Cartridge conversion - forgot something

[Cheaha]

I just finished converting 70+ 30-06 cartridge cases to 8x57. This is my first attempt at any cartridge conversion. They came out great but I think I may have skipped a step. I did not anneal the necks and I have already primed all the cases. There is no evidence of any problems with the necks at this point. I am using an M98 with plenty of room for thick necks. My intention is to use a starting load to fireform the cases. Obviously I do not want to waste 70+ primers but I also don't want to have my necks splitting after the first shot. Am I safe with skipping the annealing or am I going to see lots of split necks? Thanks for any advice. Cheaha

[FWAddit]

They'll be fine. I've never had a split neck shooting 8x57 reformed from .30-06, and I've never annealed.

If you want to assure they last longer, you can anneal after shooting them.

[largom]

They'll be fine. I've never had a split neck shooting 8x57 reformed from .30-06, and I've never annealed.

If you want to assure they last longer, you can anneal after shooting them.



Same here for 8X57 and 8mm-06. I do pay close attention to case length and neck thickness though.

Larry

[Cheaha]

Thanks for the reassurance! I'll keep my eyes on the necks and case length. I am really happy with my results so far, it is nice to be able to use all these left over .30-06 cases! Cheaha

[roverboy]

Thanks for the info guys. I'm thinking about trying this myself. I don't have a lot of good 8mm brass.

[Baron von Trollwhack]

You may want to leave case lenght a little long. Length will shrink a little on firing. BvT

[SciFiJim]

Can someone point to a step-by-step how to on converting 30-06 brass to 8x57? I get pick up a new toy (8mm Turk mauser) on Monday and don't have any brass for it. However, I do have some 30-06 brass I can convert.
Thanks,
Jim

[JMtoolman]

Can someone point to a step-by-step how to on converting 30-06 brass to 8x57? I get pick up a new toy (8mm Turk mauser) on Monday and don't have any brass for it. However, I do have some 30-06 brass I can convert.
Thanks,
Jim

Jim, just run them into the 8 MM sizer, lube the body of the 06 case, but dont use any lube on the neck. Any lube on the top of the sholder or neck will cause oil dents in the sizing of the case. I always annealed after forming and trimming. Then trim to length., thats all there is to it! Regards, the toolman.

[jonk]

I always chuckle about 'don't put lube on the shoulder or neck'.

I'm not going to sit there and lube my cases with an artist's brush, I'm going to spray them down with lube and let the tackiest bit dry off before sizing.

One of those old reloading tips I've heard for years and never an explanation of how to achieve this.

It is an easy process to do the conversion. RCBS makes a form die that's quite nice but not entirely needed. I use a small cut off saw, chop about 5mm off the 06 brass, lube and size in the 8mm die, final trim and chamfer. Done.

No need to fireform before loading for real, the die has formed your brass for you.

I never anneal. When I have tried, shoulders have crumpled on reforming like this. Or I get inconsistent neck tension. Minus some sort of rig to control exactly how much heat each neck gets (or bothering with heat paste) I'd rather just load and shoot and if a case cracks now and again, so be it.

[BigDaddie]

I'm really glad I came across this the other day!

I did about 20 of these when I realised I needed more for my match this W/E. I must say it was really easy. Here's how I did it:
I ran the `06 cases into the FLS die to expand the neck (lube on neck only)
Whacked the case in the soft jaws of the vise and used the dremel with a small cutoff wheel to remove about 5mm from the neck.
Deburred the neck and re-lubed the whole case (I use Redding imperial sizing wax - good stuff, no over spray)
FLS the case, then turn it 90deg and run it thru the die again.
Wipe down and trim to length then deburr.

For interest, I did the smae thing with a couple of once fired cases. There was a noticable difference in force required to trim and form those cases compared to the new ones. For this reason, I would consider annealing those in the future. One extra step that takes very little time..... better than stressing the daylights out of my gear. Easy to do with a lee case holder, benzo torch and a cordless drill (with the lights off for consistent colour of brass)

[leadman]

With the RCBS case lube it does dent the case necks if too much is used.

[Hang Fire]

Same here for 8X57 and 8mm-06. I do pay close attention to case length and neck thickness though.

Larry

Ah, 8mm-06, had one about 50 years ago when that was a standard retro. Was/is an excellent cartridge, took many a deer.

[res45]

I did my first case conversion last week it was a pretty simple one by most comparisons. I had picked up about 50 once fired LC91 7.62 x 51 cases,I wanted to convert them to 300 Sav. brass for my cast bullet loads.

I ran the cases through a FL 06 die I had lubed with Lee lube,they were a little tough at the base but resized fine,then I took the resized cases and ran them through the Lyman 300 Sav. die to form the new shoulder and trimmed the cases to length with my Lyman universal trimmer with power adapter. I tested a number of dummy loads and they all worked great.

