hi , how do i go about forming 8mm-06 brass , i' m new to reloading and i have your basic rcbs 2 die set , and was wondering how i go about forming the brass casings , should i use .30-06 brass , or .35 whelen brass , do i have to heat the brass with a torch or anything , i' ve never reloaded a wildcat before , and the person who used to do it for me isn' t able to do so anymore due to relocating and i don' t have his new contact info yet to ask him how it' s done.

if possible , could you give me all the details just to be on the safe side

Just neck-up 30-06 Sprg. brass. Your cases may be a little short (below spec.), after necking them up, so you might wait to trim them after you fire-form them but, if they are not too short, trim them all to the same length. Good luck.

Handloader1 is correct. Use either .35 whelen cases or .30-06 brass and run them thru a 8mm-06 full length die cold....no heating required. Use a good lube and check your case lengths after resizing....they might grow somewhat.

I like a spray lube from Hornady or Lyman and I spray the cases from four sides intentionally trying to get a little in the case neck ID but not to spray into the case directly.

Wouldn' t the 30-06 cases be better to use? Most of my 35 Whelen brass was formed from 30-06. Forming the 06 brass would seem easier that shrinking down that 35 caliber.
Russ

There' s one advantage to using the whelen brass, you can leave a little .35 cal bulge at the bottom of the neck so you get a good tight crush fit in the chamber for the fireforming load. You can do the same by necking 06 up to 338 or 35, and then back down to 8mm. That will assure the case head is tight against the bolt face when you form the shoulder. You will lose about 100 fps velocity on the fireforming load, so if you are very serious about getting the most and very consistent loads, you would be well advised to shoot the fireforming load as part of your brass prepping and then start load development with fireformed brass. In my 33806 I like to neck up to 35 then down to 338 leaving that little bulge, and then seat a bullet that is in firm contact with the riflings and fire form with a load that would be a starting load in any manual. No sense in burning more powder than you have to just for forming a case. I form cases in standard chambers by seating the bullets to touch the rilfes. You want to make sure you use enough to fully form the shoulder though, or you will lose velocity on the initial firing as the case is finally formed. Or you can just neck the 06 brass up and load and shoot. Bear in mind that if you mix fireformed and non fireformed brass, your loads will show very wide extreme spreads in velocities, like 150 to 200 fps. I usually fireform cases in batches of 50 or 100 and use them for offhand practice. Take a couple of guns along so you wont be tempted to cook your barrel by shooting too fast. I mostly use surplus powders and corelokts since thats the cheapest way.

ok , thanks guys ,

nw let me see if i understand this part , after resizing , i have to fire the rounds through the rifle to get the brass casings to match the chamber properly , is this correct ????

Yes, don' t forget to set the bullet 0" from the rifling, and slightly reducing full-power charges. Good luck.

whelen36,
Expanding the neck to a larger caliber is made easier by using a tapered expander button. Sinclair has them and the ones I' ve gotten from them were very good. Good luck.[&:]