Product Description
The .308 Winchester Match Grade Cartridge is manufactured on Peterson Cartridge’s new, state-of-the-art case line which uses cutting-edge technology to produce some of the most precise and consistent casings on the market. Peterson Cartridge Co is committed to producing Match-Grade Brass that enables our customers to get more reloads per casing than industry average.
History
Recently our ballistician had some extra time in his schedule, and asked what he should work on next. We said, “Just for the heck of it, see how many times you can fire our .308s before you experience failure.” So that’s what he set out to do.
He took five .308 Winchester casings out of inventory and loaded them at SAAMI max pressure, which is the pressure we use for all of our longevity testing. It is a hot load, and he did the firing out of our Universal Receiver. This way he could measure pressures and velocities each shot. He shot all five, 20 times. (It takes a long time to do that. Load five casings. Shoot five times. Back into the lab to reload, back into our indoor range to shoot, back into the lab, and so forth.)
After 20 firings with no sign of case deterioration he asked if he should keep going. We said, “Sure, let’s see how long these can go.” So he shot them five more times. Same result. All casings still in good shape. We told him to keep going. He shot each of them six more times. At this point each of the five casings had been fired 31 times. After several days of this the casings were still in good shape but we were experiencing “ballistician fatigue.”
Finally he said, “Let me take these cases to the outdoor range and see how they do for accuracy.” We agreed.
For the 32nd firing we used a lighter load. The gun we used was a Tikka T-3 bolt action, 20 inch barrel with a 1:11 rate of twist. He put five shots in three tight holes at 100 yards on a somewhat windy day.
After 32 firings of Peterson .308 Win the primer pockets opened about 0.001 of an inch but were still tight enough for further use. There were no cracks or signs of head separation.
If anyone has the time on their hands to shoot a group of three Peterson .308s to failure, we’d like to hear about the outcome.
Additional Information
NOTE: If you plan to load above SAAMI max pressure and are concerned about primer-pocket leak, we recommend you try our .308 Winchester Small Rifle Primer. While we do not suggest loading over SAAMI max pressures, our small primer pocket .308 Winchesters have proven to hold up over SAAMI max pressures when tested in our universal receiver.
Warning: Only use Peterson Cartridge Co. casings in firearms in good condition, designed, marked, and chambered for this cartridge. Do not use Peterson Cartridge Co casings for “fire forming” or any other purpose other than what they were designed and tested for. Peterson retains no responsibility for the enclosed casings if they are used outside of the manufacturer’s recommendations.
