Making .250 Savage brass

Doug

Doug

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I have a new (to me) Savage 99 lever gun here chambered in .250 Savage (aka .250-3000) and was astounded to find that I have practically no brass for it. (Where the heck did it all go????:confused:)

Anyways, I do have some .22-250 brass here that was made from .250 Savage, so I am thinking I can reverse the process by fire-forming it in the Savage with light .22-250 loads. I do not know who made the .22-250 brass out of the .250 Sav brass in the first place, as the brass came to me in a deal at some point. It looks fine.

Any reason I should NOT do this?

Doug
 
I dunno if it'll require fire-forming. Just eyeballing it, it looks like running 22-250 brass through a 250 die should be all that's required, all the other critical dimensions look the same. Check a cartridge diagram in a load manual first to be sure, but I'd be tempted to simply neck the 22-250 brass up in a size die and call it a day.
 
back to prosper...........I thought about that, for sure. I have not had good success in the past necking things up, even with lots of lube inside the necks. Never tried it for this particular conversion, though.....

Doug
 
I just tried necking up with one case, split the neck, don't think I will try it with the rest of them............:rolleyes:

Doug
 
Rich, please check your pm's...........I just found a bunch of brass in a different storage area. I guess I am kind of like a squirrel that buries a bunch of nuts for the winter and then forgets where he buried them......:rolleyes:

So I can leave the .22-250 brass alone for the time being....:p

Doug
 
I'd recommend the Hornady FL dies over the RCBS because they have a more tappered expander and this means less case loss.The later is too blunt for good neck epansion.I use 22-250 brass in both my .250-3000's[99+700 classic]....................Harold
 
I know you found your brass, but here is something I used to do.
When necking up I try to do it in as many steps as I can.
I once came into a bunch of .243 Win brass, but have a 7mm-08 Rem. I ran them into a 708 sizing die with a .25 cal. expander ball installed.

Them the 7mm ball. Just going a bit at a time really seemed to ease the stress on the case over all.
 
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Fire forming cases

Doug
Try the 22-250 brass in the .250 Savage. Any that fit, set aside. Load these ones with 10 grains of a fast burning shotgun powder like unique, fill the case with Cream of Wheat, tamp in a small toilet paper wad, and load and fire it. It will blow the neck out to your chamber dimensions.

I have shown people this by necking .308 down to .243, load as above, fire in a .308, and the case comes back out. 243 to 308 is much more severe than 22-250 to .250.

I fire formed 50 Remington 8x57 Mauser cases this way to fit my 9.3x57 (.323 inside diameter to .366 inside diameter) No problems, no splits, etc.

If you use the expanding ball method, you might have to anneal the case NECKS. The necks only, not the whole case.

If you resize any of the 22-250s that will not chamber easily, then you can probably chamber and fire form as above. To make things easier, you would not even have to put the expander ball and rod in the FL resizer.
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I would also recommend the COW fireforming method. However, I would go much less in powder as you are only interested in moving the neck.

I like HP38/WIN 231 but have also used Red Dot, and Titegroup. Start at 3to 4 grs and work up. Very little is going to be needed.

As you found, one pass from 22 to 25 is to much. You need to go to 6mm first. Anneal after. If you anneal too much first, the neck will collapse into the shoulder under the pressure of the expander ball.

Jerry
 
Fire forming cases

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Something I did not mention, as I assume shooters know enough to be safe with firearms. However, we tend to forget that there are new and upcoming shooters out there who are not experienced in these things.

I got a PM from a shooter about fire forming cases. He asked if he could do it downstairs in the basement.

...:runaway:...NO, NO, NO. DON'T DO IT!....:runaway:

Take the rifle outside, (It will make a noise, so if you live in the city, either take it to the range or have refreshments waiting for the SWAT team when they arrive.)

Point the rifle in a SAFE direction ( upwards is good for fireforming ) and fire it. Do not point it at an object, because the Cream of Wheat acts like a shotgun at close range. It will definitely injure you if it hits you.
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There I was, about to ask this same question again, and a little birdie told me I had already asked. Sure enough, here is the thread. :rolleyes:

But where the heck did that bag of brass go that I found last year? :confused:

And where are my Easter eggs? I hid them on Easter Sunday but have not found them yet........ :rolleyes:

Rich, do you still have that bag of brass?

Doug
 
Start from .270 win.
Anneal
Run through .308 die to set shoulder back
Run through 250 savage die with expander removed
Trinm to length
neck ream
Chamfer
F/L size
 
Start from .270 win.
Anneal
Run through .308 die to set shoulder back
Run through 250 savage die with expander removed
Trinm to length
neck ream
Chamfer
F/L size

back to thegunnut:

by the time I did that I would be willing to pay two bucks a case for used .250 brass.............. :p

Doug
 
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