Home
Posted By: TJR FORMING 358 NORMA BRASS FROM ??? - 12/22/09
Iam building a 358 Norma and want to form my brass from 338 win mag or 300 win mag brass. (i know on the 300 i will be pushing the shoulder back and having to do some triming, and with the 338 mag the neck will be a little short)I was wondering if anyone uses any thing other than a FL sizing die for this? or if you have some experience or tips doing this i would like to hear from you.

John
I posted this years ago but resurrected it. Hope it helps...

Here's another option for you, and the way I went when I had a 358 Norma built about a year ago. I had the neck reamed out to a case length of 2.61". This was accomplished after standard chambering with the 358 Norma reamer, by then running in a 35 Whelen reamer with it's longer case neck, to the 2.61" chamber length. Why?? This lets me use untrimmed WW 300 Win brass. Just a pass through the FL sizer with well lubed case necks, and the brass is ready to go.

I use standard FL dies, in my case Redding, which work fine. The sizer die works exactly the same way, although I had the expander ball tapered more gently to make it easier to neck up the cases. Providing you use new brass, you should never split a case neck. At least I can say with certainty that I didn't lose a case in the 200 I necked up. I also did not need to turn the case necks.

To set the die I simply kept screwing the die into the press bit by bit, until the 300 cases had the shoulder pushed back far enough to fit the chamber. This works fine for resizing the fired cases as well, of course.

The seater die has to be backed off a bit, and the bullet seating stem screwed in farther to compensate. Otherwise it would crimp the case neck......a lot.

I have picked up a bit of case capacity, although I haven't really played with them to see how much. My thoughts with this case are to keep adding IMR4350 until the chrony reads 2800 fps with 250 grain North Forks, then go shoot something. Although I'm sure I could pick up a few fps, I'm just not sure what I'd really gain. I'm as guilty as the next guy when it comes to chronograph races with my handloads, but this rifle is designed to thump moose and elk. An extra 50 fps wouldn't really contribute anything.

My motivation to do this was to use the 300 Win brass with the longer shoulder. A lot of people use the 338 Win brass, but we all know the shoulder is shorter on the new 338 brass. I didn't like the idea of fireforming brass by blowing the shoulder forward, hence weakening the brass. It made more sense to push a shoulder back, maintaining positive headspace while fireforming. So I thought, seriously, about using WW 300 Win brass, then trimming about 1/10" off the resized case, which made no sense. Then I hit upon having the neck extended so I wouldn't have to trim the hell out of the new brass. It makes for a better case design.

It just makes more sense. With the longer neck, more of that long bullet is held under tension, just improving on the original design. It lets me use the inexpensive, great quality WW 300 Win brass, instead of buying the much more expensive, and historically soft Norma brass.

This was my only complaint with the original 358 Norma case design, in a mag action with room to spare, why saddle it with that short neck? The new case can be described as a 358 Norma case with a 35 Whelen neck, really the best of both worlds. If you do have this done, all it takes is running a 35 Whelen chamber reamer into your 358 Norma chamber. The shoulder/case aren't affected, just the neck is lengthened. Just be sure the neck dimensions of the reamers are similar, Norma neck dimensions are notorious for being on the "large" side. My chamber has a 2.6" "trim-to" length, with a max length of 2.61". This lets me trim the newly sized-up cases just enough to square the case mouths, instead of spending hours trimming.

This also lets you use 358 Norma factory rounds, it's essentially a freebore with those. It's such an obvious improvement to the standard 358 Norma case I can't understand why everybody doesn't do it!
How did I know that would be here...........grin
Saves me from typing it out again! grin

Besides, it works. Mebbe not as good as a 416 Taylor but it's not bad! tee hee
I was THAT close to getting one screwed together but it didn't happen. One day
"Weakening the brass" by blowing out .338 Winchester brass slightly? C'mon. After the first shot the brass will just get harder.

I have shot a bunch of .338 brass in a .358 Norma. Just run it into the die and shoot the stuff. It works.
I used RCBS 358NM dies for my 358NM Long Neck. Again necking up 300WM and not trimming.
I've used a bunch of 7 Mag brass in my 358Norma; lots easier to find used than 338.
Just found this thread in a search. I am considering a 358 Norma and this is great info. How many here have reamed out a longer neck on their 358? How much needs to be trimmed off the 300 WM brass to work in a standard 358 after sizing?
Originally Posted by Mule Deer
I have shot a bunch of .338 brass in a .358 Norma. Just run it into the die and shoot the stuff. It works.


Indeed, it does. That's pretty much all I have used in mine for the past 20 years. smile

Ted
Originally Posted by Yukoner
Originally Posted by Mule Deer
I have shot a bunch of .338 brass in a .358 Norma. Just run it into the die and shoot the stuff. It works.


Indeed, it does. That's pretty much all I have used in mine for the past 20 years. smile

Ted

Ditto
© 24hourcampfire