Forming 300 AAC brass

[Tonto]

Spent time this weekend forming 300 Blackout brass in some quantity without fancy gear. Here are the steps:
Start with clean/tumbled 223/556 brass, swage primer pockets if necessary, I used 1X fired commercial Win and FC brass
Using my first generation RCBS Piggyback on a Rockchucker, I deprimed with a Lee Universal depriming die and formed the brass using a Redding 30-221 fireball form die
I then trimmed the brass with a small Harbor Freight saw roughly to length, finished trimming on a Lyman case trimmer with a power drive attachment and a rechargeable drill, then chamfered and de-burred with the same drill
Cases were tumbled to clean and burnish brass edges, to get rid of brass shavings
Cases lubed then FL sized with a Lee FL sizer die and tumbled clean again.
600 rounds ready to load
With free brass and cast bullets, this ammo is just next to free to shoot!
(thanks for fixing my screwup....)

[Ben]

You will have to get a Moderator to move it for you.

[stubshaft]

Did you have to ream the necks?

[jblee10]

I understand that the 300 AAC was designed to be formed from 223 brass and has a wider neck than the 300 Whisper. I form Whisper brass from Federal cases and haven't even found a need to ream necks in the Whisper chamber I have.

[stubshaft]

I wasn't aware of that thanks.

[TXGunNut]

My brother is kicking around a rifle in that caliber. Think I need to sit him down @ the reloading press before he pulls the trigger on that idea. Unless, of course, he wants to buy me an upper to use as a test mule. :wink:

[Idaho Sharpshooter]

We have a member and Iraqi Veteran: Brad Lubke of www.bradswarehouse.com, who does an excellent job of forming your 223 military brass into ready to load 300 BLK at a very reasonable price. I hate swaging the crimp out of the military brass, and trimming it. There is a sense of accomplishment in turning molten lead alloy into beautiful boolets for my firearms. There is none in forming brass, at least for me.

A hundred dollar bill turned 1265 surplus cases ( medium Priority Box full) I had into 300 BLK cases.

Rich

[Tonto]

as mentioned, no neck reaming, the beauty of this project. Great to know of a source for formed brass, I enjoying doing my own though, that hundred goes for primers and powder...doesn't matter if commercial or military brass either, the only difference is the primer pocket step for military....I'm using a DS Arms upper which was inexpensive and shoots great, not sure how much time I will spend with the 556 upper anymore.

[Moonie]

I've got everything for my 300 AAC Blackout upper except the barrel, waiting on it as its backordered. I've trimmed and formed about 150 pieces so far, used a brass tubing cutter and lee 300 AAC Blackout dies.

[Russel Nash]

major...major ....thread drift here....

and an FYI....

the .300 Blackout external ballistics are pretty dang close to the 7.62X39Russian round.

If you have an AK and live in one of those free-er states where you can have suppressors, then just get a muzzle can for your AK.

No need to really splurge on both an AR upper, or to rebarrel an existing upper AND buy a can and a tax stamp.

Back on topic...

plenty of videos on youtube on how to trim down and form .300 blackout brass.

I had an idea cross my mind the other night. Instead of "necking up" .223 brass to accept a .308 cal bullet, I was thinking of a 6.5 bullet, probably something, maybe a little lighter that would have better super sonic external ballistics performance.

[Gunnut 45/454]

Been make my own out of short Fed 223 brass. Just using a dremmel tool to cut off just the neck and trim tool to get close to OAL and resize. Did another twenty today. Just got my Speer125gr TNT's and 130 Varmitters today. So I'll be doing some more load testing. Already got the load for the 130's as I had a few on hand. Getting 2174 fps out of my CMMG 16" and nice 1.850" group at 100 yards. I hope the 125 will do better! They look like SMK's and have zero wt deviation to them so fingers crossed. :)

[SwedeNelson]

Picked up a little chop saw from Harbor Freight.
Something like $12.00 on sale.

http://i69.photobucket.com/albums/i80/swedenelson/Picture052-1.jpg

Made a stop to cut to length, de-bur, form then use a Lee case trimmer on them.

http://i69.photobucket.com/albums/i80/swedenelson/Picture053-1.jpg
Can do 500 round in no time.

