Good afternoon
I am new to fire forming cases the gun is 25-06 ai. My question is should I have the bullet just into the lands just a little to make sure it pushes the shoulder out to form the new case ? Some of the cases have a little rounded shoulder. My think is if the bolt closes just a little tight that should push the case back against the bolt face. Is the thinking right ? The load is not hot at all any information or advice would be greatly appreciate.
Here's my two cents worth; $.02!! I did read one of your replies where you had 250 pieces of brass (?) and a lot of powder (50lbs). SO.....you certainly have some stuff to work with. I wouldn't let anyone know that I have 50 pounds of powder due to fear of a home invasion!!
I fire form cases for a .270 Ackley Improved, just started this about two years ago, so still in a learning curve for me. I managed to glom all of my information through this forum and from getting PMs from a lot of good folks on the forum. If you are fireforming brass I would suggest starting out annealing the brass so it will move easier while fireforming. There is the salt-bath method as the least expensive, an Annealeze with the torch and numerous electronic machines that I found too expensive for me. Presently I own an Annealeze and found it work for me, this replaced the salt bath method that I started out with. Once I have fireformed my cases and after I have shot one hot load through the brass I anneal a second time. I only do this to prevent split cases, and......I have gotten split cases if they have been formed using the bullet method. Being the ADHD curious soul, I have tried all three methods of fireforming brass, shooting a fully loaded round, hydro forming and the COW (cream of wheat) method. What I have found is that firing a fully loaded round will give the most exactly formed brass of the three methods of fireforming. With this process means using components that do not exist anymore, stuff like primers, bullets, powder (some of us do not have a 50lb cache), even brass. Also it puts a lot more stress on the barrel. For me my rifles have a sported contour barrel so it doesn't take a whole lot of shots through the rifle before the barrel really heats up.
The hydro-forming process is another process that I have tried. I spent quite a bit of money on hydro-forming dies, only to find out that they did not work for me or for my particular cartridge; .270 AI. With my dies the spindle that is hit with a hammer to make the pressure is relatively thin in diameter and the spindle/arbor keeps bending and from that bend the spindle/arbor binds up inside of the form die. With that said, the process is time consuming and the water can be a little bit messy to deal with. I have been in contact with the custom shop that built this die, not happy with the customer service at all. I have a fireforming die that I have made exactly 14 cases on that does not work!! With the small bullet diameter that you are going to be working on this is a possible problem that you might run into.
The next process that I have used is the COW process. I was quite amazed that 15 grains of powder, some cream of wheat and some paper wadding could do such a good job of fireforming brass. This process too is a little time consuming, however for me is seems to be the best process to form my brass. I thought that is was going to be a bit messy when fired, however this was not the case. And......I was surprised about the muzzle blast when the case was fired. I "thought" that I could fireform from the backyard, this turned out not to be the case due to the noise and the neighbors. Also with the COW method there's nothing going down my barrel to cause it to heat up.
As for using a bullet jammed up into the lands to make for a "false shoulder",
a factory 25-06 "ought" to work in the rifle without a false shoulder. With my rifle the gunsmith set the headspace a couple of thousandths short so a false shoulder is not necessary. Actually I have two .270 AIs, one was made for my son at the same time. With my rifle in order to close the bolt I have to strike it down with the palm of my hand (it closes tight), and my son's rifle closes regularly. Right now I have about 40 rounds of loaded .270s that I reloaded about 25 years ago that I will be shooting the next time we go to the range, so there will be 40pcs of fireformed, virgin brass when we come back from the range.
So......this is my $.02 worth, hope it was helpful to you. I'd also like to say one more thing, this really isn't that difficult or complicated to do once you get into it. A little experience and a few pieces of messed up brass and you ought to be on your way!!! And.....................good luck with your new rifle.
