.300 H&H cases are awfully hard to come by & frightfully expensive these days. I tried forming a .375 H&H case in a .300 H&H FL die and got many little folds in the neck. Tried doing the same with a .300 WBY case & got a better looking case but it took a tremendous amount of force. Short of paying $4 a piece for Nosler brass, is there any easier way to form .300 H&H cases?
Roger

No.

Try a .340 Wby die as an intermediate step when necking down.

Don't like necking down, but when I do I anneal first than use Imperial Sizing Die wax (VERY SPAREINGLY) on the neck and shoulder. Push the brass into the sizing die many times, do not try to do it in one stroke.

Good Luck!

Hip

As Hipshoot has said. Manufacturers go through several annealing stages when case forming so it requires at least one neck and shoulder anneal to size down .375 cases. Sizing brass hardens it so if doing two stage sizing then probably should do two stage annealing for best results.

Open the neck to 375 416, 458 or what ever then run it thru your 300 H&H die, I think I did that for a friend of mine some years ago...I think 300 H&h will become available sooner or later..Try ET Brass

I recall seeing some fully open H&H brass that could be sized down to any belted caliber..I used it to make 458 L0tt cases at the time.

I form 416 Rigby to 338 in several steps before hydro forming the cases. I use mandrel dies to perform this with annealing between steps. My final forming is done in the chamber and the case looks vastly different onc formed.
When I started this venture, I would lose 5% of cases to shoulder crushing, so little steps is the answer.

Cheers.

I have made some dies and guides to use on an arbor press.

You do it all in one push, but not all at one time.

The lube seems to stay on better. The repeated working the die down in a reloading press requires more lube.

For belting and reforming.

I haven't had to neck down .375 H&H brass to use in .300 H&H for a decade in a half so I went through the process yesterday with a few extra pieces of .375 brass. The problem is that this is not just a simple neck down operation but a remodeling of the case where the .375 should is pushed back about 0.200" and the case body diameter is reduced quite a bit.

The steps I used in the past and again for grins went like this:

1.) Run the .375 case into a .358 STA FL die for the first neck reduction.
2.) Run the case into a .340 Wby FL die to further reduce the neck diameter.
3.) Run the case into a .300 Wby FL die for the final neck reduction(though the neck will still be about 0.200" short).
4.) Run the case into a .300 H&H die. This need to be done in 2 to 3 steps to keep the neck and shoulder from collapsing and keep the case well lubed with Imperial sizing die wax or similar.

I get that most handloaders don't have a .358 STA die set hanging around but .300 & .340 Wby dies are common. Going right to the .340 Wby FL die works well and forming the neck first with that and then the .300 Wby die makes the process much easier than jumping right to the .300 H&H dies. It's enough work that the price of Nosler brass becomes palatable. I hope this helps.

Another trailing thought. I was never able to avoid neck reaming with this particular case forming procedure.

Yes it will build a donut in many cases..

I think patience is your best bet, wait until some 300 H&H brass shows up..It will sooner or later, go on the internet and seach for some..

The dreaded donut:



Having neck sized up and down cases, I am of the opinion it is less troublesome to start with the correct case. If you can avoid extraordinary measures, then by all means, avoid extraordinary measures.

Necking up or down, you should anneal the case shoulder and neck. And your annealing will not be as precise as the annealing that comes from the factory. Be prepared to outside trim case necks that you neck down, and expect neck cracks on the cases you neck up. And then you will either have a neck too short, or so long that a lot of trimming is involved. Expect discards.