Swede Nelson

[x101airborne]

Hey Swede.... That stop looks handy! Can you make a couple?

[Russel Nash]

Gunnut wrote:


...Already got the load for the 130's as I had a few on hand. Getting 2174 fps out of my CMMG 16" and nice 1.850" group at 100 yards....

for the 130 grainers, do you think you can wring some more velocity out of them, say either by bumping up the powder charge or by switching powders?

[leadman]

Russel Nash, JD Jones has a whole line of the Whispers to include a 6.5. Basically the same case.
From Cartridges of the World , 6.5 Whisper: 10" SSK barrel, 100gr Hornady, 19gr H110, 2300 fps.
120gr Nosler BT, A 1680 19 gts, 2150 fps.

I would think you could add at least 200 fps for a 16" barrel.

[Gunnut 45/454]

Russel Nash
At 17.5 gr of H110 I'm .2 gr shy of Max load- and the brass showed signs of over pressure. After I chronied these I noticed the primer pockets were not tight anymore. Could be just well used brass but I don't think I'll push these more with H110- I think I'll give Lil'Gun a try.:mrgreen:

[GRUMPA]

Well just found this thread because now it got me interested in forming this stuff. I don't know if it's me and my fussy mind-set but after I got the SAAMI spec sheet on this and after doing more than a few the neck diameter was getting close to max. According to spec's the neck dia. Max is .334 and I was getting real close to that.

Mind you now I'm working with brass as old as 15yrs up to current production of pretty much all makes. But the one thing that stands out is the taper and close to max dia of the neck. If I ream out the neck which is kinda easy and quick I get a neck dia (with boolit in case) of .226-7. Any of you guys that roll your own ever check this out? Or have functioning issues with the neck dia?

Just curious on this.

[Russel Nash]

do you have a case gauge?

If the loaded round drops right into and right out of the case gauge, that's good for me, and the ammo runs 100%

[TreeKiller]

I am in the process of making some cases from 5.56 after cutting off the neck do you anneal the case before you size or or after on don't you anneal at all?
Thanks
Dan

[Boolseye]

What is the trim length, before sizing and deburring? I want to get a head start on a few .223 cases before I have my dies and upper. Or do you just cut 'em off at the neck, as mentioned in the previous post?
-BE

[kawasakifreak77]

I've been using a $4 tubing cutter. Not as fast as the chop saws but doesn't make a racket or a mess.

Cut the right behind the shoulder, run them through a FL die, trim & done.

Made a couple hundred like so & havereloaded some 6+ times already.

Oh. I don't know what annealing is. Apparently I don't need to! :D

I'm using LC '12 range pickups from non-reloaders.

[Boolseye]

excellent, thanks.

[garym1a2]

Get this "Little Crow Gunworks World's Finest Trimmer 300 AAC Blackout

[Boolseye]

I'm going with the 2" cut-off saw from Harbor freight and a Lee case length gauge & dies.

[batman4706]

I made a holder out of a 2x2 that holds 5 rds of 223 cases. I run them through a band saw with a metal cutting blade.

Moves along pretty fast. I saw one on YouTube that made a holder about 4 ft long.

[xacex]

major...major ....thread drift here....

I had an idea cross my mind the other night. Instead of "necking up" .223 brass to accept a .308 cal bullet, I was thinking of a 6.5 bullet, probably something, maybe a little lighter that would have better super sonic external ballistics performance.

Look up the 6.5 PCC cartridge. Not much lower performance wise than a 6.5 Grendel, and Black Hole Weaponry was making barrels for it already. .223 brass cut, and sized to 6.5. Sound like it is right up your alley.

http://illirianengineeringc.ipage.com/
http://www.ar15.com/forums/t_3_121/518663_6_5mm_Patriot_Combat_Cartridge__6_5_PCC__Te st_subject_pics_added_on_13.html

89114

It hasn't taken off like I thought it might. To short of neck if you ask me.

[Boolseye]

I ended up chucking a small mandrel in my drill press and cutting them with cheap little cut-off wheels. Mine has a vice and base that make a good jig, I can do probably 2 or 3 per minute, to within .005" of final trim length.