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Author Topic: Forming 7x30 Waters from 38-55 brass  (Read 524 times)

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Offline Dezynco

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Forming 7x30 Waters from 38-55 brass
« on: January 03, 2011, 02:07:14 PM »
I went to the local shooting supply today to purchase some new 30-30 brass to make into 7x30 Waters.  They were out of 30-30's, but were overstocked on 38-55's.  Therefore they were selling them at a really good price to get rid of them....

Has anyone formed 7x30 Waters from 38-55's before, and if so, are there any issues?
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Offline mauser98us

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Re: Forming 7x30 Waters from 38-55 brass
« Reply #1 on: January 03, 2011, 03:05:09 PM »
Probably neck thickness after sizing the brass down. It has to go somewhere. If you had an inside reamer,it would work. I size 375 winchester down to 32 special,cause the case walls are a little thicker in the web area. Don't think I would take them down to .284 diameter.
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Offline Dezynco

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Re: Forming 7x30 Waters from 38-55 brass
« Reply #2 on: January 03, 2011, 03:20:25 PM »
I thought about that the necks may be to thick.  However, since the 38-55 brass is thin compared to even 30-30 brass, and that this brass is Winchester brass - which tends to be the thinnest, I thought that it might be possible without neck reaming.

Thoughts?
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Offline jedman

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Re: Forming 7x30 Waters from 38-55 brass
« Reply #3 on: January 04, 2011, 02:33:38 AM »
       If you have any fired 7 x 30 cases that were fired in the gun that you want to use these in measure the O.D. of a fired unsized case. The neck will be about one thousand or one and a half under what the chamber neck is in your gun. If you minus the bullet dia. you will know how thick your necks can be without turning.
  The problem I see is unless you have some dies in between 38 and 28 cal. I dont think you could neck it down in one pass.
  As a experiment I took a 38-55 case and tried to neck it down in a 308 Win. die with the stem out of the die, It creased the nck so you would have to play with it to get it down to 7 mm.  Probably not worth it.    Jed
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Offline HL

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Re: Forming 7x30 Waters from 38-55 brass
« Reply #4 on: January 04, 2011, 02:45:39 AM »
I took a couple hundred 375 winchesters down to 7-30 Waters with no problems. I just had to turn the outside of the necks to bring them into spec and they shoot just fine.

Due to the thicker brass, you just need to back off of the powder and work back up.
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Offline BCB

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Re: Forming 7x30 Waters from 38-55 brass
« Reply #5 on: January 04, 2011, 07:53:59 AM »
Wow, that sure seems like a tremendous waste of 38-55 brass!!!...

30-30 brass is mostly a dime a dozen and mostly it is left laying at the range...

Finding once-fired 30-30 brass surely shouldn't be a problem and would be much cheaper than the ne 38-55 brass...

Good-luck...BCB
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Offline Dezynco

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Re: Forming 7x30 Waters from 38-55 brass
« Reply #6 on: January 04, 2011, 11:40:15 AM »
Ok. I went ahead and grabbed a bag of the 38-55's. Lubed each one up good and formed 10 cases by easing them in a little at a time.  Turned the cases a little each time until I got a full stroke on the press.  I messed up 3, two buckled(one because dummy me had the seating die in instead of the sizing die).  The other split, go figure.  I did not trim them to length because I can't find my 7mm pilot, so the cases are a bit too long according to specs.

I loaded them with a minimum charge of Varget and a Hornady 139gr bullet. No signs of pressure, nice 2" groups at 100 yards with a 14" pistol barrel. Switched to Sierra 140's with maximum charge of 4895 - still no signs of pressure and groups are about 1.5" at 100 yards!  Still haven't trimmed the cases.

Made a slight scope adjustment and screwed the caps on!  I like that I didn't "blow the shoulder forward" and have no shoulder ring like you get from the 30-30 brass. I did all of this because I couldn't get any new 30-30's locally and I was having headspace issues with all the old 30-30 brass that I have on hand. I could probably anneal the brass, but my local dealer sold me a bag of 38-55 brass really cheap.

So far, so good.  Just thought I would pass along the information.
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Offline Lloyd Smale

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Re: Forming 7x30 Waters from 38-55 brass
« Reply #7 on: January 05, 2011, 12:49:15 AM »
to insure you dont run into pressure problems i would first trim them and fire one and after firing at least make sure a bullet will drop through the neck. If not your necks are to thick.
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