Fire Forming a non Ackley Wildcat

[Herzo]

Fast pistol powder, toilet paper, corn meal and a parrafin plug works well for me.

That is the process I use to form 44-77 using 348 Winchester brass.

 

[Oso]

Fast pistol powder, toilet paper, corn meal and a parrafin plug works well for me.

GLShooter has given you the stacking order of materials from bottom of case going to the neck. I call this the 80% Fire-Form Method because you almost get a perfectly formed case, and it only cost you a primer, touch of powder, and sweat equity. The shoulders are still a little round (reminds you of a Weatherby's bell-shaped shoulders). This newly fire-formed case is now ready for standard loading, which will square out the shoulders. This partial case forming is more gentle and less prone to case separation or splitting then direct fire forming (full powder charge with bullet). It all depends on the amount of case reshaping that you need to accomplish.

My experience is that you want/need something separating the powder and the case filler. The powder charge is small and you want it centralized around the primer flash hole for consistent ignition. I used part of a cleaning patch to secure/separate powder from the cornmeal, and I used the remainder as wadding to pack tightly into the case neck. Toilet paper and Wax would work just as well.

The magic tool for this operation is a round tapered Chopstick (long narrow pointy tip and flat round blunt end)... chopstick with blue tape in picture below. The tapered tip allows you to position the stuffing in bottom of case, and the blunt end works perfectly to pack down the wad in the neck. The other item is a can of compressed air to periodically blow out your rifle chamber of any residual filler that might get knocked free as you extract the case from the chamber. I have done this enough that I made a tool kit. An empty 9mm case hold approximately 8gr-9gr of Bullseye, which is perfect for blowing out a .223 case.

 

[bozo699]

I tried every method there is for blowing 6br out to 6brx, my end results years ago was as follows,
I had three 6brx rifles for competition and one fire form rifle. The fire form rifle was a savage and I set its headspace I think .004 longer than a fully formed case in my competition rifles, using a false shoulder to blow them out then I could push the shoulder back for an exact fit after first firing. I have a lot of ground hogs on my ranch so I do my fire forming in the spring of the year so I have a purpose and not just wasting bullets!… if after I ff a couple hundred cases and still had varmints I would just start over.
Wayne

 

[Okiedave]

Is there any other process to blow out the case than to seat a bullet to jam? Should you use a full load or something a bit less potent? This would be to blow out the shoulder and body taper.

good Q I have a Hi-wall in 257 Roberts /Ackley and fire forming is all i know to do also