260 lapua in stock and sells it by the piece for 89 cents each...buy a 100pcs and those 100pcs will last longer than your barrel will.

[BarrelNuts]

Thanks for the info on Bruno... everyone else I had looked at and all the local spots were out of stock. Looks like I will be sending the .243 brass back. Or, maybe holding on to it... gives me a perfectly legitimate reason to do another build right? "I had this bag of brass but no rifle for it..."

[eddiesindian]

Bruno,s is worth while. I buy the majority of my components from them. I have family that lives there so its easier for me to get what I need.