I am using new Winchester '06 brass, have about 100 cases set up.

I cannot find many references on this case, so I am using 53 grains of RL-25 to fill the case to the base of the neck. I have primed the cases with Winchester LRM primers for good ignition. The bullets are some cheap 220 grain Hornady's I have loaded long to force them into the rifling to keep headspace.

Anyone have any comments on this? Or do you have any fireforming loads you'd care to share? This is for a Husqvarna, pre-war S/42 Oberndorf (all matching too ).

Thanks.

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I have a J.P. Sauer SXS double in 8X60RS for which I make cartridges from 7X65R brass by trimming it to 59mm, necking it up to 8mm, then loading. No fireforming required. Before I had any 7X65R cases, I made a few rounds from .30/'06 brass by necking in up to 8mm, trimming it, and just running it through the 8X60S RCBS sizer die. My first loads used 8X57mm data as a starting load, and I found that this cartridge maxes out somewhere about halfway between 8X57mm and 8mm/'06 max loads - actually, it is closer to the 8mm/'06 than the 8X57JS. There was no noticeable change in the shape of the cases due to fire-forming from the shortened '06 cases. Actually, the shoulder diameter of the full-length '06 case is already about 0.003" BIGGER than the shoulder diameter of the 8X60S case, so that portion of the case is actually being REDUCED in diameter when you FL size it in the 8X60S die.

This is an excellent cartridge. A number of years back, there was an article on the 8X60S by Ken Waters in either HANDLOADER or RIFLE MAGAZINE. Ken's was a Mauser, and the article included loading data for a lot of different bullet weights.

ALF - Ah yes, Donnely. I have the first edition. It appears to be much rougher than your edition. I should upgrade. Where can I get a handfull of those excellent TIG projectiles?

El Deguello - Excellent advice sir. I will break out my Starrett No. 436 and measure those shoulders against Donnely and another caseforming book I have.

I was only concerned whether RL-25 will generate enough pressure to adequately blow out the brass. This is my reasoning for seating the bullet long and hard into the rifling. Only one way to find out.

quote:

Originally posted by Nitromaniac:
ALF - Ah yes, Donnely. I have the first edition. It appears to be much rougher than your edition. I should upgrade. Where can I get a handfull of those excellent TIG projectiles?

El Deguello - Excellent advice sir. I will break out my Starrett No. 436 and measure those shoulders against Donnely and another caseforming book I have.

I was only concerned whether RL-25 will generate enough pressure to adequately blow out the brass. This is my reasoning for seating the bullet long and hard into the rifling. Only one way to find out.

My point was, as you noted, that the shoulder dsoes NOT NEED to be blown out when going from a .30/'06 to an 8X60 Mauser case. Quite the contrary, in fact! However, I would consider RE 25 to be a very slow propellant in that cartridge!! Yet, it would probably generate adequate pressure to blow out case, which I understand requires about 35 KPSI or thereabouts.....

Here are dimensions of the 8X60S and the .30/'06 respectively, courtesy of www.reloadbench.com .

Nitro Normally a faster burning powder is prefered for fireforming cases. I would not use RL 25 as you have suggested. I would recommend using 4895 (H or IMR). I would back off about 1 grain from a Max load for the 8x57 cartridge . This would be about right for a fireform load for the 8x60. Using too slow a burning powder will not form the case properly and you could end up with headspace problems that will result in premature case separation. Hope this helps