280 brass from 30-06

[AtlLaw]

Okay, so I now have a Handi Rifle in .280 Remington...   

For some reason I'm the type who likes to use what I got rather then buy what I need.     And one thing I got is plenty of 30-06 brass!     But I need some 280 brass (see my first sentance  )

I have never necked brass down to form another case.     I've necked brass up; for instance, all my .260 brass is necked up .243 brass, .308 up to .358, etc. etc..     But I've never dared necking anything down...  I dunno, maybe something about thick necks and pressure or chambering problems and having to buy a neck turning tool to thin them down and that leading to obsessive/compulsive measuring and turning the necks on every piece of brass I shoot... stuff like that... 

Anyway, I'd like y'all to put my mind at ease and tell me of your (un)happy experiences, or even conjecture, in necking down brass.     If I can do this who knows what will be next!?  .308 to 7/08?  And dare I even suggest... propose... think of... 30-06 to 25-06?   

[wncchester]

"I've never dared necking anything down...  I dunno, maybe something about thick necks and pressure or chambering problems and having to buy a neck turning tool to thin them down and that leading to obsessive/compulsive measuring and turning the necks on every piece of brass I shoot... stuff like that... "

Do it.  It's easier than expanding up and the oft heard concerns of having the necks be too thick are possible of course but it's vastly over agonized.  For that change, a typical .013" inch neck thickness will become about .014", not much.  Mike a fired neck and add a thou to get very close to your chamber's actual neck clearance. 

Load and mike a necked down case and confirm that it's at least a thou smaller than on a fired neck diameter; if so it's fine.  It's likely going to have several thou more clearance than that.

Done rationally, neck turning can be easy, fast and moderately inexpensive.  I use a Forster HOT-100 turner and chuck the cases in my 1/2" DeWalt battery drill.  Running the cases on slow speed, I can smoothly turn a neck in much less than a minute.

[shot1]

To neck a case down remove the expander ball and rod from your FL size die. Lube the case and with one quick motion give the handle one full pull. After you neck it down trim it and then replace the expander ball and rod in the FL size die and size the case again. This is the best way I have found to neck down. Winchester cases do the best for me because they are the thinnest.

[charles p]

I used to make 25-06 from 30-06.  Worked just fine but needed trimming of course.  Seems the 280 neck down would be simple.  So is buying 280 bulk brass, which is what I've done to make 280 Ackley cases.

[Tom W.]

I've made 30/06 cases from .280 brass, but remember that the .280 case is longer than the 30/06 case.
Look in your load manual at the differences and then decide if you want to try it.

[mechanic]

I did mine a different way....I traded some stuff I didn't need for some 280 brass...then I found a set of dies on that (un-named) auction site that no one was bidding on....bid at the last minute and got'em cheap.

Have you shot that 280 yet?  I first shot mine with some factory Rem. ammo, then came home and loaded up a few in increments.  It's a whole nuther' gun when you load for it.  This thing should spank a deer hard.  I placed a 2x2 piece of white wood on a tree and shot at it from 400 yds. and got a decent enough group, that I might, if everything was right, just might chance a deer shot that far.  That is if I got a good nights' sleep the night before, and had a good breakfast and my hands weren't shaking and the wind wasn't blowing and my mind was sharp....never mind....

[AtlLaw]

a typical .013" inch neck thickness will become about .014", not much.  Mike a fired neck and add a thou to get very close to your chamber's actual neck clearance.

Good info there!    I feel another meaningless and statistically insignificant experiment coming on!   

This is the best way I have found to neck down.

Thanks!  I would not have thought to remove the expander ball and size twice!    I know exactly what I'm going to do now!     Oh, and I think I have around a hundred pieces of once fired Winchester 30/06 brass laying around that I've already cleaned and deprimed and got ready to go!   

I used to make 25-06 from 30-06.  Worked just fine

Cool!     Now having heard that it has been successfully done I have no reservations!  Especially after wncchester's tip on measuring fired cases to determine chamber measurements!   

the .280 case is longer than the 30/06 case.

Oops!     I'll need to check into that!  Thanks for the heads up!

Have you shot that 280 yet?

Sure haven't Ben.     I stopped at Dick's yesterday figuring on buying a box of factory ammo to use for shooting accuracy and velocity control groups but they didn't have any.     Soon though, soon!   

...That is if I got a good nights' sleep the night before, and had a good breakfast and my hands weren't shaking and the wind wasn't blowing and my mind was sharp....never mind....

I was gonna say!  If I waited 'till I fit those criteria I'd never shoot past twenty yards!  If at all! 
 

[jhalcott]

 My .280 is a rechambered 25-06 Rem 700. It works great on about anything I want to hunt, ground hogs to deer!
http://www.ableammo.com/catalog/default.php?cPath=10480_14658_14743_14904_14798
  try ables for some ammo IF you're in a hurry. Some times a chamber does NOT like short cases for best accuracy!

[AtlLaw]

remember that the .280 case is longer than the 30/06 case.

