8x56 from 7.62x54

jongun said:
Tried a "fresher" piece of brass and it formed nicely without any splitting of the neck. Slightly bulged but not all that excessive.

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Looking good, but another annealing followed by at least one firing (at the range using a bullet) will be required before it will assume its final shape. However, if you keep pressures below about 30K psi, you might never get sharp shoulders.
 
Thanks for the info Andy. My mold will be in in a couple days so I'll be able to cast some bullets this week and hit up the range with my single piece of brass :dancingbanana: Gotta place an order with trade ex.
 
Andy, if you don't mind what are some of your loads for this cartridge? I've got some Varget on hand and hopefully will be getting some H4895(favorite) in soon.
 
jongun said:
Andy, if you don't mind what are some of your loads for this cartridge? I've got some Varget on hand and hopefully will be getting some H4895(favorite) in soon.
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What bullet will you be using? I haven't used Varget yet, and I've used mostly cast bullets and fast rifle and slow pistol powders (SR4759, H4198, etc.).

If you use a bullet in the 180 gr range, 40.0-45.0 grs of H4895 will work well for you. You could use the same amount of Varget, or go 1-2 grs higher.

Generally you can use 8X57 loads in the 8X56 in a M95 action. The action is strong (has been rechambered to 8X57) and the 8X56 has slightly greater case capacity, so 8X57 loads produce lower pressure when used in the 8X56 case.
 
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I'll be using the Lee 205gn .329 bullet. I've got some 4198 and I'll also be using some clays for reduced loads as I've had good success with this powder in my 7.62x54 and 7.62x39 reduced loads.
 
Loaded up the solo case with the Lee 205gn .329 bullet over 40gn Varget with CCI LR primer. Bullet wasn't overly tight in the neck and figured I'd crimp but couldn't with the seating die since the case is shorter than a genuine 8x56 case. Turns out the factory crimp die that came with my 7.62x54 die set works perfectly. Either way gonna give the round a try tomorrow and also clear up some more x54 brass at the range to convert.
 
Fire formed brass conversion? So you fire a russian round in the 8mm rifle, them you end up pulling out a fireformed 8mm case from the chamber?
 
The brass formed beautifully and now after shooting the Mosins I've a few more cases cleared up for conversion till I order a bag of brass from Trade Ex. Of course still undecided after only taking one shot whether or not the converted brass functions well enough to completely forget the real deal 8x56 brass and save the dough and just convert the x54. Andy or anyone else for that matter, ever compare genuine 8x56 brass with converted brass as far as functionality and accuracy are concerned?
 
We need a pic of the fully-formed brass!

I can't imagine that you will notice any accuracy differences, and as long as the rim "fits" the bolthead, no functionality problems either.
 
Well formed IMO


Gonna convert a few more cases for the next trip to the range. Probably up the powder charge since the 40gn of Varget seemed pretty mild.
 
jongun said:
Well formed IMO


Gonna convert a few more cases for the next trip to the range. Probably up the powder charge since the 40gn of Varget seemed pretty mild.
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You could safely go to 47.0 grs of Varget, but you really should work up to that and you need to be running these over a chrony so you know what's happening. Any MV over 2500 fps with that bullet indicates a max load.
 
Fire formed some more brass for this weekends trip to the range. Only fired them once and passed them through the sizing die. Very pleased with the way they turned out and believe the reason they filled out so nicely is due to the fact that I packed the crap out of the cases with the cloth this time.
Not a single case lost due to splitting.



Piece on the right is the newly formed brass and on the left fully formed


Loaded rounds ready for the range
 
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