6brx fireforming failure to fire

[BryanCO]

Hey all, my dad and I have been having some issues fire forming BRX brass recently, we keep getting failure to fire randomly, we are jamming the bullets 20k, using 29gns of Varget and br4 primers.

Some of them are not going bang and then we have to point the gun to the sky and try not to dump powder everywhere extracting the brass cause the bullet is stuck in the lands from jamming and then we have to pop the bullet out with a cleaning rod.

The brass is neck turned before to 8.5k thick walls. Neck tension is about 3k.

We are about outta ideas and it’s becoming a real pain in the a$$

This is before and after of a successful form

 

[Ranger188]

Sometimes just jamming the bullet doesn't work.
I found using Federal srp helped with the problem.
They seem to go bang every time when fire forming.

 

[jkohler]

Agree with ranger. I had problems years ago forming BRDX with cci switched to fed and problem solved.

 

[effendude]

My experience is limited to fireforming about 300 pieces of brass. I adjusted the depth of the neck turn to the brass "headspaced" off the neck turned neck and then soft jammed as well.

 

[mfendley]

Hey all, my dad and I have been having some issues fire forming BRX brass recently, we keep getting failure to fire randomly, we are jamming the bullets 20k, using 29gns of Varget and br2 primers.

Some of them are not going bang and then we have to point the gun to the sky and try not to dump powder everywhere extracting the brass cause the bullet is stuck in the lands from jamming and then we have to pop the bullet out with a cleaning rod.

The brass is neck turned before to 8.5k thick walls. Neck tension is about 3k.

We are about outta ideas and it’s becoming a real pain in the a$$

This is before and after of a successful form

View attachment 1477260

Are you turning your neck before fireforming, to provide a false shoulder? Is so, looking at your picture you are turning the neck too far towards the shoulder. This is allowing your case to move far enough from the bolt that you are not getting a good strike on the primer by the firing pin. When I fireform for my BRX, I do not turn the neck. I open up the entire neck with a 6.5 mm expander ball, and then I resize the case with my BRX sizing die. That way my false shoulder on the neck is exactly where the shoulder will be after the fireforming, and every time I resize that case going forward. I have never had a round fail to fire using this method. I have fireformed 600 Peterson and 200 Lapua cases this way.

 

[swd]

I use .005-.006” neck tension. Hard jam .060”+. A soft Winchester primer and if you have a spring loaded ejector take it out. If that doesn’t do it a false shoulder will.

 

[effendude]

Are you turning your neck before fireforming, to provide a false shoulder? Is so, looking at your picture you are turning the neck too far towards the shoulder. This is allowing your case to move far enough from the bolt that you are not getting a good strike on the primer by the firing pin. When I fireform for my BRX, I do not turn the neck. I open up the entire neck with a 6.5 mm expander ball, and then I resize the case with my BRX sizing die. That way my false shoulder on the neck is exactly where the shoulder will be after the fireforming, and every time I resize that case going forward. I have never had a round fail to fire using this method. I have fireformed 600 Peterson and 200 Lapua cases this way.

My BRX is a tight neck so I had to turn before forming but our process is the same.
Scott

 

[JEFFPPC]

I have done many. Fed primers and only turn the neck back to form a false shoulder. Both mentioned above and both work

 

[madmixerman]

Hey all, my dad and I have been having some issues fire forming BRX brass recently, we keep getting failure to fire randomly, we are jamming the bullets 20k, using 29gns of Varget and br2 primers.

Some of them are not going bang and then we have to point the gun to the sky and try not to dump powder everywhere extracting the brass cause the bullet is stuck in the lands from jamming and then we have to pop the bullet out with a cleaning rod.

The brass is neck turned before to 8.5k thick walls. Neck tension is about 3k.

We are about outta ideas and it’s becoming a real pain in the a$$

This is before and after of a successful form

View attachment 1477260

What kind of brass are you using br2 primers in? Br2 are large rifle.

 

[BryanCO]

Thanks for all the info, I was also thinking soft primer or a false should method. I also told my dad we should try more neck tension and leave the bullet super long and the take the ejector plunger out

 

[BryanCO]

What kind of brass are you using br2 primers in? Br2 are large rifle.

Sorry that was a typo, lapua and Br4

 

[swd]

I also use 30.5 of Varget with a 107SMK in Lapua brass for fire forming that helps any.

 

[Bottom Fodder]

I have always us soft primers for for fire forming, learned back in my Contender days. Mainly Fed and Winchester. CCI are some of the hardest

 

[bennett ford]

Running a .25 or .260 expander plug into the case followed by a pass with your sizing die give you a really good false shoulder. Size them so there is a feel when you close the bolt. You will be surprised at how accurate the loads fired in these case will be. Load stiff 6BR loads.

 

[gunsandgunsmithing]

I prefer the traditional false shoulder method over all/any other but if using the neck turned false shoulder, rather than jamming the bullet, make sure that the base of the bullet is seated below the false shoulder of the neck turned case, making it essentially solid where it can't easily compress the neck upon fp impact. Just the opposite of jam method. Just make sure that you are turning precisely as far down as needed. It's critical with this method but wil work well as long as there is sufficient interference of the neck and chamber diameters. Again, that's critical too. That's why the traditional false shoulder way is the method I prefer. As others have said, softer primers will be more likely to go bang but you might still have some inconsistencies in fire formed lengths unles by whichever method you use, you have sufficient interference to create a solid stop. That's exactly why I don't like the hard jam method, even when they all go bang. You can neck the brass down to 22 cal far enough to headspace with a fair amount of feel on bolt closure but rattle a 22 cal bullet down the bore and neck turn the formed brass. That's how I do it and is what I prefer. You may or may not need to neck up before necking down but the key to good fire forming is a solid stop.

 

[BryanCO]

I also use 30.5 of Varget with a 107SMK in Lapua brass for fire forming that helps any.

Also using the 107smk

 

[BryanCO]

Running a .25 or .260 expander plug into the case followed by a pass with your sizing die give you a really good false shoulder. Size them so there is a feel when you close the bolt. You will be surprised at how accurate the loads fired in these case will be. Load stiff 6BR loads.

We were shooting them at 1000 and put a 10 shot group into 3.6” during fire forming, I said shoot just use that load

 

[BryanCO]

Are the Remington 7 1/2 primers too hard? We don’t have any win or fed SR in the stash, I do have a few sleeves of the fed 205m though, are these any different than using the standard fed SR

 

[swd]

Are the Remington 7 1/2 primers too hard? We don’t have any win or fed SR in the stash, I do have a few sleeves of the fed 205m though, are these any different than using the standard fed SR

They’re hard. They were designed to take the sudden pressure spike of the 17 Rem.

 

[AlNyhus]

I also told my dad we should try more neck tension and leave the bullet super long..

On my 30BRX, seating the bullets .050 longer than the 'touch point' for a solid jam/seat with a neck bushing .005 under what a seated bullet measured worked well.

Depending on the extractor, you may or may not need a false shoulder. If the extractor is a bit loose on the case extractor groove, that can allow the case to move forward enough so the primer strike is light.

Good shootin' -Al