Author Topic: Brass Forming ?  (Read 488 times)

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Offline catkiller

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Brass Forming ?
« on: April 17, 2009, 07:18:42 PM »
  Can I form 8mm mauser and 7mm mauser brass into 6mm remington brass by running it through my 6mm full length die or will I have to get some sort of forming dies? What about 257 roberts brass?
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Offline LaOtto222

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Re: Brass Forming ?
« Reply #1 on: April 18, 2009, 03:00:01 AM »
Short answer - yes. The best candidate is the 257 Roberts. Less necking down involved. The 7mm Mauser may work too. The 8mm Mauser can work, but may be too big a step in one pass from .323" down to .243". If you decide to do this, you need to size your case to your chamber to fire form it. Back your die off and run your case into it. Keep turning it in just a little until it will just chamber in the rifle. There should be a step in the shoulder to head space on. The shoulder angles are not the same for the Roberts and Mauser cases. You will head space on the step to fire form. You may need to neck turn the out side and or ream the inside of the neck. When you neck down a case, the brass has to go some where. Some times it thickens the neck and some times it forms a ring inside the base of the neck. It all depends on the shoulder angle and how much you neck it down. The Roberts may not take any of this (because you are not necking down too far), but you will have to try it to find out for sure. Forming brass is a pain in the neck. I have done it, forming 221 Fireball out of 223 brass and 30-30 out of 375 brass. In both cases, I had to outside turn the necks. I did not have a ring on the inside to contend with because in the 30-30 case the shoulder is a low angle and the 221 Fireball, the shoulder angle is the same. The necks did thicken up, because I was down into the thicker part of the case with the 221 and in the case of the 375, the neck is thicker and I suspect thicken up some through that much necking down. I used a special form die on the 223 and a full length size die on the 375 Winchester. If you can possibly buy 6mm Remington brass, I highly recommend it. Forming brass is a lot of work, care must be taken and details paid attention too. You will more than likely loose a few pieces getting things set up and you may get a wrinkle in the neck or a collapsed shoulder on some, depending on how far you are necking down. If you decide to do this only use new cases forget using up fired cases, you will lose too many in the form/fire forming process. I would not do it unless you just can not get 6mm Brass or you have a large quantity of one of the other brass setting around. One thing I forgot to mention - If you do this, you more than likely need to anneal some where along the process. With new cases, you will need to anneal after forming and before fire forming, if you neck down very much you may have to do it is steps and anneal after each step, but I did not with the 375 down to 308 (I did it in one step, but annealed after forming. Do not even try it unless you have new brass, your fall out of used brass is going to be high and you need to anneal the necks and shoulder before forming. Good Luck and Good Shooting.
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Offline iiranger

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Well put... Re: Brass Forming ?
« Reply #2 on: April 18, 2009, 08:28:28 AM »
The makers of form dies often have directions that they will sell for a postage stamp, RCBS did years ago anyway. As said, "a LOT of work." RCBS custom shop is now "Huntington's Die Specialties." Ch4d.com also has form dies. Not to mention Redding, Hornady, etc.

You can anneal by dipping the neck into molten pure lead. PURE LEAD. And drop into water... faster, not quite as good as other methods, but works.

If you hit the once fired sites, I suspect you can find 6mm or .257 or ?? once fired. Figure the cost of fuel for all that annealing and you won't be saving much. If you got to do it (I had too), then you must. Form die set helps. But once should be enough...

Form die sets come with the neck reaming feature. If you go "bubba" and use dies laying around, then you have to figure out how to thin the neck to proper thick. HUGE lot of work. Enjoy. Luck.

Offline stimpylu32

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Re: Brass Forming ?
« Reply #3 on: April 18, 2009, 10:06:41 AM »
I've been doing quite a bit of case forming as of late , be warned it can be a royal pain in the butt if not done properly , you can do everything from stick a peice of brass in the die to crush cases and split necks , as LaOtto said the best way is to go down in steps , some like to Anneal before sizing and some like to do it after .

For most of the rounds that I do , annealing first is a must to avoid split necks but it also makes the neck / sholder area softer and sometimes causes the cases to crush . The best way is to just buy the proper cases , however if thats not possable go slowly and double check everything as neck thickness and case capsity will be diffrent form factory brass .

stimpy
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:D If i can,t stop it with 6 it can,t be stopped

Offline LaOtto222

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Re: Brass Forming ?
« Reply #4 on: April 19, 2009, 02:42:20 AM »
Stimpy has some odd ball cases he is forming for. Not necessarily bad, you just can not purchase ready made brass for them. I am sure if he could get ready made cases he would be doing so. He has been doing a lot lately - the last year or so. He knows what he is talking about. Annealing is a big part of the process, I have a Hornady kit I bought just for this type of work. Think long and hard about reforming before you do it, assemble the equipment to do so and practice on a few cases before going whole hog. Even being careful you are going to loose some cases in your process. After you get it perfected, you will loose less, but things happen and you will still loose a few. Good Luck and Good Shooting
Great men have vision and resolve to make dreams come true.

Offline stimpylu32

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Re: Brass Forming ?
« Reply #5 on: April 19, 2009, 03:05:25 AM »
 Even being careful you are going to loose some cases in your process. After you get it perfected, you will loose less, but things happen and you will still loose a few.

You got that right ,  :o Some are running in the 30% loss range while some are no losses at all ( NOW )  ;)

stimpy
Deceased June 17, 2015


:D If i can,t stop it with 6 it can,t be stopped

Offline Catfish

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Re: Brass Forming ?
« Reply #6 on: April 19, 2009, 01:55:30 PM »
When I am necking down brass I do a few thing to make it easier and get a higher percentage of good brass. 1. Clean and polish all brass to be formed. 2. Use a good lube if your sizeing the bodys down. 3. I also like to use mica on the case necks. 4. Run your cases through the seating die before you run them through the sizeing die. ( A cheap way to get a 2 step down size instead of one.) 5. I have found that with some brass it helps if you work it in and out instead of tring to size it all in one step, but this is not always nessary. The 7 mm brass to .257 should be a very easy 1 step size. If you have .257 dies you could use they as an intermediate step down to 6 mm.