Hello all,
I am finally at the end of the ammo loaded years ago by my grandfather, and have also loaded all the previously fired brass from this gun a number of times.
I wanted to start fresh with some new brass and components for new load recipes.
I now have a bag of 100 new unfired 30/06 brass to use for this 8mm/06 gun. Is the easiest way to load this brass simply to run the .323 expanded ball through it and then just load as usual? I would suspect that I would have to fire it at least once in the gun to havetrue chamber formed brass.....
Opinions and suggestions?
Use Imperial Sizing Wax it works very well. Neck up your cases slowly and smoothly, so you will not split the necks. Lube the inner and outter diameter of the necks lightly. Good luck.
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PROUD HUNTERS KILL THEIR GAME THEY DON'T HARVRST THEM!!
another way is use 11 gr of unique, fill with corn meal, plug with a twisted up worm of paper towel, fire. watch the heat, point the gun down a lil bit to keep burnt corn meal out of the chamber. the cases will then be formed to your chamber. its how I form cases for my 6.5 Gibbs from 270 win.
RR
handloader1,
Since I am going only from the 30/06 brass to the 8mm opening (.308 to .323 or a bit more for bullet seating) do you think I need to have a mid-step to incrementally open up the neck? Is it to abrupt to go straight to the 8mm expander ball directly from the 30/06 brass? And thanks for the tip of the Imperial Sizing Wax...
Ridge Runner,
The cornmeal you mention is of course cornmeal tumbling media, right? And the twisted up worm of paper towel just needs to be big enough to plug up the mouth so the powder and corn meal doesn't fall out right? Or should the paper towel plug be really jammed in extremely tight? And lastly, pointing the gun down at a 45 degree angle should be ample to keep the burnt cornmeal out of the chamber, eh?
Again, thanks to you both for the tips, ... and anyone else please throw your tips and/or experience my way.
8MM/06, to form 8MM/06 from 30/06, according to RCBS, run the 30/06 casethrough an 8MM/06 sizer die meaning no forming is necessary, the problem comes when you size the cases/neck size for the second round of shooting using a 30/06 die, the neck does a lot of traveling when going from .308 + or - to .323 + or -, back to 308 and then to .323.
If military 30/06 cases are used, the designation '30/06' is not an issue on the head stamp and if the cases are new, moving the neck from .308 to .323 is not an issue, I had the opportunity to pick-up mew unfired LC Match cases from Pat's reloading in Ohio, these cases work so well, I hate to use them, afraid I will run out.
The first set of cases I used were 280 Remington, again, moving the shoulder froward is the difficult part (without firing), I made a set of head space gages and used them to chamber the rifle. Even though the 280 Remington cases are longer than the 30/06 cases, trimming is a perceived problem,when necking the case from 7MM(.284) to 8MM, the case will squat (compress) as much as .025.
F, Guffey
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I collect old anything, the problem now is finding anything.
no not tumbleing media, the same stuff your wife makes cornbread out of, drycream of wheat will work also.
tear a paper towl into strips about an inch wide, twist it up into a thin worm.
fill the case up after charging with 11 gr of unique, place index finger over full case a tap once or twice lightly on a table, don't get carried away, you do not want to mix the powder with the cornmeal. after tapping it should settle the cornmeal to about the base of the neck, insert the worm into the casemouth and pack what you can in easily, tear off,then take a small punch and pack the wad tight. fire in chamber out pops a perfectly formed case, I lose about 2 percent fireforming with bullets in my 6.5 gibbs, have never lost one with corn meal.
doesn't have to be near 45 degrees, just slightly downhill so the burnt cornmeal that clings to the barrel doesn't fall back into the bolt lugs upon loading.
Lube the bolt lugs and watch the heat, it gets hotter than you would think.
fg, lake city is great brass, but lapua makes '06 brass also, lil bit spendy but its even better than LC
RR
Ridge Runner, Lapua 30/06 brass is close to $75.00 per 100, Remington 30/06 brass is $43.00 per 100, I paid$80.00 per 1,000for the LC, if I had purchased the Lapua cases, I would not have had enough money left over to purchase dies, point being regardless of what I shoot, cases will never cost me more than .10 cents each if I have the dies.
I built a rifle chambered in a30 Gibbs variation, before 'fire forming' the brass, I got a lot of advice, most of the advice had to do with cream of wheat, oatmeal, etc., my answer to this advice was I was going to fire form the cases once, then I get the response "I know what you mean, I have had to fire some cases three times to get the case blown out".From beginning to end, the cases shortened as much as .030, for some variations of the 30 Gibbs a case that is 2.460 would be perfect but I needed cases that were 2.500 after 'fire forming'. I used 200 grain bullet with a maximum load of H4895 for a 150 grain bullet, perfect results and I onlyhad to do it once. That is fire forming,Iformed the cases by firing them in the chamber, this is not necessary with an 8MM/06, the forming is done with adie.
I would not expect a loss of accuracy with an 8MM/06 usingfactory ammo or reloads, nor would I expect much of an improvement when firing the cases the second time,and I do not think cream of wheat, oatmeal or another fillersaves money if the practice of using it results in 2 out of 3 failures.
MIDWAYUSA did list 8MM/06 cases,$38.00 for 20, for that kind of money, I could have a set of diesincluding a neck sizer die, it is as though the dies are free after Iform 100 LC cases or SL, TW, DM, UT or EW cases.
F. Guffey
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I collect old anything, the problem now is finding anything.
I totaly agree that just a bullet diameter change doesn't require fireforming in chamber, cause nothing else changes. But some prefer to fireform, and the cornmeal route does save in '06 based cases, 1 box of bullets, and 1# of powder per 100 brass formed, it also saves throat life in barrels chambered for high intensity wildcats.
take my 7mm Allen Mag for instance cases are 2.32 ea., takes 1.5 pounds of powder to fireform 100 cases, bullets are 22.00, so fireforming in chamber with bullets my brass are now 2.87 ea, and I used up 1/6th of my barrel life making cases, cases last 3 loadings so I'll use up 1/3 of my barrel just making cases if using bullets.
If done properly a COW fire formed gibbs or allencase is fully formed with only slight rounding of the shoulders
RR
Loading or fire-forming the 8mm/06
