Finally used my Small Based .30-06 die

[Mk42gunner]

Reading DoctorBill's thread on his 6.5X>257Roberts got me interrested in my Type 38 that I had never done anything with.

I had a partial box of 7X57 brass, a set of 7X57 dies and a set of 6.5X55 Swedish Mauser dies. I first decapped in the 7X57 dies, then necked down the brass in the 6.5 die. The case would not fully chamber, but would go in far enough that I knew the chamber had been modified fromthe original 6.5 Arisaka.

AS I was contemplating things, I happened to see the box that my .300-06 dies are in. I thought I would try it, so I removed the decapping stem aand ran the lightly lubed case into the smallbase die. Sucess, the case now entered the chamber and the bolt locked down.

I tried to fire form one with 4.5 grains of W231 with the case full of Cream of Wheat, it didn't do well, the case split in two places at the shoulder. The next time I used 33 grains of Reloder 15 with a 120 gr Speer seated into the lands. That worked.

Now all I have to do is get some sights on it, it is drilled for a receiver sight, along with several extra holes (Swiss cheese comes to mind) in the receiver ring and bridge.

I had posted before that it has a Bishop stock on it, I was wrong, it is a Fajen. This carbine will make a dandy little brush gun when I am done with it.

Question, how long were the barrels on these originally? Mine is 19" right now, and may have to be shortened, it had a mud dauber nest in the last inch of the bore when I got it.

Robert

[MakeMineA10mm]

Robert,
To preserve your brass, anneal them! I'm sure you already know this, but brass hardens as it's worked, and you're movin that neck a bit. (Not much, seemingly, but if you're getting splits while fireforming... -- Perhaps it's the unknown location of the shoulder?). Also, not sure how many loadings you had on that brass before reforming, but many firings and resizing cycles will also work-harden the brass which can then lead to the splitting.

Annealling is not a difficult job, with the technique I stole from ammosmith. (search for his name and annealing on youtube.com, and watch his excellent video. For that length case, you may have to turn or grind a quarter-inch off the socket so the anneal gets the whole shoulder.

I just did the first 750 of 1000 30-06 cases using this technique and it was fast and accurate.

[Mk42gunner]

Good idea, I thought about annealing the first case, right after I had seated the primer.

This is just a few cases that had some verdigris around the mouth, so I wasn't expecting much anyway. I more or less just wanted to verify the chamber was done somewhat correctly. I will be buying a bag of brass next month, I figure fifty new cases will last quite a while in a gun I don't plan on shooting much.

I still have to refinish the stock and blue the metal, I think it lived in a barn for several years.

Robert

[odoh]

I'm wondering if brass gets harder/brittle over time under stress/tension also? I've noticed on several occasions and different calibers of Rem factory, that a V indent/notch at the mouth and crimp juncture appears after 5 ~ 10 yrs and after a few more yrs, the brass actually separates/splits inside of what used to be the V or notch.

[MakeMineA10mm]

I'm no expert - I only know what I've read and experienced, but I've experienced the same thing with old brass. In fact the 1000 30-06 cases I'm doing right now have never been shot or resized, but they're at least 55 years old, so they're getting annealed.

Age does have a negative effect on the temper of brass. I may be wrong, but I seem to recall it has more to do with embrittlement than hardening when it comes to age. Either way, hardening or embrittlement, annealling restores it.