.348 brass to 45-75 win

[Gav-n-Tn]

[QUOTE=Jeff Michel;5675015]

First off "Chappy"?? What is a Chappy?
It's a Chapparal, no longer manufactured, it's a common use vernacular with shooters of 1876 clones.

In my case, mine actually is a Chapparal. I’ve had it for over a decade or more. New, unfired, in the box. My understanding is that the Chapparal chamber dimensions were based on the original Winchester 1876 Centennial’s. I was gearing up to load for some of my other hard to find ammo for calibers and decided to give the 45-75 a go. I don’t intend for it to be a target rifle, I want to hunt with it.

[Kai]

[QUOTE=Jeff Michel;5675015]

First off "Chappy"?? What is a Chappy?
It's a Chapparal, no longer manufactured, it's a common use vernacular with shooters of 1876 clones.

I don't have one of those. Never heard of it. Mine's a winchester 1876 circa 1877.

[Gav-n-Tn]

How far down the 348 case is everyone annealing? Seems like you’d want to get down as far as where the taper starts to form for the 45-75?

[Gav-n-Tn]

How far down the 348 case is everyone annealing? Seems like you’d want to get down as far as where the taper starts to form for the 45-75?

Anyone have an answer or opinion?

[Jeff Michel]

Since I'm cutting the case practically at the top of the shoulder, I generally anneal to the bottom of the shoulder, the temperature will migrate so you will have to keep a close eye on your brass, you don't want to over heat it. I would suggest that you shorten first, a bit long, then anneal, then go through your expansion steps. Don't be stingy on lube either, I use Imperial sizing die wax, STP is good as well, use a cotton swab cover inside and outside. I don't know what you have at your disposal as to tooling, but take your time during the expansion process, have on hand a variety of different size expanders, I go from .357 to .400 to .458 ( these all have a pretty steep taper so as to minimize the stress of expanding) and still lose one from time to time. Do not go from .348 to .458 in one pass, everyone on the forum will hear your shriek when you shove the neck into the case body. Kidding aside, take your time and you shouldn't have to many problems. After the case is expanded, full length resize, trim the case, then it's off to fire form. Nothing special here, your new case is incredibly tough. I use regular hunting loads when I fire form and some times it takes a couple times before they are fully formed.

[Gav-n-Tn]

Since I'm cutting the case practically at the top of the shoulder, I generally anneal to the bottom of the shoulder, the temperature will migrate so you will have to keep a close eye on your brass, you don't want to over heat it. I would suggest that you shorten first, a bit long, then anneal, then go through your expansion steps. Don't be stingy on lube either, I use Imperial sizing die wax, STP is good as well, use a cotton swab cover inside and outside. I don't know what you have at your disposal as to tooling, but take your time during the expansion process, have on hand a variety of different size expanders, I go from .357 to .400 to .458 ( these all have a pretty steep taper so as to minimize the stress of expanding) and still lose one from time to time. Do not go from .348 to .458 in one pass, everyone on the forum will hear your shriek when you shove the neck into the case body. Kidding aside, take your time and you shouldn't have to many problems. After the case is expanded, full length resize, trim the case, then it's off to fire form. Nothing special here, your new case is incredibly tough. I use regular hunting loads when I fire form and some times it takes a couple times before they are fully formed.

I am set up in the following order: expander mandrels .3365, .4095, .4465 then .457 expander ball and finally RCBS FL “Legacy” die. I plan on annealing during expansion increments. I bought some “cheaper” jacketed .458 for fire forming. Cheaper being a relative term of course. Haven’t figured out a fire forming or starting load yet. I’ll be using smokeless powder (VV N133).