• HideTV Turns 1 Next Week!

    To celebrate the anniversary, we’ve got a full week of planned of exclusive giveaways, special live streams, limited-edition merch, and more surprises along the way. Keep an eye out!

    View thread

Fire Forming Remington .308 Winchester

tomt53

Private
Full Member
Minuteman
Mar 14, 2011
51
2
71
Central Florida
I have 200 once fired (not from my gun)remington .308 win. brass. Ihave full lenght resize, trim, debur flash hole and ultra sonic cleaned. I whould like to fire form this brass to my gun's chamber. Hodgdon reloading manual list 14.0 gr. of Trail Boss behind a 150 Nosler BT. for 27,100 PSI.

Is this enough pressure to fire form the Remington brass?
Can a cheaper lead bullet be used?

Thanks Tom
 
Re: Fire Forming Remington .308 Winchester

Any particular reason you wouldn't load them to full strength and fire form it that way?

Most ammo you buy in a box will be undersize for most actions and after the first squeeze they are closer to the actual chamber size. Most brass takes 2 - 3 firings to get it to minimum tolerance so that when you resize you move metal as little as possible.

Cheers,

Doc
 
Re: Fire Forming Remington .308 Winchester

Fireform with max loads.

I think a fireforming sticky is in order. This question comes up a lot.

Fireforming loads qeven for improved and Ackley cartridges, produces great accuracy. There is no good reason to "pre-fireform" with reduced loads or pistol powder or cream of wheat. In fact, doing so only "starts" the forming. The only way to get the brass really formed to ones chamber is PRESSURE!
 
Re: Fire Forming Remington .308 Winchester

+1 turbo

i dont think you can fully form cases using a cream of wheat or other low pressure loads. I think you actually need to shoot 2-3 full pressure loads in order to get a case "ideal" or "properly" hardened.
 
Re: Fire Forming Remington .308 Winchester

brass not fired in your rifle vs virgin brass make no difference regarding accuracy, it does make a difference on how reliable they'll chamber though. However since you stated you have sized them you are without a doubt good-to-go as is.
 
Re: Fire Forming Remington .308 Winchester

Here is a recommendation...

Buy a Wilson Case Gauge (if you own a dial or digital caliper that measures 6" or more), or an RCBS Precision Mic. You will Really Benefit from KNOWING what your chamber oal is.

Measure an unfired virgin case and write your measurement. Fire the round and write the reading for that fired case. You might also make practice of measuring different brands of brass, they are not identically dimensioned.

For a bolt rifle you want to size at least .001" under the fired case oal measurement and adjust your sizing die for this dimension after you test about 10 sized pcs of brass by chambering them in your rifle. For semi-auto, size a minimum of .003" under and .004 or .005 under is better.

Once-fired brass should not need case trimming. Wait until brass is fired in your rifle before even considering doing a trim.
 
Re: Fire Forming Remington .308 Winchester

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: Mr. T</div><div class="ubbcode-body">I have 200 once fired (not from my gun)remington .308 win. brass. Ihave full lenght resize, trim, debur flash hole and ultra sonic cleaned. I whould like to fire form this brass to my gun's chamber. Hodgdon reloading manual list 14.0 gr. of Trail Boss behind a 150 Nosler BT. for 27,100 PSI.

Is this enough pressure to fire form the Remington brass?
Can a cheaper lead bullet be used?

Thanks Tom </div></div>
Just load it up with your fav load and go shooting!
 
Well I have an idea that maybe someone has done but I have not seen it done and maybe it can not be done. As you well know hornady makes what they call a hydro forming die. They take 308 cases and make 243 case our of them. How about this. Has any taken a form fired piece of 308 Winchester brass and had its profile laser scanned and then use that machine data to precision cut a chamber into one of these hydro forming dies tell the machinist you want the shoulder set back .001 from what these laser measurements are. To me this would be a perfect fit for the associated weapon it was form fired in. This would prevent from have to expel primers, bullet and powder to get brass to fit your gun perfectly. To me form fired brass means the brass has expanded in all direction to fit the profile of the chamber and has slightly relaxed to ensure extraction. They fit doesn't get any better than that. Please advise.