Necking down suggestions

T

Tony C

Guest
If necking down from 30 caliber to 6mm, would you recommend one or two steps in-between? I have a way to accomplish this in one step, but I'm thinking it might be too much.

Also, do you think I should anneal the necks after the process?

Tony
 
I'm doing the same thing with a different caliber and everything I've read says it's better to do it in two steps to prevent over working the brass. Don't know about annealing..
 
I began thinking about this after reading what Greyfox posted in another thread about Otto or Lambert case forming die sets. Then it occurred to me that I might be able to use an exising die I have and finding a couple of wilson or redding neck bushings somewhere in between the 30 and 6.
 
Back in the old days I made hundreds of 243W cases out of the readily available GI 7.62MM brass. Did it with one pull of the handle. I don't recall any split necks and such. Of course, things are a lot more complicated these days.:rolleyes:;)

Ray
 
Cheechako

I've had this happen when going from 300 Sav. to 6.5 IHMSA and from 284 Win. to 6mm 284. This was useing Win brass ,neck splits in 2-3 fireings. After I started annealing no problems. I have used 6.5-284 Lapua brass necked to 6mm 284 as many as 10 fireings without splits .(I routinely anneal after 5 fireings on all my cases though). Custom cut dies were used for both cals.
 
I've necked a lot of RWS 404 Jeff (.425 bullet dia.) to 30 cal. and never ended up with split necks after a number of firings.
I like to step down the necks in increments of about .020" (.5 mm) but that is probably not necessary. I've done a lot of 284 Win to 6-284 but I used a 25-284 "file trim" die as a step down in the process. I had the die from some trade or something so I used it just to neck down.
 
Another country heard from :rolleyes:

:)

I have no backing for this feeling (except personal experience) but I'm from the school of "once you get that brass moving, KEEP IT MOVING.....git 'er done.

In other words, I'm a one-stroke guy whenever possible. 30 to 6mm is possible with some brass. IME, if you have to do it in steps, annealing between steps is required.

YMMV

al
 
Tony
I use Lapua 30-06 brass for my 6mm-06 lightgun and it takes one pull on the press to do it.
If you use the Skip Otto dies your necks willl come out at 0.276 diameter so you will still need to pull the handle again if you go that route.
If you want to do it with a neck die using the readily available bushing from Forster,Wilson or Redding it will cost you a small fortune in bushings because they don't have much if any taper built into them meaning you can only go 0.005 - 0.007 at a time before you get neck collapses.
The shallower shoulder angle cartridges size down much easier than the ones with a steeper shoulder angle in my experience.
Waterboy aka Lynn
 
Seating dies can often be a nice intermediate step in necking down. I consider annealing mandatory before firing cases like this the first time. -Al
 
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