Recently bought my first 99 in the traditional .300 Savage and I’m having a hard time forming brass out of .308
Seems like my issues are on the case shoulder. When I chambered my dummy rounds I priced some marks right on the shoulder. That’s what I think but I’m still a novice reloader. Anyone have good tips for converting brass or should I try factory brass instead?

Reforming is no fun. .300 brass is not hard to find.

https://www.gunbroker.com/item/844852975

Yes, as Mike suggested, purchase 300 Savage brass.

Dang. Was hoping it would be the more economical choice because I find .308 brass all the time

I picked up 50 Winchester cases for $30.00 at a gunshow. I didn't think that was a bad price. 50 cases will last me a long time.

All of the .300 Savage brass I shoot was once .308. Here are some tips that work for me. Full length re size the .308 brass in a .308 die. I then run the .308 brass through a small base .308 die. (not necessary but allows super feeding reliability for hunting loads) Then run the case through a .300 Savage die and trim to length. I have found .308 brass re sized to .300 Savage much better than any factory .300 brass for reloading.

Darryl

Marks on the shoulder? Oil dents perhaps? If so, lighten up on the case lube and do it in stages- in part way, back out, wipe off and relube, repeat 2 or three times. Biggest hassle is cutting off the excessively long neck afterwards.

I'll give the .308 tip a shot! Thanks for the tip!

I made sure I was using an appropriate amount of case lube, no dimples so far. As for trimming I've been cutting the bulk of it off with a small cut off wheel and then sizing with a gauge and case trimmer.

Sounds like you got it under control!

I tried the .308 to 300 Savage route once, reforming around 50 cases a co-worker gave me (I don't have anything chambered in .308). I just resized them in my full length Redding 300 Savage die. Wasn't that tough to do since it was mostly the neck/Shoulder area that is resized to any degree. The PITA is the excessive brass that needs to be trimmed off of the neck. At the time all I had was a hand cranked Forester trimmer, but that even was slow and tedious. I love to reload, almost love it as much as shooting, but brass trimming I detest. Since I did the .308 to 300 Savage reforming, I bought a Little Crow trimmer for my most need to be trimmed rifle brass which has made brass trimming a lot faster and less boring operation. I haven't reformed any 308 brass since, but upon shooting the ones I did do, I haven't had any problems with them. Have reloaded them several times since.

Madtrapper's suggestion makes some sense if you have a .308 die set and don't mind a lot of extra steps, but I didn't have any problem with just reforming with a 300 Savage resizer die. There's a lot of used 308 brass available that is cheaper than new 300 Savage brass, but does take some time and patience to make shootable in a 300 Savage, but new 300 brass is out there. I usually wait for someone to have it on sale and buy 3-4 bags. In my area its rare to find in shops or gun shows used. One thing I've read a number of times from reloaders/shooters who do resize 308 brass is to be leery of military brass as it is thicker in dimensions (wall thickness) than commercial stuff making the brass harder to reform and less powder capacity.

I use my RCBS case trimmer for my brass. I just take the crank handle off and attach my cordless drill. Works fast and is easy on the hands. Of course you do need a trimmer and a drill.
Darryl

Do the same. My trimmer is a forster crank model. Currently turning 556 into 300 blackout. Can do all I care to in a hour. Really creates brass wool fast.

How good are the neck walls of the reformed brass? It seems like shoulder material from the 308 brass will wind up in the neck of the 300. No donuts at the base of the new 300 necks?

That aspect crossed my mind also when I reformed my batch of .308 brass. Figured in the reforming process that the brass in the .308 shoulder area has to go somewhere, also stretching the neck brass, which has to be trimmed off.. Could be all wet on this, but seems to be a cousin to what happens to brass in a chamber upon firing. Why brass has to be trimmed-it stretches. All those brass curls laying underneath the trimmer cutter used to be part of the case neck.

Buy the 300 Savage brass, unless you have nothing better to do. I like the proper caliber marking.

I'm with ya on that. On my reloaded ammo boxes, I list everything about the particular cartridge components I use and other info, except the time and temperature of the day. Not having any rifle chambered in .308 Winchester or military chambered 7.62mm NATO, a mix-up wouldn't have been a problem. Prefer to see the actual caliber on the brass to match the rifle. Lets just say I'm to lazy to reform 308 brass to 300 Savage, rather go through rocks in the river.

I loaded mine with 130 Barnes. They shoot very well. I’ve killed a couple of pigs, but no deer.

I'm going the "proper brass" route myself for my .300sav - but sometimes you have to resize & deal with the mis-marked cases.

For example, I just bought a bag of new .25-06 brass - for the 6.5-06 Swedish Mauser my father has!
After all, that is just taking the neck from .257 to .264, with the rest remaining the same.

All of the 1950s-era brass he has has been reloaded too many times, and the last time I fired it 1/3 of the cases had the neck split. So I'll probably take my engraver and add "6.5" to the base markings, just for safety's sake.

When I retired I said I was going to set up my reloading stuff and load up a few thousand rounds. Still haven't got started. In the mean time I'd buy a box of Remington 300's as needed. Over the years I've stockpiled enough brass to last me the duration. First, I'm dyslexic, so I really have to pay attention to details, and I'm a little lackadaisical, so I REALLY have to pay attention to what I do. I like to have proper head stamps when I can. I make my 22HP out of 30-30 but there is no mistaking it. One of my friends had surgery on his foot and is off work for another month. He's going nuts sitting around the house. He just called and told me he made up another 100 22HP's for me. One of his friends said he had a bushel basket of surplus 06 brass his dad bought. Anything he has that can be made from an 06, he uses that stash. I don't like have ammo for several guns all with the same head stamp. I'm confident with my friends it wouldn't be a problem, but if it gets in the hands of others? Just me.

I have similar opinion on handloads. Wouldn’t give them to anyone simply for safety reasons. I don’t have a single friend who enjoys firearms, so it’s a non issue. Although one time I had to stop my dad once from trying to use .41 mag reloads that were of mysterious origin. Could’ve been fine, but I pulled them and tossed the powder just to be safe. Don’t want to be added to the statistic.

I'm also a big proponent of having the correct head stamp whenever possible, especially if you own guns of the same caliber as the brass you are reforming. When I got my first 99 in 250 Savage, I was initally unable to find brass. I did own a 22-250, so I just resized some. That worked well enough until I was loading 22-250 rounds and found I had resized the 250s back to 22-250! I've since found proper 250 cases, so problem solved.

It costs close to $40 for a box to buy factory but you get to shoot and then have brass to use. I havent priced the total cost lately.
You may also end up with thick necks and need to turn them.