Shiloh Rifle Forums

How can I ‘effectively’ fire-form new brass, without wasting lead? When I say effectively I mean really forming my cases to the dimensions of the chamber without a bullet in the brass. Any thoughts are appreciated. BTW, I’m shooting a .45-110.

Robert

Why waste powder without a goal? Just load them up with powder and bullet, and shoot 'em, it's not as if they won't be accurate; Besides, it is always good for shooting basics - sight picture, holding technique, trigger technique, follow-through,... Then you won't be wasting powder or lead.

Why waste powder without a goal? Just load them up with powder and bullet, and shoot 'em, it's not as if they won't be accurate; Besides, it is always good for shooting basics - sight picture, holding technique, trigger technique, follow-through,... Then you won't be wasting powder or lead.

What are you forming by sticking a new say .45-70 or another new straight walled case in that caliber chamber?
It's a different story when you take a basic straight walled case and reform it with a case form die to a bottle necked case and then shoot it in the BN chamber to finish blowing out the shoulders. That is fire forming.
Just shoot that new brass in the proper chamber and enjoy the trigger time.

opencountry wrote: ↑Tue Nov 09, 2021 11:29 am How can I ‘effectively’ fire-form new brass, without wasting lead? When I say effectively I mean really forming my cases to the dimensions of the chamber without a bullet in the brass. Any thoughts are appreciated. BTW, I’m shooting a .45-110.

Robert

Just doing that as we speak with Norma 45 brass for my Shiloh 45 2 7/8
primed with my "floor sweepings" primers
Filled the case almost full with some "bulk" Goex I acquired
compressed down about half inch
put wad on (optional)
finished filling the case with some no longer needed bullet lube (LBT blue in this case)
fired shells.
Formed nicely
now to trim to final length, load with my new bullet rejects and fire one more time.

Powder wasting is what you need to worry about not lead. End of story
Bobw

You should anneal your cases first,

Can you fire form with smokeless so as not to waste the black?
Just a thought

Perentie wrote: ↑Tue Nov 09, 2021 1:52 pm Can you fire form with smokeless so as not to waste the black?
Just a thought

That is exactly what I do with everything except my Shiloh. It doesn’t seem to care if the brass has been fired before or not.

I was fire forming my brass for my new Shiloh 74 on Saturday at Friendship. My score doesn't show it, but Those same rounds on paper were holding 1.5 MOA. In the past, I have shot the Nationals using virgin full length sized brass and scored very well. YRMV.

Woody

Well, a lot of options. So many different methods to achieve the same goal by. This is really going to sound strange; and it was to me! …
I use nothing but Norma 2.9” brass for both of my 110’s.
I’ve always fire-formed all of my 45’s (90 & 110) using a full charge of Goex Fg, never Swiss, and they have all shot quite well on paper, and did the trick in fire-forming. Yesterday I used a full load (111.0 grains) of Swiss 1F in one of my 110’s, and found my usual target load (same as above-111.0 grains) with Swiss not performing as well as my Goex Fg load did/has, during fire-forming. The Goex load was excellent in fire-forming, but the Swiss target load (111.0 grains) was literally all over the place, some even off of the 3’X3’ backing board at 100 yards! What in the world?! I sat there just thinking, pondering… what’s going on?! The cases DID fire-form, yes. I’ll never waste Swiss powder to fire-form ever again. The cases stretched just fine, the same as they have using Goex. I trimmed the fired cases back just the same amount as I have using Goex, and chamfered them, annealed them at the necks just as I did prior to loading or fire-forming them. Odd, very odd. I used the same powder compression as before in my Swiss target load, the very same wad combination, etc., etc. Side note - I have worked hard in experimenting with patch height on bullet to virtually eliminate leading in the bore. I’ve won in the battle, finally. Using this Swiss powder for fire-forming leaded the bore badly, and this may (maybe) have caused the bullets to ‘scatter’. I used a .030” vegi-fiber to compress powder, added one .060” poly, and one 1/8” wool felt wad, then slip-fit the patched ball. The slip-fit bullet may have been the problem; I have always had a very snug fit on the patched ball by sizing the case mouth a determined amount (I bypassed that step, so that may be the problem after all; another test of five shot will prove either way). I’ll stick to what has worked in the past for me; I’ll fire-form with Goex from now on, and adjust the tension on the patched bullets. And, I’m well stocked in Goex and Swiss.
Thanks everyone, for your input.
Robert

I fire form my .30-40 Krag cases into .40-60 Maynard or 38-50 Remington Hepburn cases without using a bullet.

I use half the powder load for a 12 gauge shotgun shell; fill rest of case with cream of wheat, and put a wad in the end of the case to hold the powder.

It will blow the case out to properly fit your chamber.

Then you need to trim to proper length.

I fire form my .30-40 Krag cases into .40-60 Maynard or 38-50 Remington Hepburn cases without using a bullet.

I use half the powder load for a 12 gauge shotgun shell; fill rest of case with cream of wheat, and put a wad in the end of the case to hold the powder.

It will blow the case out to properly fit your chamber.

Then you need to trim to proper length.

I would be more concerned with using up hard to find primers. Load and shoot them in a match. You will give up very little if any accuracy.

I'd worry more about wasting primers but could only get around that by using hydraulic forming and I'm not going there. Just blowing out a case to a new shape, I've got 8 pounds of unused shotgun powder and 9 or 10 grains of that under a case full of Cream of Wheat with a wad or some wax on top does the job and only waste is COW and who would consider that a waste?