Fire forming brass
- Thread starter BMcK
- Start date
Handgun powder is precious enough at the moment that if you have Bullseye and no use for it I'd offer up a trade to a local handgun shooter for something you can use.
How sloppy is the brass at present? If it's an easy but not sloppy fit why not just load it normally and shoot it? THAT will fire form it for you.
How sloppy is the brass at present? If it's an easy but not sloppy fit why not just load it normally and shoot it? THAT will fire form it for you.
fingers284
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
- Location
- Alberta Cowboy Ranges
Are you using Mannlicher brass in a Mannlicher chamber?
I have done a fair amount of "fire forming". All of it to reform one caliber brass to a completely different size caliber. first I size the oversized brass down to an undersized state with a sizing die so they fit easily into the rifle chamber, then I use 10 or 12 gr of whatever surplus fast burning pistol powder that I have on the shelf and fill the remainder of the case with cornmeal and top off with a dollop of carpenters glue for no other reason than when it dries it holds the cornmeal in place when loading/handling.
I have done a fair amount of "fire forming". All of it to reform one caliber brass to a completely different size caliber. first I size the oversized brass down to an undersized state with a sizing die so they fit easily into the rifle chamber, then I use 10 or 12 gr of whatever surplus fast burning pistol powder that I have on the shelf and fill the remainder of the case with cornmeal and top off with a dollop of carpenters glue for no other reason than when it dries it holds the cornmeal in place when loading/handling.
Just to be clear on this.. I have brand new 30-30 brass I want to load with cast and black powder..single shot rifle.. I want to annell. trim fireform this to make everything the same
Will or should the glue wad enter the barrel?
Thanks Leroy
I fire formed some .38-55 brass because it was almost silly sloppy in the chambers. No glue needed. In my case I went with 14gns of some very old Unique I had kicking around followed with enough oat bran filler to bring it up to about 1/4 inch from the top of the case. I capped this with a tightly pressed in wadded up ball of paper towel. No glue needed and there's no way the pressed in wad of paper was coming out short of firing the round.
The cases fire formed perfectly to a nice easy moving but zero slop form.
For .30-30 it may not even require that much powder. I'm assuming that the bottleneck shape will raise the pressure so it should only take 10 to 12 grains of some similar powder. And even less if something like Bullseye or Tightgroup is used.
The cases fire formed perfectly to a nice easy moving but zero slop form.
For .30-30 it may not even require that much powder. I'm assuming that the bottleneck shape will raise the pressure so it should only take 10 to 12 grains of some similar powder. And even less if something like Bullseye or Tightgroup is used.
fingers284
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
- Location
- Alberta Cowboy Ranges
I should have been more specific with my description...I leave the cornmeal level down a smidge in the neck and that is were the glue goes, just fill the neck with glue and after it dries, shoot them. BC is right, paper or any other method you can come up with that will chamber & not damage the bore, will work...just something to hold everything in place while handling.
As for BC's comment on the powder charge, if you are only trying to modify the shoulder/neck of the case a lesser charge will suffice but if you are modifying the (usually thicker)case body and unless the case is newly annealed, a stout pressure load will be needed to smooth out the sides. I am currently using 10-11 gr of Unique to form 38-56 from 45-70 brass.
