Best brass for resizing and fire forming

[Durango Mike]

Norma sizes up easily because it's factory annealed. Any brass you use, be sure to anneal it to make the necks a tad softer and more likely to take the sizing without being split, etc.

I like Norma and Lapua, You should consider necking down 35 Whelan brass, Ben is right about annealing particularly in bumping up vs sizing down.

 

[Durango Mike]

Another option would be to neck down 35 Whelen brass. Probably could be done in one step and allow you to control the shoulder and/or headspace better.

If going with 30-06 brass, I'd lean hard towards Lapua. It's worth the price difference IMO.

Wish I had seen yours first before posting, very easy neck down even without annealing. That's the solution I use, been shooting the 338'06 for 30 plus years with good results, built the first one after reading about the 333OKH by Elmer Keith. The 180 gr Barnes is my favorite since moving west, just shy of 3000fps. Nosler just had a nice sale on the 338'06 and both 200 gr and 180 gr Accubonds were available. I never took mine to Africa, the main hesitancy was having ammo with a different head stamp than the caliber on the rifle, worth having same/same in some countries. Took a 416 Hoffman (necked up and blown out 375 H&H,later replicated by the 416 Rem Mag) and had to explain why the gun said 416 H and the ammo said 375 H&H Mag heading into Tanzania to hunt Buffalo, they let me go but required some "lubrication" of the process to get thru airport. Had my 280 Ackley with me and the brass said 280 so no issue.