I'm nearing the part where I can start forming brass and I wanted to ask if their are any tips on necking down brass properly. The rifle parts are all here and are going off to the gunsmith this morning. The plan is to take Lapua 8x57 virgin brass and neck it down to 6.5 then blow the shoulder out to 30 deg. Dave Kiff of PTG calls it 6.5x57BR; BR for 30 deg shoulder. Whidden made up a set of custom bushing dies of me and I've got about 4-5 bushings to size down the neck in steps; about .014" or .015" steps. I figure plenty of Imperial Sizing Wax to easy the work. I've then got the Whidden Hydraulic Form die to blow out the shoulder before 1st firing.

Any advice or tips would be great and thanks in advance.

Alan

just a thought. it will be a lot easier to go from 7x57 or get 6.5 x 57 and just fire form but that wasn't the question. depending on the original annealing of the brass I think you may need to anneal before you actually shoot it as not to split necks, brass work hardens. make a small batch and shoot with powder to see if the necks split.

Like shooter42 says, don't forget to anneal the brass.

I picked the 8x57 Lapua brass because I LOVE Lapua brass. Even if sizing down in .015" increments, should I still anneal (which won't be a problem as I anneal all the time) between increments?

Alan

I think the headspace datum line is different on the 8x57 vs the 7x57 ?
I know it is for the 6 Rem.

I sent 5 pieces of virgin brass to Dave Kiff for him to take measurements off of for the reamer print. The same print was sent to Whidden for the dies. If I ever need or want to try 7x57, i'll take some good measurements before taking on such an endeavor.

Alan

as cowboybart stted the headspace dimension is different for the 8mm and 7mm mauser . I don't know which is longer off hand but either case would allow you to create a false shoulder to just fit in the chamber and allow firing.

Going down from 8 to 6.5 you may have to neck turn/ream. Inside neck reaming - the tooling can get expensive. Outside neck turning is a bit more labor intensive.
With new brass I would think you could do all of your necking down, then anneal. If your using fired brass, anneal, neck down, anneal.

Used to make and sell case forming dies. .015 is a very small amount in a step in necking down. With Lapua brass, I doubt you will need to anneal the necks. If you do need to reduce the thickness of the neck, it can be done with an inside reamer.

Butch, now that's just plain COOL beans your own creations?

Alan, I am doing a very similar project only approaching it the opposite way. I have a 6mmAI that the barrel is toast. I fireform my brass in that barrel then expand the neck up. only difference is mine will have a 40 degree shoulder and I am stuck with Remington brass. Hope to see you at the Garth Kilpack range so we can trade notes on load's

Brian

.257 R brass, jam the lands and fire form?

Good luck with the project.

He could size down the 8x57 brass just enough to form a false shoulder so the bolt could close with a bit of feel and have zero slop.

The shoulder on the 8x57 is not the same location as on the 7x57. It is further forward. This means he cannot just use 257 brass or 7x57 brass.
Lapua brass is already annealed and will form just fine. I would neck to 30 in a 308 die first (back the die out to maintain proper body length, of course) then size in the full length sizer. If you want to anneal, do so AFTER necking down. GD

I have discovered if I don't anneal before necking down from one size to another I loose too many cases.