Hi,
I´m going to (try) to make 8x60S brass starting with 30-06 cases. They need to be shortened 3mm and fireformed.

I hate shaving brass of cases using my handcranked case trimmer and would like to know of any other methods? My wife- who is a silversmith- recommended filing them down and doing the last stretch using the trimmer.

I could spend some bucks on an electric case trimmer but as I don´t usually need to shave of this much brass I´d rather spend my bucks onh something else.

I used my lathe, as I took a hornady case trimmer and modified the shell holder spud to fit into a boring mar holder.

lee makes trimmers, that are basically a deprimer with a cutting burr on the other end...


if you use empties ONLY you should be able to fireform BEFORE trimming ... (cornmeal and pistolpowder.. and not much pistol powder)

if you do it BEFORE trimming, you can do lots of aggressive things... like use a belt sander to gross trim to near the end of the neck, then a trimmer for the last

jeffe

You might try some of the die manufacturers to see if they make file trim dies for that caliber. From what I remember, after the round has been sized you run it into the die and file down to the proper length. Dies are made out of a metal that won't be cut by a file.

Run your cases through the 8x60 FLS die then use a small pipe cutter to remove the excess then run the case through the die again. I convert 3006 cases to 7.5x54 using this method.

Take the crank off your 'hand trimmer' put a allen screw in the end and then cut a short piece of the correct size allen wrench and put in a rechargable drill. 3mm is not that much....nearly impossible to use a pipe cutter.

geekay, skb et al: Thanks for the tips. I´ve used a pipecutter but 3mm isn´t much to cut (even if it feels like 3 km:s on a case trimmer) so I think I´ll try the trick with the allen screw and the rechargable drill -my wife has one that I might be able to borrow

You COULD get a forming/trimming die that allows you to cut off the case with a hacksaw after running it up all the way into the die. These are made by RCBS and perhaps Redding as well. The top of the die is hardened so the hacksaw won't damage the die.

I have a manually-operated Forster trimmer. To make my 8X60RS cases from 7X65R brass, I just took the handle off the cutter shaft, and chucked it up into my 3/8" electric drill. Voila! A "power" trimmer! I wish the old Kraut who owed this rifle in 1942 had asked Kurt Anschutz to make it into an 8X65RS instead of an 8X60RS! (Original caliber, 7,8X57R, bore diameter .322"). It would have made things so much easier, to be able to just open the cases up to hold 8mm bullets......