284 Shehane fire form load

[Alex Wheeler]

Any one have a good fire forming load? I have 180 SMK and H43350, H4831sc to fire form with. I will be shooting the 180 vld after fire forming. I think I have CCI LR primers and Federal match LR as well.
Thanks

 

[284driver]

I fireform with 4831sc. 54 grains. BR primers. Lapua brass. 180 vld's seated in about 10k. That load should put you at 2800 give or take. Scary accurate for a forming load. I had to move up to 54.3 to maintain the same velocity with formed brass. 56 grains in a formed case gives me excellent accuracy. Can't remember the exact velocity. I'll have to look it up in my data.

 

[Alex Wheeler]

Re: 28s Shehane fire form load

Are you shooting the vld .010 in in the formed case also?

 

[284driver]

Re: 28s Shehane fire form load

Affirmative.

 

[BradY]

Your only blowing out a little case taper with the shehane so you dont need a huge charge. I use 54gr H4831sc and a 168SMK. Good for close range shooting and doesnt seem to have any effect on primer pocket life like shooting the 180's at decent speed does.

 

[whysman]

I started fire forming using COW method. Works great and I don't need to waste any of my H4350, BR2s, or bullets to get great results. Best of all, I can do it in my garage. 8)

 

[thomasholbrook43]

How much cream of wheat and what powder do you use to do this?
tks tom

 

[whysman]

How much cream of wheat and what powder do you use to do this?
tks tom

I use 9gr. of Titewad then fill the rest of the case with COW up to 1/4 to 1/2 of the neck. I then plug it with toilet paper. When firing I use a plastic garbage can with a hole cut in the top and place the barrel through it. I put insulation in the garbage can to minimize the noise but it is messy and after a few firings, the insulation is quite torn up. I just did 300 cases and it worked great... the biggest improvement I need to make is the noise reducing material in the can because I can't stress enough how messy using insulation is.

 

[thomasholbrook43]

thanks for the info. bullets are hard to come by right now.
Tks, Tom

 

[painless2]

You can fireform using 10 grns of win 231' cheap primer, and fire straight up, no COW needed.
Tom

 

[cdparker]

Like Skyav8r says. Do not waste bullets or barrel with a separate fire forming. His fire forming load will shoot HM scores in a mid-range match. I know that for a fact.

 

[Lbart]

Alex,
My go to load for fire forming the 7 Shehane is 51.0 H-4350 with 180 Berger Hybrids. Norma cases, Wolf primers. This has always shot extremely small groups for me all the way out to 1k. Speed in 32" Bartlein runs around 2800 fps. This is the ammo I shipped to Ireland in 2011 to fire in the Creedmoor Cup which was shot at 800 to 1k. No one could believe I was fire forming during the match. It beat all the other calibers including a good number of magnums in some very windy conditions. Fire forming loads can shoot very well in matches.
Larry Bartholome
Team Berger

 

[Alex Wheeler]

Thanks Larry,
That had to hurt some egos over there!

 

[Rtc111@aol.com]

What kind of case life are you guys seeing with this caliber, 10+ reloads?

 

[Lbart]

I have never done a destruction test. I deal with a thousand or more cases at a time so I don't load them very often, but I have fired some of mine 5-6x with no problems. A lot depends on how fast you push the speed. The rebated rim on the 284 case is known to contribute to head expansion and loose primers when pressures are pushed..

 

[Rtc111@aol.com]

Okay thanks for the info, I was hoping 300 cases would last me 2 barrels

 

[nhm16]

Okay thanks for the info, I was hoping 300 cases would last me 2 barrels

You might be able to so it with 500 cases. Mine have lasted 6-7 firings max, but they were fireformed with the bullets seated hard into the lands and with a stiff load of H4831SC. For this next batch I'm going to try using a false shoulder, bullets jumped, and a softer load, which should be gentler on the primer pockets, to try to get 8 firings out of the brass.