A customer gave me a few hundred pieces of once fire Hornady .308 Match brass. Hmmm, says I. I walnut tumbled it, annealed it, and ran it though the 7-08 FL bushing die. There was a very slight donut below the bushing engagement, but not enough to worry me.Trimmed to 2.016" (long as I could go and get them all cut) and loaded a 162 A-Max with my usual load of 40.0 gr of H-Varget. The newly necked down brass fed and chambered fine, only a little resistance locking down the bolt handle. I'll shoot it in a couple of days, and see what happens.

If this works, it'll be an easier to come by, and cheaper way to get 7mm-08 brass, without neck turning. Only the labeling on the case head will not say 7mm-08. I'm sure this has been done many times before, I've just never seen it mentioned on this forum. Thought I'd share.

I have done it several times when 7-08 brass was hard to get. Win brass works well, since they have thinner necks.

Thinner necks is a key, had to neck turn some Remington brass I tried this years ago. That brass would not chamber or was very tight, pulled the bullets and borrowed a friends neck turner which made it usable. In 1982 anything 7mm-08 was hard to find.

When I bought my first 260, the seller (friend) gave me some reloads that were necked down 308 cases. Worked fine.

I almost think it would be worth having PT&G make a special reamer for 7-08 to run thick neck brass made sized down from quality .308 brass. There was a time I had lots of trouble finding 7-08 brass. All I could find was $1 a piece Nosler.

I have been doing this for a while with Remington and Winchester brass. The brass works fine in my bolt guns but it is too tight in my Ar7mm08. Wont chamber consistently without sometimes using the assist button.

Don't want to mess with neck turning?

Haven't attempted that as of yet.

One more step in case prep that I really don't like to do but will if necessary. I don't mind paying more for brass that I can skip that step on if can. When I learned how I only had 20 cases for the 7mm-08 and could not find any more for several months so took the 308 route to get there and neck turning is necessary for that old Remington 788

I got some 308 lapua brass cheap and made 50 7mm-08 rounds after necking down annealing and nec turning i will never use them again ... I will stick with good ole Winn 7mm-08 brass..