reloading question.....fire forming brass

quote:

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anneal before forming

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If it's brand new brass it doesn't matter. When you fire a round, the brass is hardened. Annealing makes it pliable again so you don't damage it during resizing. At least that's my understanding.

I have some once fired 06 brass I want to fire form to 35 Whelen. The article I read say to use pistol primers. That's the reason for the question. I wanted to hear from someone who has done this.

My reply had to do more with the “small” part than the “pistol” part that you specified. No “small” primer will fit in a 30-06 case.

You may have meant “large pistol” instead. That will fit and may be what the article was referring to.

I've fire formed a lot of brass through the years, mostly for the T/C Contender platform. Nothing against fire forming, but I think I've probably done enough for my lifetime. I've generally used the traditional "bullet" method.
1. Use virgin brass.
2. Full length resize brass.
3. Use a near max charge of a powder appropriate for the gun.
4. Load a heavy for cartridge bullet and engage it in the lands.
5. Lightly lube the body of the brass and shoot.

I've also used the "Cream of Wheat" method. The brass came out looking pretty good, but I've not shot that gun enough to know if the brass turned out good for long term use. You can google the "Cream of Wheat" method.

Having said all that, I wonder if you need to fire form your brass? If it were me, I'd just buy 35 Whelen brass or neck up the 30-06 brass to 35 Whelen. Fireforming does 3 things to the brass: 1. Expand the neck to the appropriate caliber. 2. Move the shoulder forward. 3. Remove taper from the body of the brass. You only need to do #1. Why spend time, money and barrel life if you don't need to. Some folks on the 'net talk about poor quality 35 Whelen brass when necked up from 30-06, but many don't. Instead of fire forming, I'd: 1. FL resize the virgin '06 brass. 2. Full length size the '06 brass (use a good lubricant in the case mouth. My favorite is "Imperial".) to 35 cal using a 35 Whelen full length sizing die set w/ a 35 caliber "tapered expander plug". The latter will expand the neck w/o wrinkling the neck so much.

If you're dissatisfied w/ the quality of the '06 brass you necked up to 35 caliber (just do a few to start with), then buy some virgin 35 Whelen brass from Hornady. Hornday's generally pretty good brass and at only $38/50, it's a pretty good deal. Unless you reload it a lot, those 50 pieces of brass will last a long time.

I wouldn't anneal the brass unless you're going to neck up or fire form non-virgin brass. Annealing brass is a necessary evil when it must be done. Use virgin brass and avoid annealing.

Let us know how it turns out.