I did some more research on this issue and there seems to be, as in most things, a considerable difference of opinion.     It looks like the most prevelant opinion is:  "no problem."  A possible minority says position of the 30-06 shoulder being further back then the shoulder of the 280 makes fireforming necessary.  (Apparently this difference was created so the 280 would not chamber in a 270 rifle.)

Even if fireforming is necessary, it would seem to me that running a 30-06 case through a 280 die would create a false shoulder in the new .280 neck.  This would give the proper headspace to allow easy fireforming.  That is unless the neck portion of the chamber was oversized enough allow the case to slide in. 

Oh bother!     My head hurts again!     I'm just going to order some 280 brass and save the 30-06 stuff for my 338-06 and 35 Whelen... 

I'll probably still try it just for grins... 

[Darrell Davis]

30/06 to 280 should be a piece of cake!!!!!!

Have done lots of 06 to 270 and can't see how this can be a lot different.

Keep em coming!

CDOC

[Tom W.]

'06 to .270 is pretty similar to .25-06  to 30/06 to any of the aforenamed to 30/06 a.i. I even took the .280's that I had and made them into 30/06 A.I.

If I were  to try what AtlLaw is proposing, I'd neck the brass down, put a small charge of bullseye in the brass along with some COW and aim it at the next cloud when I pulled the trigger. That might just blow the shoulder forward enough to fireform the brass.

but don't quote me on that...

[nicholst55]

"I'm just going to order some 280 brass and save the 30-06 stuff for my 338-06 and 35 Whelen..."

Your .35 Whelen brass will be about .030-040" short that way.  I use either .280 (preferred), or .270 brass to form .35 Whelen.  The .270 case will yield a Whelen case that is .004-005" short; the .280  case yields Whelen brass that needs a slight trim.

[Lloyd Smale]

Like was said 280 brass is longer and the neck is slightly forward. So you will end up with slightly short brass. I make 2506 out of 270 and o6 all the time but for the 280 i just buy new brass.

[AtlLaw]

Your .35 Whelen brass will be about .030-040" short that way.

True, true...    I've got 30-06 brass I've necked up for those two cartridges that have been shot a number of times and they still don't need trimming.  Doesn't seem to effect accuracy though!   

I make 2506 out of 270 and o6 all the time but for the 280 i just buy new brass.

I've also got a ton of 270 brass but very little 25/06 brass so I know what I'll do there.     And I've ordered new 280 brass!   

[yooper77]

I save money by using 308 Winchester and 30-06 Springfield brass for other cartridges.  I can’t ever see the need to buy proper head stamped brass anymore since I have a ton of the 30 caliber parent cases available.

Resizing the 30-06 Springfield down to 280 Remington does make enough false shoulder to fire and yes I have hunted with un-fire formed hand loads they are accurate and do the dual job, kill game and fire form.

I have created 25-06 Remington, 270 Winchester, 7x57 Ackley Improved, 280 Remington, 30-06 Springfield Ackley Improved, 338-06 A-Square, & 35 Whelen all from once fired 30-06 Springfield brass with zero problems to include failures to fire.

I have created 243 Winchester, and 7mm-08 Remington from once fired 308 Winchester brass with zero problems to include failures to fire.

yooper77

[Siskiyou]

I thought 30-06 brass was here in vast amounts so I can create 270 Winchester brass from it.  The little false shoulder that is created goes away with the first firing.  First time I did it was 1970 or before; memory is fuzzy.  I recall reducing my standard load of Surplus 4831 a few grains and working back up with good results.  In fact results were so good that I quit the reduce load business.

A big advantage to the process that the neck down case was slightly shorter neck that I did not need to trim cases.  A high school buddy and lifelong hunting partner’s family were equipped four or five surplus Springfield’s and a couple of commercial 30-06 rifles.   They had a large wooden crate full of once fired G.I. cases from which they told me to help myself.  A Lyman large primer crimp remover has done the job for years.

I preferred commercial 30-06 cases for my hunting loads in the Remington 760.

I bought my son a Remington 270 Winchester when he approached his first hunting season with a tag.    I loaded him up a couple hundred low recoil loads with the 110 grain Sierra and 54 grains of Surplus 4831.  I used surplus G.I. cases without a problem.  He did shed a little blood from crawling up the stock and getting knocked by the scope.

I had a 30-06 for a few years and stopped using commercial -06 brass for the .270 Winchester.  Once my -06 became my SIL -06 I went back to my old habits.

At the time I started the practice bulk brass was not common and I was buying 20 to the box 270 brass for around $4 a box.  When Midway started selling bulk brass for less than $20 per hundred I stocked up.  Last fall I re-visited the crate of G.I. brass at my hunting partner’s house and selected out a couple hundred pieces.

The slightly longer case at the shoulder should not present a problem.  It will expand out on the first firing.  I believe the overall case length is the same as the 270 Winchester and slightly short than the 06 saving trimming time.     

The big advantage of the new cases you ordered is the proper headstamp.