Short brass.

[ian45662]

My brass after fire forming is about .025 to short for my chamber. Is this a big deal? Should I worry about trying to stretch it or not worry about it at all?

[Travelor]

What cartridge are you talking about?

Did you trim BEFORE fire forming?

[ian45662]

45-70. Fire formed first. Then made all the brass the same length which makes it about .025 short.

[montana_charlie]

45-70. Fire formed first. Then made all the brass the same length which makes it about .025 short.
Being 25 thousandths short is a big deal to me. I not only like round pegs in round holes and square pegs in square holes ... I like the pegs to actually fit the holes.

But, the main reasons for 'needing' full depth cases are few, and MAY be fixable through other means.

If you are shooting paper patched bullets and find 'paper rings' in the chamber, that is caused by short brass.
But, you might be able to ditch the rings by slightly modifying the angle in your chamber.

If you get leading in the front of your chamber when shooting grooved bullets, you can seat the bullet out (or in) so that a grease groove is exposed right at the mouth. Even half of a groove will probably do.
That should eliminate (or reduce) the leading.

[Reverend Al]

If it really concerns you and you want your brass to fit your chamber length exactly you can contact Rick in Winnipeg and order a Kal Max case stretcher from him. I ordered one of them from him last summer and I just got it in the mail a little while ago. It lengthens standard brass and then you can trim them back to your chamber's exact length. You can also lengthen standard cases to reform them into other cartridges. (I'm planning to stretch .45-70 brass to .45-90 length and reform them into .40-82 WCF, to stretch .30-30 cases to full length .32-40's and .38-55's, and lengthen .303 British cases to form .35 WCF and some full length 2 1/2" .410 brass "everlasting" cases.) A bit of an investment I grant you, but with the current Canadian / US dollar exchange rate it'll be to your advantage by over 30%. Your call ...

http://kal.castpics.net/CaseStretcher.html

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oGzQsrPT4Qs

[Reverend Al]

By the way, it stretches the cases in the middle so that you aren't thinning the case mouths or thinning the brass at the base just ahead of the rim. It's a well designed tool and it does a great job.

[ian45662]

I did e mail the fella who makes those about a week ago. He is supposed to figure out what it would cost to ship to my house so he can get a total price for me. What do they cost?

[aspangler]

I use the Hornady brass and it is short also. Haven't had a problem so far. Just seat the boolit out a little farther to your overall length and you should be fine. The 45-70 (as you know) is a rimmed cartridge and it headspaces on the rim. You will have to reset your dies for the shorter cases but that is about all. Good Luck.

[montana_charlie]

What do they cost?
Reverend Al gave you two links for information. The first one goes to the KAL Tool website, which shows a price of $185 for the jig.
It is also necessary to have a four-ton porto power to provide the power to make the jig able to redraw brass.

The cost for a four-ton kit is plus or minus a hundred bucks, depending on brand and source.
This one is less than a hundred, and shipping is free at this moment.
http://www.homedepot.com/p/Big-Red-4-Ton-Porta-Power-with-Carry-Case-T70401S/100595209

Once you own a porto power, you will find other jobs it does well, too.

[ian45662]

If I hear back from kal max and he is ready to ship the jig I will grab that 4 ton kit. I e mailed him back yesterday so I will give him a couple more days and see if he has come up with a price after shipping.

[Reverend Al]

If I hear back from kal max and he is ready to ship the jig I will grab that 4 ton kit. I e mailed him back yesterday so I will give him a couple more days and see if he has come up with a price after shipping.

In my case Rick suggested that I consider using a 10 ton cylinder instead of the standard 4 ton unit so that is what I did. There was a Princess Auto store 5 minutes down the road from Rick's shop and they had the 10 ton kits on sale at the time, so I bought one of them and left the cylinder with Rick so that he could fit it to my jig assembly. A 4 ton cylinder will work OK if you already have one, but a 10 ton isn't that much more expensive to buy if you are going out to buy one, and it makes for a lot less work on stretching the larger cases like the .45-70's. You can see in the video that it is taking a BIT of effort to stretch his .45-90 cases and he is using a 4 ton cylinder with the jig. Just my 2 cents worth ...