What powder , and how much?

[blaser.306]

Fist off let me say I have re formed hundreds of cases. 7mm Tcu, 6.5mm Tcu , 7 Rimmed International , 30 Herrett , and 357 Herrett from 375 Winchester. But I have no experience with large volume cases. I just bought a 35 Whelen and want to fire form some brass that has already been thru a FL die. I have a VERY small amount of Unique, and decent quantities of Red dot, 700x, clays, promo, Bulseye, 4756, 4759, 4895, 4198,( both Hodg. & IMR ) reloader 10x 335 , blc2, 748, and several others as well. Where do I go for fire forming , going to use 200 gr RCBS clones not looking for accuracy just nice shoulders! Help!!!

[ballistim]

Fist off let me say I have re formed hundreds of cases. 7mm Tcu, 6.5mm Tcu , 7 Rimmed International , 30 Herrett , and 357 Herrett from 375 Winchester. But I have no experience with large volume cases. I just bought a 35 Whelen and want to fire form some brass that has already been thru a FL die. I have a VERY small amount of Unique, and decent quantities of Red dot, 700x, clays, promo, Bulseye, 4756, 4759, 4895, 4198,( both Hodg. & IMR ) reloader 10x 335 , blc2, 748, and several others as well. Where do I go for fire forming , going to use 200 gr RCBS clones not looking for accuracy just nice shoulders! Help!!!

I'm wondering if one of the inexpensive slow burning surplus powders might work for that, say WC-872?

[blaser.306]

I'm wondering if one of the inexpensive slow burning surplus powders might work for that, say WC-872?

It just may, however . The only surplus powder we get here in Canada is WC-735 and it is 5% faster than H335. Not an issue as I have several LBS of it. but if I can use a smaller charge of faster propellant , I would prefer doing tat. So long as the results are satisfactory.

[salpal48]

I have used a good cross section to fire form Unique, Bullseye, 3031, 4198, 4831. light loads seem to work best with rifle powder. although . split are always unavoidable. which depends on your brass. With this so called powder shortage, No need to waste it

[EDG]

There is not much to form for a .35 Whelen. I would load it and shoot it with normal loads.

If you compare a .303 Brit factory round to a fired case you will find there is more fire forming going on with factory .303 ammo than many of the cases we reform.

[bullet maker 57]

Annealing before fireforming helps save brass.

[gunwonk]

Once upon a time I bought some .300 H&H brass (cheap) to fireform into .300 Weatherby (not cheap). I'd read that this would work, so I loaded a more or less normal round, and the first one split at the shoulder. So much for cheap. :-(

My gunsmith suggested putting 15 grains of bullseye into a primed .300 H&H case, filling it up the rest of the way with millet meal, chambering that in my .300 Weatherby rifle (pointing straight up), and firing with no bullet.

It worked! I left quite a bit of toasted millet meal on the range benches, but I got all .300 Weatherby cases (headstamped .300 H&H), with no splits. Some of the cases even turned up a bit short. Maybe I could have gone to 16 grains ... :-)

It does sort of make sense that hitting the brass suddenly, with high enough pressure to make it flow, would minimize or prevent splitting. No, I don't have any information about doing this with other cartridges -- it was a one time thing -- I don't have any links or technical references, and I don't know whether millet meal was the secret. :-)

[DLCTEX]

I have removed hydraulic dents from 219 Zipper brass formed from 30-30 by using a fast shotgun powder topped with corn meal and capped with wax. Don't remember the charge, but worked up until dents were gone.

[Good Cheer]

A small amount of a faster powder with corn meal on top works well. However, corn oil will foul the powder if you let it set a day before you pull the trigger. Then you will have to reload your case forming loads. Uh duh.

[blaser.306]

Thanks for the replies, I ended up loading up my brass with 36 gr. of 4227 and a 200 gr cast rcbs boolit and let em buck. Formed out the shoulder alright , cleaned em up annealed the necks and got them ready to load with ladder test loads ( when it gets warmer ) !