Somewhere I saw a post where someone uses Makarov (.363) bullets to fireform brass for their 9.3X62. Just wondering what load you use and any special tricks that might go with this operation.

TIA
Rick

What case are you starting with? Whelen ('06)cases work but are about 0.005" smaller at the case head. Enough to worry about? Perhaps not, but I personally prefer not to gamble with explosives. To put this in perspective, the 6.5x55 case head is about 0.009" larger than the 260's, and this is considered to be a sizeable difference.

Use 9.3 brass - check out grafs.com, they've now got a house brand that is pretty cheap. By the time you go through the time and expense of loading the expander rounds (parent brass, bullets, powder, primers, effort), putting extra wear on your barrel, and ending up with incorrectly-headstamped once-fired cases, it's probably not cost effective. Just my opinion...

Ken Howell has a good method posted on "Ask the Gunwriters" at 24hourcampfire.com. He uses grits or Malt-O-Meal over a light charge of Bullseye. I used it to form about 150 once-fired 30-06 cases into 9.3x62's, and I think the primers cost more than the "bullets." Cases come out headspacing on the fully formed shoulders. Just trim and you're ready to go. I just did it to get my by until Graf's gets their brass in, probably in August, but the cases work so well I'm hesitant to throw them out. Probably will, though... Okie John.

9.3,

I'd guess it's pretty common practice to use -06 or Whelen brass as the Speer manual describes how to do it.

Okie,

Thanks for the info, I'll go to the campfire. Using the Mak bullets sounded cheaper than using the Speers and the post on using them said they make a good lite load.

I bought a hundred pieces of Lapua brass but a friend also donated two gallon containers of once fired -06 brass when he heard that I could fireform it.

Rick

[ 07-11-2003, 16:32: Message edited by: Rick R ]