Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Fire Forming 8x57 Mauser Brass from .30-06?

I want to convert .30-06 brass to 8x57 Mauser brass and need some help. Does anyone know of an article or a reference to an article that will give me how-to information to fire form the .30-06 brass to 8x57 Mauser? I'm pretty experienced with handloading/reloading techniques, but I've never fire formed brass. Thanks in advance for your help!
Jayhawk Dan

Dan....8x57 is 57mm long...30-06 is something like 61-62mm long IIRC....its gonna be hard to reverse fire-form....

To start with, you need a form die for this operation. Mine is an RCBS. You lube the brass and run it up into the die. A certain amount rises through the hole in the top of the die.

Once this is done, leave the ram in the up position. Take a cutting tool of your choice, such as a hack saw, and cut off the offending brass which is showing above the form die. Once it is cut, you can take a file and make sure the end of the brass is level with the top of the die.

To guild the lily, take your chamfer tool and kiss the neck to bevel the case mouth just enough.

Like Ingwe indicated there is more to the job than fireforming if you are making 8x57 out of .30-06. It isn't hard, but you need a form die.

CT: Has that worked well for you?? Apparently so....

I tried the poor man's version of that and converted some .06 brass into 7x57 brass....
for whatever reason the accuracy sucked donkey balls....and...it was a bunch of work...

I haven't messed with it in several years. I bought a Yugo M48 Mauser in unissued condition at a gunshow probably 12 years ago. This was prior to Remington chambering the 700 Classic to 8x57, so brass was a seasonal run thing. I can't remember how I came by that form die, but I spent the winter working over a coffee can full of Lake City .30-06 brass, so I could wreak havoc with that old 8mm.

As to accuracy, I did little more than bust rocks with it, so depending on the distance, I believe I could reliably hit a donkey in the rollers with it. On paper though, I doubt it was awe inspiring.

I enjoy the 8x57 much like the .303 British. Those old warhorses have character.

Agree....I shot my first kudu with an 8x57 and a bunch of stuff with a spruced up .303

Unless you intend to shoot a LOT, buy a couple of bags (usually a 100 cases to a bag) of 8x57 brass. If you watch Midway or some such, can get it cheap enough, it'll be a lot less money than a form and trim die.. or no more, and you'll have the right brass up front. Had a friend with an 8x57, and have made it from 06 before, just running the cases into the sizing die, with the guts out of it. But said, why bother.. more BS invoved than it's worth, so bought a bag of brass.

Just check Midway, and was wrong on the price. Hornady in stock, and a box of 50 is $35.00+ shipping. Another thing to try is, make the 8mm from 308 brass. It's 6mm short, or about a 1/4", but it'll all be in the neck and will stretch out to full length in a few firings. In this case you WOULD have to fire form, but easy enough as the forward part of the neck will be 8mm, and will be into the throat of the chamber to keep it steady. load it with a medium power load and a bullet. When you fire it, it will expand the case right on out to fit the chamber. The 1/4" short neck won't hurt anything in the few shots it'll take to stretch it.

My vote too.

Ain't many of us shoot prairie dogs with the 8x57.

I have used several hundred 30-06 and .270 brass to make 7x57, they shoot as well as my RWS 7x57 brass.
I used a 4 1/2" angle grinder with a 1mm thick (stainless)cut-off blade to trim excessive brass to slightly more than what I wanted, and my trimmer to final length.

My Marquart for outside necks and a Sinclairs/K&M spud to size the inside...primer pockets and flash holes were similarly done.

I retrospect, the 300 RWS at $1.00 each were a hell of a lot cheaper...but not as much fun.

Just one thing more, "Imperial sizing die wax" is your best friend.

Groundhogs, yes. Prairie dogs, no.

It's not hard to make 8x57 from 30-06. Since I have a bunch of range brass in 30-06, that's fairly often how I get my 8x57. And it works just fine.

I have better luck if I anneal the brass first.

I don't think you'll have any luck doing fire forming. You'll need to do it with a die.

I'd sell it before going through all that crap.

I have been using the Prvi brass from Graf's in my 8x57's and have been more than pleased and it is darn inexpensive. Why bother making it?

If reloading is fun, isn't more reloading even more fun?

Sure, whether you want to do this or not depends on your temperament and your interests. As it happened, I needed 3-4 dozen 8x57 cases quickly, had a boatload of 30-06 and 270 that I'm sure I would never use, and the local stores were out of 8x57.

Some of us are more crazy than others.

I used to do that back when 8x57 brass was hard to find. A Redding 8x57 Form & Trim die (#83159) was used first, then a rough trim and a final trim & chamfer and then through an RCBS FL die. Had good luck with it even with GI brass. But now that 8x57 brass is available it's too much work. But it's interesting and educational and it gave me some of my first experience with case forming. Even converted some 270 range pick-up stuff once when I felt like trying something different.

What has worked best for me is the following steps:

Expand the case necks with a .338 or .35 ball. Skipping this step leave a groove in the finished case neck where the old shoulder was.

Reform the case in an 8x57 die with the expander removed.

Use a 8x57 trim die and hacksaw to cut off the case necks. The Redding trim die is usually cheaper than the RCBS.

Trim the cases with your usual method.

This is a fair amount of work, but I have a lot of '06 cases, and the last time I priced 8x57 cases they were $55/100.

run 06 brass in 8 mm mauser size die (lube well), trim to length, load with a starting load shoot. I have made an shot 100's of these.

Any I ever made was just full-length sized in my RCBS 8X57 die, followed by the neck being trimmed to length and chamfered.

Ted