Fellas,
I picked up a used 22br form die set a few years back and have been looking for an excuse to use it. Way back when, Remington used to sell a basic br case. Pretty much just a 308 with a small primer pocket. The die set I have was made to take the basic brass and form it down to 22br dimensions in several steps. Long story short, the 22br and 6.5 CM share a similar shoulder angle and diameter. I decided to use the first couple dies in the set to make some Creed brass out of 243 Win.
A bit of experimenting showed that Win brass would buckle unless I annealed the hell out of it, but Remington brass worked fine the way it came out of the box.
Here's a Rem case after die #1
and after die #2
I'm going to fireform these with Unique and Cream of Wheat, so that's as far as I needed to go with the forming.
The case after trimming.
500 pieces trimmed, deburred, and ready for fireforming.
Finally, a fireformed and neck turned case.
Now, I'll be the first to admit this isn't saving me any money after my time is figured in. The fireforming isn't to form the case, it's a way to remove the runout from the forming process without wasting a bullet. They may have shot reasonably well the way they were, I didn't try them. I used an old barrel and spare action to make a fireforming rig. Got about half of them fireformed today. I havent lost a single piece out of the 500 so far.
This brass is earmarked for a 123 grain amax p dog load. I'm comfortable saying I can deal with donuts if they become an issue.
I picked up a used 22br form die set a few years back and have been looking for an excuse to use it. Way back when, Remington used to sell a basic br case. Pretty much just a 308 with a small primer pocket. The die set I have was made to take the basic brass and form it down to 22br dimensions in several steps. Long story short, the 22br and 6.5 CM share a similar shoulder angle and diameter. I decided to use the first couple dies in the set to make some Creed brass out of 243 Win.
A bit of experimenting showed that Win brass would buckle unless I annealed the hell out of it, but Remington brass worked fine the way it came out of the box.
Here's a Rem case after die #1
and after die #2
I'm going to fireform these with Unique and Cream of Wheat, so that's as far as I needed to go with the forming.
The case after trimming.
500 pieces trimmed, deburred, and ready for fireforming.
Finally, a fireformed and neck turned case.
Now, I'll be the first to admit this isn't saving me any money after my time is figured in. The fireforming isn't to form the case, it's a way to remove the runout from the forming process without wasting a bullet. They may have shot reasonably well the way they were, I didn't try them. I used an old barrel and spare action to make a fireforming rig. Got about half of them fireformed today. I havent lost a single piece out of the 500 so far.
This brass is earmarked for a 123 grain amax p dog load. I'm comfortable saying I can deal with donuts if they become an issue.
