Fire forming new brass, your method?

[Trigger1212]

Gents,

Was just reading through the 200 yard postal thread and there was some commentary in there that got me thinking about fire forming new brass. Ready to start making smoke with my new 40-65, new Starline brass, annealed.

The last time I fire formed brass it was when I was making 17 Hornady Hornet cases out of 22 Privi brass. Last step was to anneal the brass and then shoot a decent powered load to finish blowing out the shoulders. The fire form loads were a little slower than I wanted (expected) but they were so accurate I loaded up all 500 pieces of brass and used them up as hunting rounds.

Was thinking that FF BP loads would probably be close to the same, assuming you had a relatively tight chamber. The comments on the 200 yd postal thread now has me thinking it may not be! I've got 50 rounds of good high-test FF loads ready to go. Now wondering if the remaining load should just be whatever loads just to get the brass used once?

What is the process you use for fire forming that is effective but maybe does not use all good components? Anyone use something other than lead? To me that is the biggest expense/waste. I can go to the berm and dig out as much junk lead and melt it down to reduce the cost there. Hoping someone will say just stuff it full of oatmeal (or whatever) and x power and start pulling the trigger.

Im not opposed to just loading rounds like it's for a match and getting some quality trigger time and practice with the new stick, just don't want it to be a complete waste as they will be inherently inaccurate. The target will tell me with the first 50 rounds for sure, just curious as to what you all do. As I don't happen to have a powder can of floor sweepings like Kurt (I try very hard not to spill my powder).

Wade

[MikeT]

Trigger1212,

You are on the right track. Try those FF loads on a target and see what you get. Of the five 40 caliber rifles I own, my 40-82 Winchester was the only one that was very accurate with my initial FF loads. In fact, I could not get the same accuracy again until I FL sized all my cases before loading again. You will have to figure out what your rifle likes.

Keep on hav'n fun!
MikeT

[bryany]

When I was breaking in a new batch of 40-65 for a new Shiloh, it took two firings for the new annealed brass to fully take shape. I used cull and odds and ends of cast bullets and whatever remnants of powder I had around. Cleaned up a lot of leftovers.

New 40-65 brass is narrow in the middle, it chambers fine but capacity is restricted. I spent a long afternoon at the range, firing about 25 shots blowtubing, then wiped the bore and let it cool for a bit, then another 25 rounds. This was summer in Wyoming so it didn't cool as well as if I'd have been doing it in the winter.

Accuracy was fair, I was shooting at a 300 meter gong from a bench just to have something to aim at.

It took a couple of long afternoons to get everything done but it's a one time event. I haven't had to do this with any other cartridges, the straight walled stuff from Starline seems pretty close to chamber size out of the box.

Bryan

[art ruggiero]

just anneal, load and shoot you may be surprised how it shoots art

[bruce m]

black powder pressures are too low to get thorough fireforming on 1 shot.
just keep shooting them and it will happen in the end.
it is my belief that black powder cases are best annealed a little more than those for modern smokeless pressures.
not much, but a little.
the way to test this is as soft as you can get with about 0.001" springback after firing.
this aids in fireforming, as well as good quick obturation at the lower pressures of black powder.
fireforming loads have always shot well for me, certainly good enough for silhouette.
using an expander on new brass that allows finger seating does not hurt.
bruce.