Fun at the Loading Bench.

Muir

Well-Known Member
It was a cold and snowy day here in the waste lands and I just didn't have it in me to spend much time out of doors. I did some reloading tonight and some tidying up in preparation for a friend to come over and see how my loading room is set up.

While in there, I got looking at my 7-08 dies and the bins of once fired military 308 Brass I have in the corner of the shop. Seven millimeter Oh Eight brass is scarce right now and I decided to play around for a bit to see if I could make some useable 7mm-08 brass from the military stockpiles. A couple of dozen measurements of the mil-surp brass showed the necks to be .002" to .003" thicker than factory 7-08. FL resizing the brass to 7mm-08 and making a dummy round showed that there was room in the neck area of my TIKKA T-3 but I get nervous around thick necks so the first order was to reduce the thickness of the brass.

I don't like neck turning, but I am a fan of neck reaming. I decided to ream the 308 brass but all I have is a .308" reamer for my Forster trimmer. FL resized 308 would have too much removed, and unsized brass would have nothing removed. From a previous experiment I knew that I could lightly resize the 308 with a Lee Collet die and just take a skim cut from the brass with a 308 reamer. I ran several cases into the Collet die, and then ran them in my Forster with the reamer in place before I got the .012" reading I was wanting.

Once this setting was locked I repeated the operation for 20 cases. I then FL resized in my RCBS 7mm-08 die and trimmed to length. All 20 cases chambered easily in my TIKKA. A dummy made up with a Sierra GK gave the exact same micrometer reading across the neck as those I currently have loaded using commercial brass.

I now need to swage the primer pockets and finally, weigh all 20 cases and set them aside so that at some point, I can compare the average weight of the military casing against the average weight of the commercial brass for load adjustment. That will happen another day. Not a completed project but not bad for a snowy afternoon's puttering.~Muir
 
It was a cold and snowy day here in the waste lands and I just didn't have it in me to spend much time out of doors. I did some reloading tonight and some tidying up in preparation for a friend to come over and see how my loading room is set up.

While in there, I got looking at my 7-08 dies and the bins of once fired military 308 Brass I have in the corner of the shop. Seven millimeter Oh Eight brass is scarce right now and I decided to play around for a bit to see if I could make some useable 7mm-08 brass from the military stockpiles. A couple of dozen measurements of the mil-surp brass showed the necks to be .002" to .003" thicker than factory 7-08. FL resizing the brass to 7mm-08 and making a dummy round showed that there was room in the neck area of my TIKKA T-3 but I get nervous around thick necks so the first order was to reduce the thickness of the brass.

I don't like neck turning, but I am a fan of neck reaming. I decided to ream the 308 brass but all I have is a .308" reamer for my Forster trimmer. FL resized 308 would have too much removed, and unsized brass would have nothing removed. From a previous experiment I knew that I could lightly resize the 308 with a Lee Collet die and just take a skim cut from the brass with a 308 reamer. I ran several cases into the Collet die, and then ran them in my Forster with the reamer in place before I got the .012" reading I was wanting.

Once this setting was locked I repeated the operation for 20 cases. I then FL resized in my RCBS 7mm-08 die and trimmed to length. All 20 cases chambered easily in my TIKKA. A dummy made up with a Sierra GK gave the exact same micrometer reading across the neck as those I currently have loaded using commercial brass.

I now need to swage the primer pockets and finally, weigh all 20 cases and set them aside so that at some point, I can compare the average weight of the military casing against the average weight of the commercial brass for load adjustment. That will happen another day. Not a completed project but not bad for a snowy afternoon's puttering.~Muir

Good idea, I hate turning necks, it's a tedious job. I have a good supply of 7mm-08 brass and there's a lot available here. If you need some , drop me a line.

AB
 
I too find neck turning tedious and even having purchased and setup a K&M cutter for each calibre/rifle including my 22 Hornet so there is no 'fiddling' and 'experimentation' required to mirror the last batch thickness.

Problem is I don't trust anyone else to do it including my 11-year old Daughter!

Cheers

K
 
Must admit to really disliking the hand held Noddy toys that are sold for outside neck turning.
I make my own hardened reamer guides for FL dies so that I can inside neck ream without getting aching paws from case handling...

adtNRB6l.jpg


Chuck the reamer in a leccy screwdriver and Bob's your knob - consistent result!
This particular set is for reaming re-sized 204R brass to the correct .17 Remington neck dimension.
 
Hi Muir
What kit do you use for primer pocket swaging and primer crimp removal on the military stuff?

