A rolling block followed me home and I kept it

[sharps4590]

I don't mind forming, or reworking cases for oddball calibers, and have to do so for over half the old guns I own. But even reworking cases can be time consuming, and expensive. And the dies to reload can be very expensive. Then there's a few calibers I own that there's just no option to form case or make from another. My .44-100 Ballard Long Range #7 is an example of that. Fortunately the previous owner bit the bullet and bought 200 RMC lathe turned cases, or I'd have been deep in my pocket to get them!

I'm the same, as I said. Probably at least half the rifles I own require some kind of case forming. A few require extensive forming and lathe work. I'm working with a German double rifle right now for which the cases can only be made from 30R Blaser. It is pre-WWI and was originally chambered for the 8 X 62R Vierordt. In 1941 it was evidently re-chambered and re-proofed in Prague, Czechoslovakia for the 8 X 65R Brenneke. As there is no importers mark we assume it is a war trophy. It appears that some half baked gunsmith on this side of the Atlantic tried to ream out the chambers for who knows what. It certainly doesn't appear to be up to the usual Czech or German standard. Neither me nor any of my German Gun Collector Assn. friends can prove that, obviously, but it's the only thing we can think of for the butchered chambers....and we might all be nuts too. It is close enough to the 30R Blaser in head size and body taper that cases can be made to work by necking up, shortening the case, turning the neck and fire forming. As marlinman said, it can be a lot of work but I enjoy doing it. Had this double rifle been for an easily acquired cartridge I doubt I could have afforded it.

[marlinman93]

An old single shot that I can simply buy brass for and load them up is a nice change once in awhile. One that's like my .40-85 Ballard that only requires taking 9.3x74R cases and fire form them to the chamber is almost as good for easy! Then there's the ones that take lots of forming steps, trimming, and maybe a little lathe work at the base or rim. Those take so much work to make cases that they don't get shot as much because it's so much work to get enough cases.
A couple years ago I bought a Rolling Block Sporting Rifle factory chambered in .40-50 SS, and thought, "Here goes another that will need expensive brass, dies, and lots of forming. But it ended up being none of those things! I use .30-40 Krag, or .303 British brass and simply fire form them in the chamber. Then trim about 5/16" off the length, and they're good to go! Love the caliber, as it's extremely thrifty on smokeless powder, and a very accurate little cartridge, with very low recoil. Because of all this it gets shot a lot, and I ended up building a 2nd Rolling Block in the same caliber to play with.

[sharps4590]

Sounds like my first Schuetzen rifle. To date no one on either side of the Atlantic can identify the cartridge but it's an easy make. Simply fireform 30 WCF cases and square up the mouth. Dave at CH-4D and I decided to call it an "8.7 X 55R" simply because that's the dimensions. I did have to have dies made but it was worth it. As with yours, this Schuetzen rifle is scary accurate. With it I fired my best group ever, period. The bullet is .345 and at 100 I shot a group...crap, I forgot!!! Anyway, it was less than 3/8 of an inch...for 4 shots. I chickened out and wouldn't fire a fifth.

[1Hawkeye]

Well I took it to the range this weekend and what a treat. Saturday was 60 rounds of 3Fg with a card wad it and a Lee 450 gr bullet the first 2 were high but about and inch apart after that it kinda went from m.o.a to minute of buffalo group wise even though I swabbed every 10 rounds. Today was 40 rounds of the same bullet but with 12 grains of unique and a big difference 3" groups at the same elevation as the 3Fg loads. I know I should have used 1Fg but Iv'e had good luck with 3Fg in my .45-70's