Cream of wheat

[AWLEAPHART]

Has anyone noticed groups getting tighter after using cream of wheat to fire form brass?
Anthony

 

[25AI260]

not really ... but i do get hungry my garage has an oder of a bakery i've been using cornmeal

 

[357Mag]

AWL -

Howdy!

I believe many of those that fire-form w/ Cream-O'-Wheat, do so w/o also shooting a bullet.
They use a "plug" or wad of light-weight materiel, in-order to save on barrel life; and perhaps also to save on amount of powder burned ( fire-form w/ pistol powder ).

When I tried it, I used ( successfully ) a piece of tissue paper to seperate the powder from
the filler; and then a tissue paper was over the top of the filler; to help hold the load together.

Regards,
357Mag

 

[AWLEAPHART]

I was wondering if you guys was thinking that it would be some what polishing the barrel.
Also has anyone use Ground Walnut Hull?

 

[338Lapua]

im using fine wheat bran, tissue paper and false shoulder method to fire form 220 swift to Ackley imp got 80 to do this week

 

[Bobs243Ackley]

I have been using filler for about 15 years. I have never used a filler between the powder and filler. I have not needed it as long as you use polyester filler to keep the filler down tight on the powder. You can also take a look at the article that I have in the .243 Win Info section for a review of how I work with fillers. In regard to the first question, I have never seen a change in the groups with brass formed this way.

Bob Blaine

 

[oneflyer]

I've been doing this for a while now. I stop and clean after every 5th shot. I had heard that lots of rounds with filler (no matter what it was) will erode the throat. Anybody want to chime in on that????

 

[skeetlee]

You know one thing i cant help but think about is the fact that yes fireforming with out a bullet has to help save on barrel life but you are still blasting some very hot gasses off inside that chamber. Isnt the heat from the fire, or blast whats causing scaling and wear? I would have to think so. I use a fireforming barrel and i feel it is the best way. Lee

 

[Bobs243Ackley]

You will of course still have some erosion of the throat. It is just that it will be a whole lot less when you consider that you will only be using a much smaller amount of gas instead of what you would use for a full power load.

Bob

 

[memilanuk]

If I may piggy-back on this question...

Anybody have a formula or thumb-rule for figuring out how much of what powder to do COW fire-forming with?

 

[338Lapua]

It depends what size the case as to how much power you need to use. and like all loads its best to start on the low end and work up... There's good info here. i use tissue paper instead of fat to plug the neck.

http://www.6mmbr.com/260AIforming.html

http://www.6mmbr.com/6improvedform.html

 

[frnkeore]

The way that I deterimened my COW fire form load was to look in my cast bullet book (Lyman) I found the highest pressure with the lightest bullet (6mm rem, 85 gr) 12.5 gr 4756 producted 40,000 cup and used that as a starting point. With that charge there was enough room for 25 gr COW, so I was sure it would be safe. I capped the COW with some 1/8 thick bullet lube and tried it. It worked great and filled the 6mm Imp chamber very well (not quite as well as 50,000 CUP) so, I didn't need to go highter. I was using Norma 7mm brass sized to just chamber. They turn out 2.245 long that way. Winchesters 257 Roberts turned out short 2.200.

Frank

 

[Elwood]

If I may piggy-back on this question...

Anybody have a formula or thumb-rule for figuring out how much of what powder to do COW fire-forming with?

The safe way is too fill the case up to the mouth with which ever pistol powder you choose, for arguments sake lets say Unique. You then use 10% of that figure. An example, I use Unique to fire form a 6mm Crusader, the full case capacity of the unformed case (6mm Rem) is 55 grains of Unique, so start at 5.5.
Now I can tell you now that this is very conservative as the actual amount of Unique to form the case is 14 grains.

I hope that helps.

 

[RJinTexas]

I'm using fine wheat bran, tissue paper and false shoulder method to fire form 220 swift to Ackley imp got 80 to do this week
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
338 Lapua, why are you bothering to fire form to produce AI brass with anything other then a bullet? The original design of any AI chamber was to be able to shoot the parent cartridge in a AI chambered barrel. I fact I've found that the rounds loaded for fire forming in all my AI chambers have produced exceptional accuracy. So why waste primers, powder and throat life? Why not use those fire forming rounds for finding out what bullet your barrel likes, shooting pratice or better yet high volume varmint shooting.

RJ

 

[frnkeore]

As noted in my reply above. My brass shorten considerably. I've only formed this way and have not fire formed with a bullet. Does anyone else have the same shorting effect using bullet or COW?

Frank

 

[RJinTexas]

Fire forming a parant case to form AI brass is always going to shorten the case neck, stop and think about it your blowing out the case taking the taper out of it and forming a 40 degree shoulder the material has to come from somewhere. The end results leaves ya with a shorter oal case. That's why you should always use new unfired brass when fire forming, it should provide safe head spacing if your chamber is cut properly. I never screw on a AI barrel without checking my head spacing with both a go & no-go gauge. The new factory brass should produce in a light crush fit at the shoulder in a properly cut AI chamber, this will assure your brass is will fire formed safely. I never trim my brass until after it's fire formed. P.O. originally set his chambers up so that a shooter could shoot factory ammo in their AI chamber in a pinch. I'm a big fan of AI chamberings and have owned several.

RJ

 

[nosualc]

An alternate way to plug the cartridge is to buy a wax toilet bowl ring ($1.50), squeeze it down between two sheets of wax paper to about 1/4" thick. Press a charged cartridge into the wax from underneath. Makes a perfect plug and a single tb ring will plug more cases than you'll ever need.

-nosualc

 

[frnkeore]

RJ,
If you read my original post, you'll see that I used 257 roberts new at 2.225 and formed a crush shoulder on them, I also used fired Remingtons as is at 2.240 long. Both of those shortened while the 7mm Norma cases had been fired and were 2.233 before firing and 2.245 after firing.

Yes, I understand that the brass can be shotened when fire forming with the COW but, I was wondering if it was common especially when done with a bullet. Also, I can't figure out why the 7mm Norma lenghten when fire formed.

I hadn't specified in the first post new or fired and the starting lenght, this is additional info for what I did.

Frank