Resizing brass

B

bacova

New member
Or maybe I should say "reforming", I don't really know the correct terminology.

My question is this...

Can I reform my 280 Norma brass down to 25-06? I feel sure it's possible, but how many steps? Maybe 280 to 270 to 25-06??? All being from the same parent case, the 30-06.

Do I need carbide dies?

Lastly, what's the recommended procedure for identifying reformed brass. It would be 25-06, but the headstamp would say 280 Rem.

Please don't tell me not to do it, unless it'd be unsafe, or if the yield would be so low as to make it impractical. I probably won't anyway, but I'll admit to thinking about it. I recently posted about case head separation in a couple Win 25-06 brass that had only been reloaded 5 times. I stripped all of the remainders and sawed several in two. I could find absolutely no sign of impending separation in any of them, no groove, indentation, no nuttin', in front of the extractor groove, where the cases had cracked. All the cases were from the same lot and I'm beginning to wonder about it being sub-par to begin with. I couldn't find anything inside the ones that had cracked either.

I always use Norma when it's available for my caliber and have never had any problems with it, even after many FL sizings and firing loads right at max.

Thanks, Bacova
 
While the 25-06 and the 270 is from the 30-06 case, the 280 is not. The datum length of the 280 is longer than the others. It can be done but will be tricky. The shoulders will have to be set back and that will require special dies. Making 25-06 cases from 270 is relatively simple. Just run them through the 25-06 dies and you have it done. Taking 30-06 cases down will be a bit more work. While you may be able to simply run them down in one step, the necks will definately be thick. It may require neck turning or neck reaming. Been there and done that. Not fun.

As for remarking the cases, a file can be used. Pick a spot on the base of the cartridge, such as the @ in each case head. Using a 3 corner file, cut a small groove at that spot on each case you alter. This is how I keep cases lotted when needed
 
OK, thanks. I knew the shoulder angle was different between the 270 and 280, but thought they were both derived from the 30-06 case.
Sounds like I can reform the 270s pretty easy though. I may just try it. I guess the extra brass from the neck is just extruded lengthwise and you trim it down to length. Would this be correct? No neck turning required?
I'm sorry, once again I'm all wet. I just looked in one of my manuals and it shows the same shoulder angle for both the 270 and 280.
Wrong again !
 
Last edited:
Hi, I do not want to hijack this thread, but while stationed in Germany I reloaded for a 7x64, an old and common cartridge there. The 280 Remington is the identical cartridge, Remington copied it. Brass is expensive in Germany, but I had loads of 30-06 brass. I formed 7x64 cases from the 30-06 brass. I lubed the cases well and just ran them through regular 7x64 full lenght resizer dies. The resizer die pushed the should back, many cases had dimples in the shoulder areas from the case lube. I solve this by fire froming the cases with light loads of Bullseye and corn meal sealed with candle wax. I did a 100 cases - ITS WAS A LOT OF WORK.
I have a really old Speer reloading book, 50 plus year old. It has a section on case froming and a reference chart identifying cases to be used to from other calibers. Speer dropped this info many years ago.
I'm currently working up some coyote loads in 6.5x57R. The gun that fires this is a European over and under, 12ga on top of the 6.5x57R. This brass is hard to get in the States and it is expensive when purchased in Europe. So I make my own from 30-40 Krag, identified in the Speer reloading book. I also use .303 British which is much stroner than the two other cases, but I have to reduce the case head diameter a few thousands of inch. I just put them in a drill and touch them with an emery board. For both of these I just resize and fire light loads.
 
Back
Top