New Remington 700 LTR 308 Win.

C

Cherrywood

Guest
Hello Group:
I have this Remington 700, new out of the box and its never been fired. I have just about all the tools and gismos needed to make accurate ammo for my 6ppc benchrest rifle and just purchased all the dies and other necessities to get started with 308. I realize that the Rem. 700 is not a benchrest rifle and would like to ask all of you to what lengths must I go in order to come up with the best cartridge that this rifle is capable of shooting. I am relatively new to benchrest with little experience, so I would really appreciate all the help you are willing to give. Here goes:
CASE PREP...JUST HOW FAR DO I NEED TO GO?
I have new Lapua Palma Brass.
Sorting them by weight should not be of a concern I believe... the're LAPUA. Correct me if I'm wrong.

I have primer pocket uniformer and flash hole tool.

Should I even bother to neck turn or should I neck turn just enough to remove the high spots to make them fairly consistent?
I do have vernier calipers, ball type micrometer to measure wall thickness an regular micrometer.

At what point should I trim? Have Wilson trimmer and case holder.

HEAD-SPACE . Please advise, I'm weak on this subject.

FULL SIZING VS. NECK SIZING.
I have the Redding 3 piece set consisting of the Full Size Die.... Type S Neck Bushing die and the Comp bullet seater with micrometer. I do know that initially I shouldn't have to full size until after several firings...right? Please tell me how I should go about approaching this step with a new gun and new brass.

I will be using Sinclair's Primer Tool for primer seating.

BULLET SEATING DEPTH. I'll start with 5 rounds to full JAMB and then working it down .005" at at time to JUMP and see how they group. That much I think I'm ok on.

POWDER. After determining what bullet seating depth the rifle groups best, I'll then begin to work on powder charges. Again, I think that I'm ok there as well.

I'll be using a Sierra 168 gr match king boat tail, Varget Powder and Federal Match small primers for the Palma brass.

Some steps I'm ok with but others I need some direction with. I'm open for all comments thank you.

Gunney
 
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New Lapua brass = Load it and shoot it.....................................................

Neck size with Lee Collet die.

Seat with Comp bullet seater with micrometer.

Prime with what you have.

Sierra, Varget and Federal primers don't get any better with a .308.

With the 168 start with 42 grains of Varget. This is a light load (about 2400 fps), but accurate in several of my .308's

With a 24 inch Hart I am getting 2800+ fps with the 165 Game King, which is hell on cow elk.

HOWEVER before spending time and money use a bore scope to be certain the rifling is complete all the way to the chamber. I've seen a half dozen that needed to be returned to Remington!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Do this before bedding or adjusting the trigger etc.
 
Thanks John......you're saying to Neck Size with a Lee Collet die. Is there any reason you said to use this particular die in lieu of my Redding Type S Neck Die?

Gunney
 
If I may, sometimes bushing neck dies do not do all that well on brass that has expanded as far as factory chambers allow. The collet dies do a good job of producing uniformly straight cases in these situations. You can take a look at what sort of runout you are getting with the Redding neck die, and see if you want to try something else.

As far as FL or body sizing goes, I would neck size and fire (warm load, work up to it) one case until the measured shoulder to head dimension is at its maximum, and save that case as a reference for that rifle, for setting your FL or body die. I like to FL or use the collet and body dies every time (When doing this, I have found that using the collet die first gives the best result.), but one thing that you may run into is a lack of uniformity in the bump that you get with a given die setting. If that turns out to be the case, and you are not touching your standard shell holder at the top of the stroke, the appropriate Redding Competition holder should give you some toggle, and help with the uniformity. For magnum cases, we ended up using an annealing machine (carefully, so as not to over soften necks) to uniform the hardness of shoulders.
 
Gunney
One question, how far are you going to shoot that 168 international bullet? they should not be used to attempt to shoot to 1K and most ranges will pull you off after they hit sideways.
My opinion! turn those necks for uniforminity, if the case head is in contact with the bolt, and the Bullet is jam then who cares what the rest is doing.

Clarence
 
It has been my experience that the Lee Collet die will give better results (more concentric) on none neck turned brass then using a bushing die.
 
i would use the the primer pocket uniformer after i shot it to clean pockest. do not do any thing to the flash hole.
 
If you have all the tools, prep the ammo like you would for a BR rifle. Just Nk turn for 100% clean up, primer pocket work, case mouth etc. If you cant reach the lands, and you probably wont be able to, load the 175SMK's to 2.920" and single feed or 2.800" for the internal mag box. In all the factory 700's I've tinkered with, the CCIBR2's and H4895 is what shoot best with the above mentioned brass.
 
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