Ian

I have used the same RCBS Primer Pocket Swager for 30 years now. The unit works well but you need to screw it down more than you would think. Once set, it works well. That said, friends have been trying to talk me into the Dillon or Forster on the basis of speed but The RCBS is pretty fast once you get used to it.~Muir
 
Of course, you could just make an inside reamer insert for the newer Lee trim dies that reamed the brass...just saying. :)

I think the trim dies are what, $7?
 
I have used the same RCBS Primer Pocket Swager for 30 years now. The unit works well but you need to screw it down more than you would think. Once set, it works well. That said, friends have been trying to talk me into the Dillon or Forster on the basis of speed but The RCBS is pretty fast once you get used to it.~Muir

Thanks Muir - It looks like a good sound design - I've put one on my wish list. Alternatively I might be able to get a mate to turn up a set of bits to fit into an old die body. (Tight fisted Yorkshireman living in Scotland syndrome!)

Ian
 
Of course, you could just make an inside reamer insert for the newer Lee trim dies that reamed the brass...just saying. :)

I think the trim dies are what, $7?

Nine bucks and you're right. I could turn a shaft and mount a cutter... but.... It would need make the reamer. I guess that's what the dividing head is for, eh??~Muir
 
Or just a C collet index spinner... ;)

Too much jostling around to get in three cuts needed per flute.... I think. Besides, I have the dividing head. Did I mention that it has a MT2 Headstock Taper?? I have a bunch of collets for it already. I'm prepping a batch of cases to make some more 7-08 brass from. It's snowing bad here. Nobody is leaving town tonight, least of all me. Good night to make brass.~Muir
 
I hear you, though we don't have snow here. Ever. :D

Seriously, the wife has whatever crud I had over Christmas, so I spent most of the day tinkering on the lathe. Got some new carbide tooling in the mail...I need to just sit down and grind some HSS tool bits. The surface finish with the carbide was crap...maybe it was just some stringy, no name mystery steel, but it did not finish as well as I would have liked...
 
I hear you, though we don't have snow here. Ever. :D

Seriously, the wife has whatever crud I had over Christmas, so I spent most of the day tinkering on the lathe. Got some new carbide tooling in the mail...I need to just sit down and grind some HSS tool bits. The surface finish with the carbide was crap...maybe it was just some stringy, no name mystery steel, but it did not finish as well as I would have liked...

More likely the problem is related to having little or no understanding regarding turning speed, depth of cut, feed rates, tool height, work/tool overhang and coolant rather than 'stringy, no name mystery steel'.
 
No, already familiar with speeds and feeds (wrt carbide requiring faster speeds), but thanks for the input...
 
I hear you, though we don't have snow here. Ever. :D

Seriously, the wife has whatever crud I had over Christmas, so I spent most of the day tinkering on the lathe. Got some new carbide tooling in the mail...I need to just sit down and grind some HSS tool bits. The surface finish with the carbide was crap...maybe it was just some stringy, no name mystery steel, but it did not finish as well as I would have liked...

Let me guess. A one shot skim cut (on something your SA neighbor brought over for you to trim up) using Chinese carbide? :D Yeah. It rains oranges and limes where you live. We got another 7-9 inches last night on top of freezing rain earlier yesterday. I don't think anybody went to town to celebrate New Years. I did hear some distant gunfire around midnight though. Ran that brass through the US cleaner last night and I'll be hung if it wasn't SBS brass instead of the LC I thought it was. I only did thirty to match up with the 20 LC I did the other night. Back to the beginning.... This time wearing glasses!:rolleyes:~Muir

PS: Tell the Missus that I warned her that hanging out with you would do her no good.
 
Actually, I did pull down the last of the tangerines and some of the limes yesterday...but I digress... :p

And yes, a skim cut (.005"). A heavier cut gave a marginally better finish, but nothing like actual "cutting" with HSS...
 
Actually, I did pull down the last of the tangerines and some of the limes yesterday...but I digress... :p

And yes, a skim cut (.005"). A heavier cut gave a marginally better finish, but nothing like actual "cutting" with HSS...

I figured as much. I have about three indexable carbide tools and a couple of carbide boring bars. I seldom use them and my old lathe lacks the horse power to use them effectively. I should give them to you. ~Muir
 
More likely the problem is related to having little or no understanding regarding turning speed, depth of cut, feed rates, tool height, work/tool overhang and coolant rather than 'stringy, no name mystery steel'.

What joe says applies to most of the UK rifle assemblers simply because they have very little or no formal training in engineering and dont understand the principles of all that joe said, hence the almost exclusive use of preformed carbide tooling.
I doubt very much that any could make a HSS chamber reamer if they had to.

Ian.
 
Hi Muir
I tried necking down .308 brass to 7-08 but ended up with a slightly shorter neck, are you finding the same characteristic, also found a similar problem necking up . 243 brass.
dcg
 
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