I recently purchased a 318 Westley Richards double. The only new brass I can find is Bertram and it runs about $5 each. Even the Woodleigh Loading Manual used brass formed from 30-06 cases. Is there a brand of 30-06 case that better suited to forming than the others?

I use Remington or Winchester. Other than trimming the length, you are not reforming the brass that much,I do run mine into my 8/06 sizer first with plenty of lube, then into the .318 sizer. If someone makes a tapered expander that would be nice After firing the first time, you may want to anneal the necks for longer life. It is a great cartridge, please give us details about your Double, there can't be too many of those around!

I bought it last week from JJ Perodeau--it is still listed on his web site (jjperodeau.com). There are photos along with a description. It was an interesting purchase. The cheekpiece was much too "proud" for me. So, after I assured him I was buying the rifle, out comes the wood rasp and he works it until we had a perfect fit. That was a new experience for me.

Remington brass is the softest commercial brass and is ideal for firing forming.
I use 12 grains of Unique under a full case of Corn Meal sealed with a small bunch of toilet paper. This will 95% form the case. Then do your normal bullet load for the final sizing.

quote:

Originally posted by 7kongoni:
I recently purchased a 318 Westley Richards double. The only new brass I can find is Bertram and it runs about $5 each. Even the Woodleigh Loading Manual used brass formed from 30-06 cases. Is there a brand of 30-06 case that better suited to forming than the others?

I can lend you my RCBS forming dies if you promise to return them in a timely manner. It's a fairly easy process to make the cases. PM me if your interested.
John

Hats off to Gundog 64 for the loan of his case forming dies. No more buying Bertram cases at $5 each for me!

quote:

Originally posted by 7kongoni:
Hats off to Gundog 64 for the loan of his case forming dies. No more buying Bertram cases at $5 each for me!

Sir, you are quite welcome. It's really an easy case to make. I use a dab of Imperial sizing wax on a q tip to lube the inside of the case neck for the expander step. Used to trim to length a few each night. If your looking for cheap practice bullets Powder Valley still has the Privi Partisan .330 bullets in stock. I have 500 Woodleigh 250 gr RN I'm willing to part with for what I have in them. A board member here gave me a screaming deal on them and it would not be right to profit on his kind gesture.

I recently fire formed cases for my 9.5X57 Mannlicher Schoenauer. I do not know of any source of head stamped new brass cases.

I did some research and found that the 9.3X57 has the same head space but a greater taper. So I got 40 new Norma cases and fire formed them.

This is what I did.

20 gr Winchester Shotgun flake powder from a friend (not sure of actual grade as I do not reload shot shells)

I took 2 squares of toilet tissue paper. I folded each piece of tissue paper and pushed it into the case over the powder with the back side of a pencil and made sure the 2 pieces of paper were firmly seated over the powder. I made sure to center the paper square and the fold in the edges, once it is inside the case.

I made sure that the paper squares were folded 3 times and that the pencil did not punch a hole through the paper square of the case mouth cut a ring out.

I then just loaded and fired the cases and they all formed perfectly.

I did not use a bullet and I did not use any cream of wheat or any other filler.