Fire forming brass

[Mr. Longbeard]

How do you fire form your brass??? Do you load them different???

[Roskoe]

I normally use a much faster powder than normal, anda real cheap or inaccurate bullet. For instance, when fire forming the .270 Winchesterto .270 Ackley Improved, I use 22.0 grains of N-110 with some bulk 130 gr. bullets that I have from the early 70's. For the .22-250 Ackley, I use IMR 4198. Basically, just enough powder to blow the case out so the shouldermakes a nice crisp angle. Also, if you have some CCI 250 large rifle primers laying around, this is a good opportunity to shoot them up. These fire form loads can be fun for plinking, or for fall turkey hunting as well. Low recoil, low noise, minimum tissue damage.

I know some folks who have tried using Unique with some kapok and toilet tissue for this task, but sometimes you get primer setback - which sorts of sets you up for a headspace problem on subsequent firings.

[Briman]

Use a minimum powder loading as found in a reloading manual, or a small cahrge of fast burning powder like Roskoe mentioned, 10 gr of unique or 15 gr of 2400 will work as well in a 308-30-06 sized case. Seat your bullets long so that you have some resistance toclose the bolt shut- what this does is forced the case against the boltface so that the shoulder will be blown forward and out instead of streatching the casehead and blowing primers.

[Roskoe]

Briman - you're right - I should have also mentioned seating bullets out to jam into the rifling. I have also known folks to use pistol primers for fire forming, and using a reduced power striker springs in their bolts while doing this - just to reduce the tendency for the firing pin to drive the case forward; causing primer setback. In the case of the Ackley Improved's, the usual headspace setup of the gun not being able to close on a "go" guage and still being able to close (with some effort) on a virgin brass case, will drastically reduce this setback potential.

[Roskoe]

Mr. Longbeard - what caliber are you fire forming?

[Ifly]

I do as has been mentioned in my 7-30 Waters..fairly fast powder..or some I don't use a lot of..light loads.

[Mr. Longbeard]

300WSM

Fireforming can be highly overrated for the average gun enthusist. I know I went thru this stage buying collet dies and neck sizing dies, redding comp neck dies. Looking back, it was alot of work for little gain.

It does lower you velocity spreads, I know from experience. And if doing serious target shooting, it is a must at 500 yards and above. But at 100-200yards, I can't see the difference in groups.

Therefore, I went back to partial FL sizing.

[Roskoe]

Mr. LB: So are you fireforming .270 WSM cases, blowing the necks out to .300 WSM? Or are you just firing the correct case/caliber in the correct chamber so you can then neck size? Or none of the above?

[Mr. Longbeard]

300WSM in a 300WSM chamber