Stretch Fire Form Cases ???

[Tom Myers]

It seems that I remember reading a post where someone was stretching modern 38-55 brass to fit the older chambers that require 2.135" brass. I have searched, but am unable to find the post.

I cannot remember the charge weight, but I believe it was a charge of Bullseye, a card wad and then the case was filled with Cream of Wheat and another card wad was glued to the case on top of the COW.

Anybody have any thoughts or experince concerning this means of case stretching?

I need to stretch 35-55 cases out to 2.135 and 40-65 cases out to 2.155.

Tom Myers

[Frank46]

Tom, think some years back that folks were re-drawing 30-40 krag brass out to 405 winchester. I ran into a shooter who was using such cases in his '95 win in 405. As to how this was done I have no idea except that a lathe is required and the process is something similar to metal spinning. Maybe you could do a search on metal spinning or redrawing and see what pops up. Sorry I can't give you any more info. Frank

[beagle]

In the old George Nonte book, Catridge Conversions, there's a section on increasing the length using a mandrel in a lathe.

Kind of reminds me of an extruding process. Suppposedly, it's fairly easy. My question when I read it was how uniform this process made the necks.

Still, it's an inteesting thread and I'll be looking forward to see if anyone has broken the code.

The Nonte book is a good but maybe slightly outdated reference if you're into modifying brass./beagle

[Blackwater]

Tom, I think Buffalo Arms has some new brass they've re-drawn out to the longer length. If you're asking how to do your old brass, I don't know, though.

[Bent Ramrod]

From what I hear, the brass has to be spun on a mandrel to lengthen it. It takes a lathe, a hand-held tool called a "spoon" and some skill.

When fired, brass only lengthens if you don't want it to.

I've been waiting for five firings for my necked-up .220 Swift cases to stretch to fit the chamber neck of my Winchester-Lee .236 Navy. Haven't lengthened a nanometer yet.

[Leftoverdj]

I've been waiting for five firings for my necked-up .220 Swift cases to stretch to fit the chamber neck of my Winchester-Lee .236 Navy. Haven't lengthened a nanometer yet.

I wanna hear all about this one!

[Bent Ramrod]

Leftoverdj,

Well, all about it might take a while. A friend has one of the military 6 m/m (.236)Winchester-Lee rifles with another to cannibalize for parts if necessary. The bore was in hideous shape, but it shot OK for plinking with .220 Swift cases necked up to 6 m/m. This is logical, as the Swift is a somewhat shortened 6 m/m Lee case with a .30-06-sized head which gives the Swift its "semi-rimmed" status.

I was kind of intrigued with the weird action with the bell-crank on the side and in due course found a civilian model for cheap, plenty beat-up but with a bore even slightly better than the one on my friend's. Swiping a spring from his parts gun completed mine and I ordered dies from CH-4D and got to work.

The original round had a long neck and a long bullet. The longest bullet currently available in 6 m/m caliber is the Barnes 112 grain and even this has quite a jump from the short expanded Swift neck into the rifling. I heard the Swift in its original guise was a notorious neck-grower and sat back to see the miracle happen with the shells necked up. Nothing has happened as far as lengthening goes, but there is evidence that the necks are thickening instead.

I started a project of making dies and fixtures to turn the belt off .240 Weatherby cases, squish the heads down the necessary 7 or 8 thou and form and trim to the proper length, but I need to make one more die to bring the head to final size. Meanwhile the Old Western Scrounger came out with full-length .236 Navy cases made from .30-40 Krag shells with the rims turned off and an extraction groove lathe-cut. I also found a handful of originals, which I loaded with my best loading (100 or 105 gr Hornady or Speer RN/ 33 gr IMR-4064). These shot into the same 2-1/2"-4" that the Swift cases shot into, so the bore, not the leade jump is the limiting factor.

Another friend got a much better, "collector-grade" military Win-Lee, but it doesn't seem to shoot that much closer than mine. The bores on most of these rifles are pretty awful, as this was a "small-bore" in the era of corrosive priming and early smokeless powders. It has a twist of 7 or 8". Certain lots of Speer 105 grainers will disintegrate in mid-air as they are fired, leaving a smoke trail of lead vapor and a comet tail around the bullet hole at 100 yards.

To make this a cast boolit thread, mine also shoots the Ideal 244203 into 3" or so at 50 yds with 5 gr Unique.

The Win-Lee is a fascinating rifle. By the way, it handles the modified Swift shells just fine through the magazine; the original shell was offered in both a rimmed and rimless configuration. Only the rimless shell fits the peculiar stripper clip made for the Win-Lee, but even repros of this clip are too expensive for any but the true Win-Lee fanatic. As you see, I'm a moderate. :razz: