11mm gras brass forming

tactical870

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I tried this in the reloading forums with no success. I have an 1884 Gras rifle which has been converted to a smoothbore shotgun. I have some new 348 win brass to form the shells with but have no idea how to go about it. Anyone here done this before?
 
Donnelly's book says-
Anneal case neck and taper expand to .450" dia.Lathe turn base to .544" dia. Build rim thickness to .08".F/L size.Square case mouth and chamfer.Fireform .

Load data-385 lead PP bullet,33.0 gr 4198 powder.
 
My issue is that I will be fitting it to a straight wall shotgun chamber..... So I assume I need to anneal most of the case and fireform the entire case. Do I cut the neck back now or after fire forming? Can I use a wax plug to fireform? How much powder for a fire forming load?
 
You usually want to cut to length after it has been fireformed, but in this case (with such a large increase in neck diameter required), you'd be best to cut it to about 0.100" of final length before fireforming, in order to remove as much as possible of the neck and shoulder, as they are most likely to split. In this case it's moot, because the 348 brass is shorter than 11mm Gras, but due to the long neck, works fine.

Anneal the top half only of the 348 brass. 15 grs of Unique under cream of wheat and topped with either tightly packed tissue or the wax plug would be a good start. If it is only partially formed after firing, re-anneal and repeat. Once it's to final shape, do a final trimming.
 
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