Changing 30-40 brass to 303 savage

I remember reading an artical in handloader magazine on it. It looked like a pain in the ass, as I recall. Ill look through my old mags and see if I can find it.
 
Both rim dia. and base dia. would require altering....Jamison .303 Savage brass $41/100....Buffalo Arms........order now!

IMHO....it should require...base forming die... and turning case rim down, base forming die not to be confused with case forming die.....then trim to length....Ben
 
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Did you mean 32-40?

I've heard of 30/30 brass being used with 7/16" brass thin-wall tube placed over the bottom 1/2", and fireformed in place. As Senior suggested, you could just use cheap once-fired 30/30 and fire and forget. A few rounds of aluminum tape would keep it centred.
 
John Barsness wrote an article in either Rifle or Handloader magazine in (about) the last 3 years about doing it. I think he accomplished it all using a simple mandrel, electric drill, files, emery paper, case trimmer, sizing dies, posibly case trimmer die. Believe he said either 5 or 10 minutes per case once he set up for the job.
 
Jamison 303 Savage

About a year ago a thread on the Jamison brass didn't speak too kindly of it. Half inch splits from neck to shoulder, the debate seemed to be over whether it needed to be annealed or not. $41US/100+ exchange+ shipping+ possible duty+ GST/PST and $5 postal fee puts them in buck a case category.
Makes the 200+ once fired brass and 6 boxes of factory ammo I have a good investment from what I see here.
 
I started to post about that, but had not heard any negative reports lately, so deleted my post. Grafs was the supplier at that time.

Most guys use 220 Swift brass. It is a quite a bit of work to form, but works very well and gives good case life! :)

Ted
 
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I tried 303 Brit, it is pretty much the same amount of work with either case. I would go order from Buffalow unless you have access to a lathe and a yearning for keeping busy at mundane tasks. I found the necks come up thick and will need to be reamed to suit. Your mileage may vary.

Try the 220 swift approach, for a green reloader that should be more than entertaining. Be sure to anneal the neck first.

Once you calculate in your time you are still further ahead to just pay the price and get 50 cases from Buffalow.
 
Unfired 220 swift brass will work without annealing it--a tapered expander or expanding in stages works best. Problem with 220 swift brass is that the extractor does not always pick it out of the chamber--especially if the extractor is worn or hot loads used. Before I had a decent supply of proper brass I used the 220 stuff for plinking off the bench where extraction reliability was not an issue.

FWIW, 44Bore
 
I use new factory 30-30 rounds, and plan to reload, or rather, make up new handloads with new or once-fired 30-30 brass. I'm not taking this rifle to any Olympic contests....:p
 
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