30 herrett question

Hope this is the right place for this question. I have a Thompson Contender in 30 Herrett and had no brass. a search revealed that you had to buy separate forming dies. I lookied at my RCBS sizer and it looked like it would allow me to set the sholder back if I pulled the top off the die. So I did, ran some 30-30 brass through it and I seem to have 30 Herrett brass that can now be fire formed. When I make 22-250 brass I have to ream the neck. It does not look like I have to do so with the 30 herrett stuff. Am I missing anything here. I don't see why I would have to buy a separate form die. But I read on several sites that you can't do what I seem to have done.:confused:

Use the full length die to form the case. Then it has to be trimed to Herrett length. The special / separate die mentioned allows you to use a saw blade and / or file to shorten the former .30-30 case to Herrett lengths. Once it's the right length, you should fire form the newly made case to fit your chamber. Very lightly resize the case or neck size the case, trim it to a uniform case length and you are ready to start your first real trip into Herrett country. Load to book specs and have some fun. I've had good luck with 125 gr Sierra's. Long ago Sierra sold a 135 Single Shot Pistol bullet that was just outstanding. No idea why they dumped such a good bullet. I'm about to start trying a 150 gr Lee to see if it is suitable. If this seems like new information to you, you should probably find a good manual to read to cover the entire procedure. You never mentioned trimming the brass which is required and is what you need the forming dies for. best of luck.

Mighty Thor,

I make mine by running throught the sizer die, then cutting to length. Bob Milek told me no formig die was need for the 30 herrett just use the sizing die with the expander ball removed. The 30 Herrett should have a neck wall thickness of .010 and I have had to ream my cases.

Kirb

Thanks for the replies. I did trim the brass, and actually I decided to make these cases to test a case trimming method that a friend and I have been working on. After setting the shoulder down I made an initial rough trim with a cutoff wheel in my drillpress. Set the case length and using a Wilson shell holder as a means of cartridge control I slid the cases into the cut off wheel and trimmed them to a first cut length. Then used the Wilson case trimmer to set them at the "trim to" length. Seems to work well, ran 75 of them in quick succession. I also appreciate the bullet suggestions. It looks like I may have a good reason to start making my own 30 cal bullets.

The .30 Herrett is supposed to be more efficient than the .30-30. Long ago I had a friend who had the Herret and after I saw all the messing around he had to go through I opted for the .30-30. The .30-30 is also a little faster so I liked that.

Do you plan on hunting, shooting silhouettes, what? I plink a little at sillywets but use the .30-30 mostly for hunting. It works great on antelope and deer. Way overkill on coyotes and prairie dogs though. The bullets that work well in my .30-30 will work well in your Herrett, I suppose. On big deer I like the Nosler 150 gr. BT at about 2000 FPS. It will still expand out farther than the Hornady 130 gr. SSP at 2100 FPS, which is my choice for smaller game, such as antelope and smaller deer, as well as the coyote and prairie dog. Both of these are wonderfully accurate in my Contender. You'll have lots of fun with your Herrett!

lovedogs; remember that at the time that the Herrets' were created, the 14" barrel was not invented yet... They were designed to extract the best performance [efficiency] from relatively short [10" and shorter] barrels.. And as such they do indeed excel!! In longer tubes... they are perhaps at a disadvantage.. in a number of ways!!! MV

I do have a 357 Herrett, and one thing I can remember is that case length is pretty important. I haven't made much use of the whole contraption in some time. You can wear out the palm of your hand in short order if you use a case trimmer to make the 30-30 cases into Herretts. That was another lesson I seem to remember.

Doug

MT
I have a set of 30 Herett dies with instructions
the case headspaces on the shoulder
sent you a PM

the same way, remove decapping rod, and form brass. I have a case trimmer that I put on the drill press and knock it down close with it and finish with regular trimmer.
The neck on my 10" barel is generous enough that I do not have to thin the necks, in fact I could very likely double the neck thickness and still have room. Prettly sloppy chamber dimensions in the neck on this TC for this 10" barrel

30, 357 Herrett, 219 Doladson Wasp, and 7.7X5 have made the drill press trimmer well worth the cost.

I have not done a real scientific test, but it may well trim accurately enough to use without the hand trimmer!

I found a good use for a .357 Herrett bbl., also. Take it to a good 'smith and have him run a .35-.375 KAP reamer in it. A .35-.375 KAP is designed by a friend of mine, Glen Kapitzke. It takes a .375 Win. necked down to .35 cal. You wind up with a rimmed case round built on ultra-strong brass that'll last forever and launch 200 gr. Hornady's at just over 2000 FPS. Mine killed six head of elk, all one-shot kills. It's a great wildcat to make with your .357 bbl.

I have used the 357 herrett a lot of years ,( at least 30 yrs.)for hunting deer,hog,and elk. I have always just fire formed the 30 30 's by removing the decaping rod in the herrett resizing die & reforming the 30 30 shell,moving the sholder back so it fits into the chamber .firing, triming,anealing. I never have any problems. It's the only thing I hunt with anymore.

No special forming dies are needed, however a good caselube is needed, then just run up into the FL sizing die. then trim to length.

If you can find some old .375 SM brass on either flea-bay or somewhere else. They can be formed in one pass and have a heavier web to be able to take higher pressures. Used to make them that way when such brass was plentiful and IHMSA was selling it.