What did you do in the reloading room recently?

Just annealed a few cases, now will need to chop them down, resize, chamfer and then make some new rounds. For those that jave converted 30-06 to 8mm, what is your order of steps?

I am thinking
1. Anneal the shoulder and some of the neck
2. RCBS 30-06 to 8mm trim die to form new shoulder
3. Cut off saw close to case length
4. Chamfer/debur
5. Full length size
6 primer,powder,bullet etc.
 
Just annealed a few cases, now will need to chop them down, resize, chamfer and then make some new rounds. For those that jave converted 30-06 to 8mm, what is your order of steps?

I am thinking
1. Anneal the shoulder and some of the neck
2. RCBS 30-06 to 8mm trim die to form new shoulder
3. Cut off saw close to case length
4. Chamfer/debur
5. Full length size
6 primer,powder,bullet etc.
I know with .300BO you cut first, size and then anneal
 
@mac1911

The reason is there was a seller on GB selling 450 cleaned once fired 30-06 brass for 83$ shipped.. that works out to about .19 cents, so it is really useful. Also plenty of cheap once fired 30-06.. you probably won't find used 8mm brass for sale.
problem with once fired 8mm its often the same price as new PPU 8mm brass .50 cents. Theres so much 30-06 you can find it for free.
 
Just annealed a few cases, now will need to chop them down, resize, chamfer and then make some new rounds. For those that jave converted 30-06 to 8mm, what is your order of steps?

I am thinking
1. Anneal the shoulder and some of the neck
2. RCBS 30-06 to 8mm trim die to form new shoulder
3. Cut off saw close to case length
4. Chamfer/debur
5. Full length size
6 primer,powder,bullet etc.

Is the RCBS forming die a set of dies or just one form/trim die?

1. I annealed before forming when I annealed . Im not sure how accurate my annealing was. I did it old school. small propane torch dim light, welding gloves make shift holder and rotated until I could see a slight glow.
2. Trimmed over all length to IIRC 2.25'"
3. Form in FL sizing die
4. trim if needed
5. load and shoot--- I use cast loads most of the time.
 
The rcbs trim form die is a single die that puts in a new 8mm shoulder on 30-06 brass. Uses a lot of force to do. I anneal so i see that silvery grayish discoloration on the neck that i see on military brass.

 
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The rcbs trim form die is a single die that puts in a new 8mm shoulder on 30-06 brass. Uses a lot of force to do. I anneal so i see that silvery grayish discoloration on the neck that i see on military brass.

lee turret press is probably not giving you a lot of leverage. i never used any type of forming die. Always a FL die . With out putting some sort of torque indicator on my Horndy classic press I can not really tell if annealing first helps any.
maybe i will give it a try. Have the propane torch out from some plumbing repairs.
 
@mac1911 i like using the forming die because it is carbide and will not put as much stress on a FL sizing die reforming the shoulder. I did have 3 cases out of the 100 i did that had part of the shouder bend inward ,making a divot in it. telling me the brass would have probably jammed up against the expander ball.

As far as annealing.. i do not know how much it will prolong brass life. But i will at least do it for the first shaping of the 30-06 to make it more ductile in reforming so i do not get neck splits. After the first firing, i might wait a few firings before doing it again.
 
@headednorth

I mean that is possible using unique case lube. But is like a very narrow slit like the brass folding in on itself.View attachment 350082
to much lube? Vent hole on die has crud in it?
My thought was annealing before forming would be 2 fold, ease of forming and pro longed case life.
i have been loading the same 7.7 and 8mm formed brass long enough to loose track of how many times. No case splits yet. i do have my FL dies set to resize as little as possible after the brass is fire formed to my chamber.
with the 7.7jap I found the rifle with the tightest chamber and just kiss the shoulder. That ammo will fit in any of 3 type 99s I shoot.

only one 8mm- which I neck size after the first loading.
I think a lot of neck splitting is from resizing the brass way to far back. Especially with old war horses. Which many do not fall into samii specs or what ever the die manufacture decides is spec.
 
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Just annealed a few cases, now will need to chop them down, resize, chamfer and then make some new rounds. For those that jave converted 30-06 to 8mm, what is your order of steps?

I am thinking
1. Anneal the shoulder and some of the neck
2. RCBS 30-06 to 8mm trim die to form new shoulder
3. Cut off saw close to case length
4. Chamfer/debur
5. Full length size
6 primer,powder,bullet etc.
2. I use an 8mm fl die without the neck expander stuff in it.
3. I have a mini tubing cutter to roughly trim the excess before using a case trimmer. Leave length a little long.
5. Now FL resize using the neck expander and final trim.
I would say use a headspace gauge to dial in your correct length.
Yes wrinkles can be caused from excessive lube. It's a balance.
I've done both 7mm and 8mm.
 
I broke out my Lee 6 cavity 120 Grain TC mold and made 500ish bullet heads. Sized and lubed them to .357. Then I spent hours... and I mean a ridiculous amount of time trying to set up my dies to get 9MM rounds to pass a case gauge and plunk test with a barrel using lead heads. I've been reloading now for over 10 years and I guess I'm starting to think I know what I am doing. It was a humbling experience for me, but I had nothing better to do. I had to go back to absolute basics on die seating to get a minimal crimp to just touch the bullet and enough tension to hold it in place. I had about a 10% failure rate where I just could not get some to pass the gauge. This was using mixed range brass. I am thinking of sorting cases but did not in this instance.

I've been searching for old-timer tips on 9mm cast boolit reloading. There is a lot out there but so many different opinions.

Anyway, I made up 200 rounds. I took them to Hopkinton yesterday and hit steel flawlessly. It is a beautiful thing because I have a lot of lead ingots, primers, and powder. I could do this every weekend for a long time. :)
 
I broke out my Lee 6 cavity 120 Grain TC mold and made 500ish bullet heads. Sized and lubed them to .357. Then I spent hours... and I mean a ridiculous amount of time trying to set up my dies to get 9MM rounds to pass a case gauge and plunk test with a barrel using lead heads. I've been reloading now for over 10 years and I guess I'm starting to think I know what I am doing. It was a humbling experience for me, but I had nothing better to do. I had to go back to absolute basics on die seating to get a minimal crimp to just touch the bullet and enough tension to hold it in place. I had about a 10% failure rate where I just could not get some to pass the gauge. This was using mixed range brass. I am thinking of sorting cases but did not in this instance.

I've been searching for old-timer tips on 9mm cast boolit reloading. There is a lot out there but so many different opinions.

Anyway, I made up 200 rounds. I took them to Hopkinton yesterday and hit steel flawlessly. It is a beautiful thing because I have a lot of lead ingots, primers, and powder. I could do this every weekend for a long time. :)
Iirc, 9mm isnt the easiest caliber to cast. Cant say I can recall why exactly its such a challenge but thats what Ive heard
 
@darrowj
 
As for post #6644, I find I get little to no case creases when resizing w/o the expander button in the die.
Form the brass, you can expand the neck as appropriate in a separate step.
 
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Today I went to tumble some brass for the first time in 2 years and the vibratory tumbler was running slow and feeble, what most people would call a "burned out" motor. Instead of dropping $200 on a new Dillon tumbler, I spent all of 10 minutes to take it apart, clean the motor rotor and stator, lube the bearings and reassemble. It now runs like it's brand new. Lots of nastiness gets into those tight clearances and it's worth it to clean every now and then.
 
Today I went to tumble some brass for the first time in 2 years and the vibratory tumbler was running slow and feeble, what most people would call a "burned out" motor. Instead of dropping $200 on a new Dillon tumbler, I spent all of 10 minutes to take it apart, clean the motor rotor and stator, lube the bearings and reassemble. It now runs like it's brand new. Lots of nastiness gets into those tight clearances and it's worth it to clean every now and then.
how old is the tumbler, I have taken a few electrical motors apart recently and they where not exactly serviceable. From staked in parts, plastic welds and basically snap to gether bodies. Fun stuff
 
@mac1911 just checked, that is the stock photo and not the 8mm one. i shined a flashlight through the die and there is no hole in the die for a vent hole. but thank you for doing all that hard work. i will just try and not use too much unique if it is the case.
yes stock photo for the vent hole. Im surprised there is no vent hole? I dont use forming dies and honestly I cant remeber if my 8mm FL die has a vent or not. Its definitely a Hydraulic dent. to much lube or something in the die?
Clean dies and start over.
 
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