The Brass Forming update...
I finally got the dies in, they are 300-221 dies from Redding, so I gave it a shot. The following are various steps that I used in case anyone is interested, as there dosent seem to be much info out there on the net.
I made a trim die, after a bit of adjustment it works well. This is used to cut the .223 brass off at the shoulder to prepare it for sizing up to .30 cal.
I used a small pocket swager to hold the brass in place for the cutting.on an RCBS RL3 press. I used an 18 volt Ryobi Sawzall with a fine toothed metal cutting blade to cut the cases with, it took a total of about two seconds to do it. I used a small pocket swager for its ability to hold enough tension on the cases to keep them from spinning when trying to saw them. It also ensured that the cases had in fact had the primer pocket swaged, since I am using military brass.
After sawing, ocasionally the necks would get a bit deformed. I used a tapered case spinner that I made, after one gentle tap with a brass hammer, it would make the neck round again.
I then tried two different methods. One was to trim the case on the RCBS case trimmer using a shaft that was adapted for a battery operated drill and then I sized the brass in the die.
The other method was to size the brass first and then trim it to lenth. I decided that this was the way to go to ensure that the case lenth wouldnt have to be trimmed again, thus saving an extra step.
After cutting the brass with the trim die, I then sized it, and then trimmed it to lenth. The thing that suprised me the most was that I didnt have one single neck split or crack due to metal fatigue. I had read that this was common when sizing 300 up from 221 Fireball cases, its apparently alot easier to size down the case to .3O cal than it is to size up a small neck to a larger one.
The Redding dies come with 2 neck sizers, one being a .270 sizer and the final .308 neck sizer. In this case, I only used the final neck sizer of .308.
Afer sevral concentricty checks with a dial indicator, I tumbled the brass for a couple of hours. The brass looks great.
I really figured that I would have to anneal the cases however at this time, it seems to be unnecesary. Sizing the brass with the Redding die was effortless,in fact, it was much easier than I anticipated. If I start getting split necks upon firing, this made need to be looked at .
I think it'll be worth the effort. I made 100 cases, most of the time was in trimming each individual case to lenth. Sawing, libing and sizing was minor.
In the future, I may use a drill press to trim the cases, but first Ill have to make some sort of jig to hold the cases.
So far...so good.
