.243 / 7mm-08. How often does THIS happen?

[cajuntec]

I finally located a few boxes of 7mm-08 tonight at Wal Mart. I don't know why - force of habit due to some previous deformed Remington 40 cal rounds I guess - but I always open every box and check the rounds before buying.

Glad I did tonight. I was checking the rounds in the box (Winchester Power Point), and my eyes caught the writing on one round - .243. HUH???

I pulled it out and put it side by side with the 7mm-08. They looked identical. The cases looked the exact same size, and the bullets looked identical too. Same OAL when I stood them up side by side. I showed the counter guy, and he set it aside and called his manager while getting me a fresh box. This time HE opened the box before handing it to me - he knew I was going to check every box closely after that.

How often does something like this happen? I don't own a .243, so I don't know what that round should look like. I didn't think about it at the time, but I wish I had asked him to get a box of .243 so I could compare that round side by side to see what the differences were.

All the best,
Glenn

 

[Bullseye Shooter]

The short answer is that the .243 is a .308 Winchester necked down, just as the 7mm-08 is a necked down .308 case. It appears they mixed in a .243 case during production. That's the first time I've heard of a wrong headstamp in a factory box of shells. The store should email the mfg with the lot number so they check their quality control process.