Forming 405 and 35 Winchester from 7X65R Brass

[Doubletap]

I've recently aquired several hundred RWS 7X65R new brass. It looks like these would work for forming into 405 Winchester and 35 Winchester brass. The 35 I don't think will be a problem, but the rims, being a bit thinner than 405 might create a small headspace problem. Anyone done this before? If so how did it work?

[missionary5155]

I have used the same brass in a Ballard. Added an "O"ring for the head space.

[Doubletap]

Ahh! Excellent idea there. Thanks for the reply, I'll give it a try with the 405.

[muskeg13]

I recently used PPU 9.3x74R to form .35 Winchester cases. They work, but it's a lot of work to make that happen, and then you do have a minor headspace issue when you're finished. You will need to reduce the base diameter, and this can't be done just by easily full length sizing in stages. Not having a lathe, I had to remove a bit of the base diameter by securing the cases in a 3-jaw chuck in a vise mounted drill and carefully use a hand file and polish with abrasive paper.

The 7x65R cases will probably provide adequate length for the 35 WCF, but will be a bit short for the .405, and will need to have the base diameter reduced. The reason I tried the 9.3x74R was due to their being available from Graf's for a reasonable price and they are longer than .30-40 cases. Converting .30-40 cases to 35 WCF is incredibly easy, just expand the neck, full length resize and trim, but the necks will be a little bit short.

In the limited firing I did with the .30-40 conversions, the 9.3x74R conversions and (expensive) Quality Cartridge .35 WCF cases, all function dependably and provided adequate accuracy. The best accuracy was with the semi-custom Quality Cartridge .35 WCF cases, followed by the .30-40 conversions and then the 9.3x74R conversions. Some of the 9.3x74 converted cases had to go back to the workbench for additional base diameter polishing as they didn't feed or extract as easily as they should. I didn't experience any accuracy loss when using the short necked .30-40 cases at 50 yards with cast boolits, but I didn't fire enough at 100 to make a comparison.

One other thing. Those expensive Quality Cartridge .35 WCF cases required the most pre-loading case prep I've ever had to do. Primer flash hole deburring and primer pocket uniforming is an absolute must, after breaking a depriming tip when initially just attempting to full length resize. Some primer pockets were both or either too tight or too shallow to permit the use of a Lee hand priming tool. Overall case lengths were all over the place, meaning case weights were also not consistent. However, after doing complete case prep on all QC cases, they ended up just fine. You should just be aware that you will need to do this before trying to load the QC cases right out of the shipping bag.