Shooting 308's out of a 307 Rifle? (Winchester 94AE)

[DonMountain]

I have a Winchester 94AE lever in 307 Winchester in which I use a 308 Winchester die to resize the casings and a 30-30 shell holder since it is a flanged base. Actually its a flanged base 308 Winchester cartridge. I have never fired cast lead boolets in the rifle since my RCBS 30-180-SP molded boolets don't fit as they are too long. Recently I acquired a 117 grain Lyman 311359 pointed nose mold and cast up a bunch and did some test loads in 7.62 NATO brass using WLR primers, 14.0 grains of Herco powder for a bolt action rifle. Then I got to wondering if they would fit and fire in that Winchester 94AE rifle? Do any of you use 308 brass in a 307 rifle successfully?

[Norbrat]

Should be safe enough with a mild load, but wouldn't you have trouble extracting it as the extractor for the .307 is designed to grab the larger rim of the .307 and hence not grip the rim of the .308??

[Mgderf]

Pointed nose bullets in a lever gun?
I hope that's not a tubular magazine.

[Patrick56]

The OAL is different as the 307 has bullets seated deeper. The 308 will chamber in some guns but I would not do it. Do not use "spitzer" bullets in the magazine of your 94AE.

[runfiverun]

I think you should just sell me that 307 and buy a 308.

you might be poking cases out of the chamber with a cleaning rod, and the round might be sitting crooked, and you'll have to measure the headspace off the shoulder for your rifle.
but you might could pull it off.

[Ballistics in Scotland]

I believe the OP raises two quite different questions here. Using the .308 die to size purpose-made .307 brass should be perfectly safe. In the dimensions section of my Loads from a Disk computer program only one dimension shows .001in. of a difference, and that is only length to front of shoulder, with length to rear of shoulder being identical.

Then there is the question of whether .308 brass can be used. The .307 is listed as having an extra thousandths of an inch in wall thickness, which gives the .308 a shade more powder space, part-way compensating for any encroachment on powder space caused by seating the bullet more deeply. With the light loads you describe, and a bullet which won't go far into the case, I can't see any trouble here.


Then there is the question of whether the case will feed and extract. The way to find out about this is to sacrifice a nearly-free bullet to make up a dummy round, and if that works, try a loaded round or two. My guess is that the extractor might work with an unfired round, but not when it is expanded to grip the chamber. As people have said, you shouldn't use pointed bullets in a tube magazine, but I everything else looks like being worthwhile, you could make up a simple jig to file them flat.


.307 is now an uncommon round, but you are onto a better thing than most of that description. If it goes out of production, people won't blame Winchester for their unavailable cases, but for their unusable gun. Still, availability could become erratic. It might be worthwhile putting up with practical inconveniences, such as using a little hand extractor lever or a dowel rod from the muzzle, if you have a source of cheap .308 brass for practice.

[DonMountain]

I plan to load the pointed Lyman 311359 loaded 7.62 NATO brass one at a time just for plinking. I have tried empty 308 cases in the gun before and they extract and toss them off to the side just well. Its just that this is the first time trying cast lead boolets in the rifle since I bought this new/old mold and the boolet is short enough to fit in the chamber I hope. And the 7.62 NATO cases probably are near the same wall thickness as the original 307 Winchester cases, for similar loading. Actually when I bought this rifle about 20 years ago I also bought a 500 round bag of new Winchester brass for it. So in a pinch I guess I could dig them out and try them in the correct brass. I just wanted to fire a few to see if they work and hit any target since I was also trying the boolets in a 308 rifle. And I do have a big pile of LC 13 marked 7.62 NATO cases to use.

[Idaho Mule]

That 500 round bag of Winchester 307 brass is worth it's weight in gold at this point in time. Your load will do just fine Don as long as you single load. Heck, chamber one and then push a spare in the mag and make it a 2 shooter. If you buy Redding dies they are clearly marked as to fit 308/307. JW

[DonMountain]

That 500 round bag of Winchester 307 brass is worth it's weight in gold at this point in time. Your load will do just fine Don as long as you single load. Heck, chamber one and then push a spare in the mag and make it a 2 shooter. If you buy Redding dies they are clearly marked as to fit 308/307. JW

What do you mean that "500 round bag of Winchester 307 brass is worth it's weight in gold"? I thought I was the only one that had bought one of these rifles? I also bought 5 boxes of loaded ammo off the shelf and then never saw those again either. But then I had the same problem with the 356 Winchester 94AE that I bought at the same time. And I bought a 500 round bag of brass for that one also. And the 358 dies to load that one. But my wife shoots deer with it every year. I have never bought a mold for boolets for the 356 either because they are real short throated also I think and I don't have any other 358 caliber rifles so I hate to buy a mold that only fits one gun. Where with the 30 caliber rifles I have a few of those where I can use a variety of boolets.

[pjames32]

I use 307 brass to make rounds for my .300BS in my Contender. They are worth their weight in gold!!!
PJ

[onceabull]

I was doing OK on this thread until I got to the part where some guy it talking about have a Md.94 BigBore for himself, AND ONE FOR HIS WIFE...!! onceabull

[Idaho Mule]

I was doing OK on this thread until I got to the part where some guy it talking about have a Md.94 BigBore for himself, AND ONE FOR HIS WIFE...!! onceabull

I know!! That's just silly isn't it? JW

[DonMountain]

I know!! That's just silly isn't it? JW

Well, I used to have two of them I bought with the "1894-1994" inscriptions on them. One in 307 Winchester and one in 356 Winchester. Then I got married.

[nekshot]

from the internet I copied a article of how to put rims on a rimless case. It really was not that complicated to do. I would have to do some serious clean up to get to it but the article was still on net about 9 month ago. I forget the name but googling should find it.

[woody1]

This subject has been discussed many times. Search the web and you'll find more than you prob'ly want to read. Here is one such from a few yrs. back:

http://www.shootersforum.com/levergu...ass-307-a.html

Heck it's prob'ly been discussed here too. Regards, Woody