Even though I secured new Hornady brass, this idea intrigued me, especially since .30-30 is so much easier to find. I have NEVER had to anneal or reform brass before. I found an old article by Ed Harris who stated " reform the .30-30 brass in a 2 step process. Decap & partially form the neck a shoulder in a 25-35 die, without finishing the case taper. After pre-forming , case necks are gas annealed. Then full length resize in a second pass without buckling the shoulder. Trim cases to 25-35 length. You don't need to ream the case necks as long as the brass is formed in 2 stages with an inter-draw anneal in between."
I tried this and I cremated the first few cases, my bad. After reading up on this and watching a few videos on YouTube, I think I got this down. I tried annealing again, successfully this time, and a few minutes later put the cases through the second pass. Almost all the new shoulders were wrinkled or dented. I used less Imperial and this cleared up the wrinkling /denting to some extent, but it was still evident. I did not buckle any of the shoulders. I stopped after 15 thinking it was a lost cause. A few days later with 15 more preformed cases, I tried again. Fifteen perfect .30-30s into 25-35s. Why ? All I did that was different from the first attempt was the sizing die was re-adjusted and/or the 15 cases had thoroughly cooled down when reformed. I compared them to new 25-35 cases and they all looked the same.
All this leads me to ask a few questions about reforming brass in general, especially since I had never done it before.
1- How safe is annealing ? It can be overdone, right, to the point that it could fail in a subsequent firing? Some of my original tries have a "pinkish" tone to them at the neck/shoulder.
2-What happens then ? Can the gun sustain a burst neck,shoulder, or case ?
3- In the example of minor dents or stretch marks/wrinkles; I believe these will reform upon firing, but is that still a "weakened" case and should not be used ?
4- Should a pronounced DENT be discarded ?
5-Are reformed cases inherently weak/weakened ? I mean, you did take something made as something else, and turned it into something different.
Would appreciate some guidance here.
Thanks