Prior to fire forming 30BR

[vano]

When expanding the necks things got pushed around a bit.
so when testing for oal the cases are to tight and are difficult to extract they show signs of contact with the chamber
my question is should I be resizing? will this square up the case enough to fire form without extraction issues?
I want to do the final trimming after fire forming
Length of case is 1.51 now, will do final at 1.5
If I do the 1.5 will fire forming push this out enough for final square turning of the neck
Thanks, Vano

 

[big bad bill]

Vano,
The case neck must be turned for most 30BR chambers in order to fit a loaded round into the chamber. Is it possible your expanded neck case is too large for the chamber neck? If you need to turn the necks, be very careful to cut into the shoulder only enough to fit the chamber.
Good luck,
Bill

 

[amamnn]

If you follow the advice posted on this website concerning the forming of brass, and also the posts on Benchrest Central you should be OK. This is a very easy cartridge to form and the new (blue box) 6mmBRNorma brass does not need to be turned much, if any, beyond getting it all uniform when used in a .330" Robinette chamber. Still, care must be taken to eliminate a possible appearance of the DREADED DOUGHNUT at the shoulder/neck junction which is what Bill was getting at.... The DD can cause hard extraction if extreme. I think you will find it useful to FL resize before initial firing and after, assuming your dies and press are in alignment with your chamber. If you are not trying to work the brass beyond the best dimensions to fit the chamber, you may find that FL sizing after every firing is the way to go. You should take care to ensure that you have not moved the DD from the outside of the S/N junction to the inside, as it can pop back out and drive you nuts with hard extraction and/or cause problems when seating the longer/heavier bullets............some people find it useful to employ reamers in the initial forming process to control the DD.

I had a hard extraction problem when I first started shooting the 30BR. It was caused by trying to load as much powder as the "experts" recommended when my cases and chamber were set at the minimum headspace and theirs were not. Had I set the HS of my barrel at something between the go and no-go I might not have had the problem at all, but I am at the short end of the chambering. Also, had I been thinking for myself, I might have decided that the use of a drop tube to be able to get the powder to fit in the case in a starting load was a red flag..............

I have found that the annealing of the brass both before and after expanding is very helpful, as long as you thorough job. IMHO this cannot be done in the kitchen sink with a single Ace Hardware propane torch.

 

[vano]

I have turned the necks to .010 after expanding and trimming to 1.515 so I could cut the shoulder uniform
Annealed after expanding then after turning the necks but they must be out of square with the base as soon as I get a die ( on the way) I am hoping this will fix it
Ignorance is bliss except when reloading
Thanks for the info, Vano

 

[lrgoodger]

When expanding necks, make sure you have the stop screw in the expander so you don't slam the case mouth into the expander base. That will make your necks really crooked and a bullet seated in that will have so much runout it will be hard to chamber (ask me how I know). If you can chamber it, even if it is a little bit tight, firing it should straighten it right out and you shouldn't have any trouble extracting it. In my experience it's impossible to get too much H4198 in a 30BR, so over-pressure is pretty much a moot point.

As for all this donut stuff on the 30BR, I don't see how that can affect anything when the bullet is seated only about 1/4 way down the neck in the first place. It's certainly a concern in some of my other calibers (284 Shehane, to be specific) where the bullet goes right down to the neck/shoulder junction.