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Hornady OAL Gauge

M-61

"Quis Separabit"
Gold $$ Contributor
Can't get a 30BR case for Hornady's OAL Gauge. Bought a &7 BR and opened it to 30. Anyone have a way to open that neck up enough to let a 308 bullet slide in it? I'm not a machinist...just wondered if someone had run across this.....and had a trick or two.
 
madmixerman said:
I opened mine up with my K&M 30 cal. expandiron used for neck turning. Its worked great.
I have that expander and it will not open the neck enough. Now that is the expander I use to take the 6BR's to 30. When I used it to open the 7BR( to 30) it did, but not enough to let a 308 bullet slide so I can get an idea where the bullet touches the lands. On top of this I am (or want to) use new 30 Carbine 110gr bullets to fireform. This rifle is finally complete.....only the loading needs to be done....the carbine bullets I have no use for except to fireform but I sure would like an idea of where to seat them in the case.
 
I use a bullet with a collet bullet puller. I seat the bullet, them pull it out and seat it again with collet puller. I then apply IOSSO to the bullet and keep doing it until a clean bullet slides in nice and smooth.
 
Wound up chucking a 168gr SMK in the drill press. My tube of valve grinding compound. 20 passes and it opened it up nicely. Some Iosso to smooth it out and the bullet moves freely. Really would like to know if someone has a suggestion for this fireforming round. I have 1# of Accurate AA2015 I would like to use if possible. Also 4198 (I'd rather not use that for this as the powder situation has not improved here)
Thanks to all those that answered....it helped get the wheels spinning.

You really meet some surprisingly nice folks on this site.
 
For the longest time I couldn't find a .308 case for my OAL gauge, I just used a "Wire Size" drill bit to drill out the head of a case so it would just slip over the threads of he gauge. The only issue is when removing the gauge/bullet from the chamber. I just use a cleaning rod to push the bullet and gauge completely out of the action.

If I wanted the case to have threads I could just wax up the threads on the gauge, drill a couple of holes in from the side of he drilled out case, and while it's in place on the tool just press some epoxy bedding compound (J-B Weld or Devcon is what I use) into the holes. Let cure and unscrew from the tool. If you rotate the case a little while the epoxy is fresh it will be distributed around the waxed threads and give you a continual set of internal threads. This will yield a "special case" that's every bit as good as the one you buy. Use a case fired in your rifle and it will be even more accurate than the one you buy as it will match YOUR chamber to a "T".
 
I made several of them a while back. Turned the necks to .0085 and opened the neck up to .309 so your bullet will slide in easy.

$10 shipped.
 

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