Reforming .30 Carbine to .22 Spitfire or 5.7 Johnson

[Lostinidaho]

I am a full fledge member of the small arms humane society. I can't let an orphan fire are sit neglected.

I inherited a M-1 carbine in 22 Spitfire from my Dad. He was Melvin Johnson fan.

I have the some loaded cartridges. I have reloading dies. But eventually I will need new brass.

Has anyone reformed this brass or similar and could walk me through the process?

I know I can buy it. But I would like to try.

Thanks in advance

[Cheeto303]

Maybe this will help. You can contact Ed Johnson, one Melvins sons. I believe he had a lot to do with Spitfires and the 5.7 MMJ Spitfire Cartridge.
If anything he can tell you about your carbine.

http://johnsonautomatics.com/messageboard/index.php?/forum/5-johnson-spitfire/

[barkerwc4362]

I bought the form and trim dies (there are two) that Redding sells. I bought mine from Grafs and Sons. Those dies will fully form 30 carbine brass to 22 Spitfire/ 5.7 Johnson. You can buy ready formed 22 Spitfire/ 5.7 Johnson brass. Precision Cartridge Inc. has loaded ammo.

Bill

[bobz]

I built a Spitfire on a Plainfield receiver a few years ago when Sarco had the barrels. Picked up a set of RCBS dies. To make the brass from .30 carbine I deprime and clean, then anneal (very important or you lose a lot of cases), run through the full length sizer (go slow), trim and inside neck ream at the same time on a Forster trimmer, chamfer, run through the sizer again, then tumble/clean again. I also use a Lee .218 Bee factory crimp die when loading. I made about 300 rounds from old WWII GI brass that worked great.

[Lostinidaho]

bobz, Thanks for the reply

So you are using a .224 neck inside reamer which reams really to .220.

Also just the normal full length sizing die.

[bobz]

I used a Forster .224 inside reamer, don't know what size it actually cut to. And just the full length size die to form the cases. They load, fit, and function well in my rifle.

[Lostinidaho]

Thanks for the great information. Have a great day

[eb in oregon]

I have reformed .30 Carbine to 5.7MMJ several times. The first time I lubed the cases with Castor oil (I have a lube pad for Castor oil only) and ran them through the re-sizing die carefully. I used both commericial and military cases as there isn't really much difference between them. I then inside neck reamed them with a Forester case trimmer with a .224 reamer. I didn't check the finished inside diameter either as it's supposed to be smaller than the bullet diameter anyway. The neck does expand a bit while reaming from the pressure of the reamer. I trimmed to the minimum length and beburred last before loading. Some cases were lost during reforming, they didn't like being reduced without annealing. Some split upon firing for the same reasons. The rifle is an Israeli made Carbine and when I bought it it came with a set of CH4D dies. I bought a set of CH4D two step reforming dies after the first re-loading attempt. You will also need an extended shell holder for the reforming dies. I would suggest you anneal before trying either method as while the cases may reform without annealing the case life is rather reduced in my experience.

[gwpercle]

The Redding Case Forming and Trim Die set will give you the best results.
Case forming from 30 cal. down to 22 cal , in one pass with the least number lost , gives the special made forming die a big edge if you want to load more than a few. The Trim Die is a big help but not mandatory . CH-4D at one time made case forming dies that may have been a few dollars cheaper than Redding's but that was a few years ago.

You can try the standard resizing die , with good case forming lube and maybe doing it in a partial step first , relube and finish the sizing in a second step and see how it works..
Seems like the new Redding Case Forming die ate up most of a $100.00 bill , but back in the day you could pick up buckets of 30 Carbine brass at the range , turning the free brass into spitfire cases was worth the cost .
Gary