I set these cases aside for my cast bullet loads,there a bit thicker than commercial 308 brass so they should last a longtime for my light cast bullet loads. I know 300 Sav. brass is available but why pay $20+ plus shipping for brass when you can make you own from range pickup,or cheap military surplus brass.

http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j1/rhsikes/Picture014copy-1.jpg

[JSH]

Neck thickness should not be a problem when going up in size. Going down it can and will cause problems.
I have used spray lubes when reforming, more is not better.
I have found the Hornady neck dies in various calibers works excellent to expand with, because of the tpaered expander ball. I ALWAYS polish these up. The RCBS and some of the others expanders are not brass forming friendly, not enough taper. It mak be a PITA, but I use a Q tip to lube the inside of the case mouth. It seems to help a lot even if brass has been annealed prior to sizing.
I do as much case forming by feel as anything, so it is easier for me to show one than describe. FYI I anneal 99% of all my reformed brass. The 1% would fall into virgin stuff, and even then if a lot of material is moved, I anneal when done BEFORE fire forming.
Being making/forming brass, it is a custom deal. I try to do a chamber cast and see what it wants or needs. Some brass will shrink when fire formed more than others. This is where you need to be careful. I go to a MAX OAL when fire forming. I also check and trim if needed, as some case mouths will grow funky at times.
Your dies may make the brass fit the chmaber, but all of the angles may have more of a radius to them than factory brass. That is why I anneal.
I wany my cases to look just as purty as my bullets and expect no less from them. Anything else is a cull IMHO.
jeff

[gunnerasch0]

Back in the '60s I used a friend,s 7.7x58 RCBS file trim die to make that round from 30-06 GI
range pickup brass. I also found that 8x57 brass, often from Canada back then, would fireform to 77.7x58 too. When it became necessary to get my own file trim die, I got an RCBS 8x57 from 30-06 file trim die to make both 8x57 and 7.7x58 by not screwing the die in the press down so far/ Worked well for me.

[Crash_Corrigan]

Some years ago I purchased a BRNO 8 x 57 MM Mauser rifle from Big 5 sporting goods for the princely sum of $109.95. Being impatient I bought two boxes of Remington Soft Point J word ammo at the same time.

I dragged that old rifle home and it took twe weeks to clean it up. The stock was the worst and required weeks of soaking in paper towels in the hot sun of Vegas to remove the worst of the grease and oil from the last 80 years.

When finally cleaned up I had a rifle with a pristine barrel and a decent stock with lousey sights but a crisp and fast action.

I shot the first box of factory fodder for this rifle and I was less than impressed with the heavy recoil and miserable high shot placement at 100 yds. I then fabricated a taller front sight from some epoxy and a clay mold.

I then got a pair of Lee molds that kicked out a .324 or so dia boolit in cast and made some up. I found the Brassman here in Vegas and made a deal for 1,000 pieces of once fired 30-06 brass for $150 bucks.

I sold off half the brass to my buddy who needed some for his '06 and I proceeded to convert some of the remainder to my 8 MM.

First I removed the old primers and gave them a good long tumble in a vibratory cleaner. Then I applied a light spray of Dillon's case lube and ran them thru a 30-06 FL sizing die after I lubed the inside of the case mouth with mica.

Now I had a long necked case with a .323 dia mouth. I cleaned off the lube and then using a Lyman Neck Trimmer with an electric drill I trimmed off about 5.5 MM of the excess neck length.

Then I removed the burrs from the inside and outside of the neck with the Lee tool and I was ready to go.

The Lee cast boolit loaded over 12 gr of Red Dot gave me good accuracy out to 300 yds if I used the ladder rear sighting device. Low recoil, low muzzle blast and a lot for fun and the other guys shooting the nasty Turk surplus 8x57 ammo were trying to buy my ammo.

I bought some of that Turk stuff from Cheaper Than Dirt on a lark one time and I was disappointed in it. It was really hot and I had a lot of split necks and very heavy recoil and of course it was corrosive. I stopped using it and I broke down a couple of hundred rounds of it. I reused the J word bullets and the powder but I scrapped the brass. I found they were loaded with 48 gr of a very black square and flat powder which worked very well in reduced loadings if I used COW as a filler and kept the charges in the range of 18 to 20 grains.

That Turk ammo was really hot as I chronoed some of it and it was moving at over 3,000 FPS in a lot of cases and the average was 2,900 or so FPS with good accuracy out to 600 yds if you could put up with the duds and heavy recoil.

It was not an ammo which I would want to put away for WTSHTF days as it was unreliable and with the split necks and did not want to use it anymore.

Now of course I converted the old campaigner into a 6.5 x 55 MM Sweede and I am stuck with about 250 cases and or loaded rounds for a calibre which I no longer have a weapon for. I am looking for a nice sporter in 8 x 57 with a receiver sight for a plinker to utilize the components and molds that I still have. It could also be a nice truck gun as it reloads pretty quick with the stipper clips I saved.

[frkelly74]

Well , that is the logical conclusion after all. Get another rifle, I think you would like a yugo 24/47 or an m48. my 24/47 rifle likes a load similar to what you came up with except I used Herco because I had a lot of it.