THE HANDLOADING BENCH
308 Winchester Rides Again Part 2 By Laurie Holland
small flash-hole cases a little deeper than on other standard SRP users such as 222 and 223 Rem., so a standard tool won’t do much good anyway. Sinclair International sells a small primer uniforming cutter dimensioned specifically for PPC/BR cases and which should also be used on the .308W ‘Palma’. If you prefer to uniform flash-holes from the case-mouth end and de-burr the flash-hole mouth/cut a small venturi in it, K&M do a conventional reamer/de-burr tool with the correct dimensions.
Spot the difference! There is none visible between ‘Palma’ SRP and standard Lapua LRP cases from this angle.
new brass, standard diameter decap pins should now fit, but only just! As it indexes off the primer pocket and is inserted from that end, what about de-burring the other (exit) end of the flash-hole? Many people (including me) are of the view that Lapua brass is so well made and consistent that you can simply ignore this issue, likewise don’t spend time and effort on ‘uniforming’ primer pockets. Just ensure you have a good supply of 0.057” diameter decapping pins.
Incidentally, if you feel that you must uniform the primer pocket, Lapua cuts those on its small primer/
I left the flash-holes and primer pockets untouched in my tests, and used the CCI-BR4 primer throughout. In my experience with 223 Rem and 90gn bullets I found this to be the ‘hottest’ of the SRPs I tried producing higher velocities and I’d also had excellent results from this model in 6BR and 6.5X47 Lapua with their 30- 40gn charges. It’s also very ‘tough’ and, even though I used my Barnard Model ‘P’ based tubegun, I wouldn’t want to use a ‘soft’ thin-cup standard SRP in this case, especially as I expected to run up serious pressures with some combinations and would need to ignite heavy (up to 49gn) charges of slow burning powders reliably.
Seasons
A leit-motif amongst those unconvinced by the SRP 308 Win case is alleged cold-weather unreliability. This appears to be supported by Lapua itself, or at any rate its US importer, with advice that these cases should not be used for loading ‘hunting ammunition’. We in the British Isles rarely think about ambient
They’re not the same at the rear end. The ‘Palma’ version (on left) not only uses the Small Rifle primer, but has a reduced diameter (1.5mm) flash-hole. The standard model uses the Large Rifle primer and has a 2mm flash-hole.
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