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04-12-2018, 03:53 PM
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Join Date: Dec 2008
Location: Near Edmonton
Posts: 15,049
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How to make 7x57 Mauser Brass
Some brass is far easier to find, and thus a lot cheaper, than others. For some reason, as of late 7x57 has become scarce, and the price of new brass has really shot up. I thought some others might benefit from knowing that 7x57 brass is really easy to make and there are a number of choices.
There still seems to be a lot of boxer primed surplus 8x57 around, that one you can simply neck down, as you can with 9 and 9.3x57. If you can't easily find any of that, the good old 270 makes a perfect substitute. I bought 100 once fired matching Remington for $30 at the Shootist, vs $90 for 100 7x57 Privi plus shipping from Tradex. I actually had enough matching 30-06 brass to do the job but my buddy shoots an 06 so I save the brass for him. With the 270 brass, I don't own one and neither does anyone I hunt regularly with.
Take your 270 brass and using a Dremel cutoff wheel or similar, cut off the neck just about at the neck shoulder junction. You want to leave about one to two widths of the cutoff wheel on there so it is easy to square up with your case trimmer. Clean up the cut with a champhering tool.
Apply a light coat of Imperial wax to the body, and neck. Run this into your seating die, with the seater removed and the die one turn from bottoming out so you don't put a crimp on the brass. Once you have done the full batch, take and lightly lube or graphite the INSIDE of the short neck. You could skip this step but it makes better brass and far easier than using only the FL die.
Now run these through your FL sizing die with the decapping rod in place. Make sure the FL die is adjusted all the way down so that it is caming on the up stroke i.e. 1/8 turn past touching the shell holder with the ram all the way up.
This should give you finished brass that is about 2.238 long, trim to 2.225 and try in your gun. It should feed and close perfectly smooth. If it binds a hair, turn your FL die down another 1/16th at a time till you get a perfect feed. Do the rest of the batch now that you have the FL die set perfectly. (Remeber, once the ammo is fire formed you will want to neck size or back the FL die way off, at least 1 1/2 turns from touching shell holder, so you aren't over sizing your nicely tailored to chamber brass.)
The same methods will work with 30-06 brass except 30-06 brass is only 2.494 long, vs 270 at 2.590. The 1/10 isn't much but it means you will want to leave a little more neck on the 30-06 when you are trimming it with the Dremel so that your 7x57 brass still have enough to clean up on the trimmer.
This method requires no special dies or equipment, just what you already have on hand. The method works an a great many other brass reforming operations, 221FB or 223 brass to 221 FB and then to to 20 Vartarg, 17 FB or 17 MKIV, 22 Hornet to 17 HH, as couple of examples. Hope this is helpful and that others will post easy conversions for cheap brass to replace expensive or hard to get brass.
Last edited by Dean2; 04-12-2018 at 04:00 PM.
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04-12-2018, 07:41 PM
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Join Date: Apr 2010
Posts: 818
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Good post, many more $$$$ saving options are out there to the budget minded hand loader. Who else can add to O.P. with other caliber and case conversions, and let us know how you did it. D.H.
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04-12-2018, 10:26 PM
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Join Date: Oct 2015
Location: Clearwater BC
Posts: 298
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I have done the same, 270 into 257, one pass through the 257 die with Imperial Sizing Wax and then trim to length, size down my Lake City 06 brass to 25-06 in 2 passes using same wax and fire form to 25-06 Mashburn.
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04-13-2018, 09:03 AM
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Join Date: Jun 2011
Posts: 991
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Too bad you missed the close out at Wholesale here in Calgary. They had literally dozens of boxes of 7x57mm ammo left at the end and had it discounted 80% off. I don't even think they sold it all at that price.
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04-13-2018, 09:58 AM
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Join Date: Dec 2008
Location: Near Edmonton
Posts: 15,049
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Quote:
Originally Posted by JamesB
Too bad you missed the close out at Wholesale here in Calgary. They had literally dozens of boxes of 7x57mm ammo left at the end and had it discounted 80% off. I don't even think they sold it all at that price.
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That would have been great. Neither of the Edmonton stores had any 7x57 for sale during the deep discount period.
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04-13-2018, 11:42 AM
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Join Date: Jan 2013
Location: East
Posts: 2,065
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Thanks! That's awesome info. I was getting to the point where it was more cost effective to buy loaded ammo for the brass than to buy the brass itself. It also just so happens that I have a pile of un-used 270 kicking around
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04-13-2018, 12:32 PM
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Join Date: Mar 2008
Location: Alberta
Posts: 4,279
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Quote:
Originally Posted by David Henry
Good post, many more $$$$ saving options are out there to the budget minded hand loader. Who else can add to O.P. with other caliber and case conversions, and let us know how you did it. D.H.
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I don’t want to hijack the op thread without his consent but I have one that I could add.
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04-13-2018, 01:22 PM
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Join Date: Dec 2008
Location: Near Edmonton
Posts: 15,049
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Quote:
Originally Posted by double gun
I don’t want to hijack the op thread without his consent but I have one that I could add.
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Absolutely add another. That is the whole hope wheñ I srarted the thread.
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04-13-2018, 01:31 PM
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Join Date: Apr 2010
Posts: 818
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An old friend who had no luck finding 40-70 Sharps cases would take the bottom half of a 30-40 Krag and soft solder the front half of a 30-30 Winchester case to it, then run it through his die and trim to length. All low pressure stuff, and it worked without separation after several firings. David.
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04-13-2018, 02:26 PM
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Join Date: Jan 2009
Location: saskatoon
Posts: 844
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6mm remington ( or 244 ) would also work and no trimming and cutting back. Same case, just the neck different.
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04-13-2018, 02:55 PM
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Join Date: Mar 2008
Location: Alberta
Posts: 4,279
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09-04-2018, 02:01 PM
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Join Date: Dec 2008
Location: Near Edmonton
Posts: 15,049
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Real good addition. Any others?
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09-04-2018, 03:20 PM
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Join Date: Sep 2008
Posts: 323
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Quote:
Originally Posted by JamesB
Too bad you missed the close out at Wholesale here in Calgary. They had literally dozens of boxes of 7x57mm ammo left at the end and had it discounted 80% off. I don't even think they sold it all at that price.
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I bought them all
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09-05-2018, 08:38 AM
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Banned
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Join Date: Jan 2017
Posts: 182
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Be careful with wrong head stamps scarey things can happen. Safety first even if it costs a few $$$ extra. Be careful out there.
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