ORIGINAL: Remnard
I have a Weatherby Ultralight in 338-06 and I purchased 5 boxes of ammo for it. Needless to say I am running low and I have reloaded them several times. I found the Weatherby Brand Brass in Cabelas but they want more than a dollar per cartridge! Hell the 100 rounds I bought cost me just over a buck each and that was loaded with TBBC bullets.
I'm faced with 2 choices:
1) try and find the brass cheaper and pay the money or:
2) resize some brand new brass from a 35 Whelen or a 30-06.
So if given that choice (and nobody on here tells me about a great place with a great price on 338-06 Brass) what am I better off doing? resizing the 35 brass, which will push some brass around and maybe need trimming. Or do I stretch some 30-06 out and make them fit? This will thin the case mouth out, but it is what has been used before successfully. I worry about premature case mouth splitting and will probably need to buy an intermediate expander to neck size in a couple of stages.
Of course there is the issue that the headstamp will say -06 or 35 whelen on it also, but I am sure I couldn't stuff them in to either gun accidentally. the 338 might chamber in the 35 whelen, but I dont think it would cause high pressure situation, like the other scenario would.
Anyone with experience out there? It doesn't have to be the 338-06 specifically, just someone that has dealt with a wildcat cartridge that brass wasn't specifically for.
I would use .35 Whelen cases. You can size them down to make a precise fit in your specific chamber by screwing the die in a little at a time until you can just get the bolt to close on the case with a little effort. This method keeps the headspacing precise.
In addition, if someone gets one of your rounds and fires it in a .35 Whelen chamber, no harm will ensue because of the mistaken identity from reading the headstamp. Much better than having someone try to fire a .338/'06 in a .30/'06 chamber (if they got it to fit.....)