I would like to know more about making 25-06 brass from 30-06 brass. Is it easy, is it a good idea. I have lots of 30-06 brass but not much 25-06.

accurate headstamps are a good thing, but if you must make 25-06 brass it will work fine.

They may grow a little in length, I don't remember the OAL for either, though that is easily accessable in reloading books. You will probably have to trim to length after sizing.

Any of the -06 descendents can be made from -06 brass as they were all derived from that cartridge.

You'll get a little annular ring on the new .25-06 shoulder where the original .30-06 neck-shoulder junction was, but it irons out when you fire the case. I've had no degradation in accuracy on the first firing with necked-down .30-06 cases.

As with any necking-down process, your necks will thicken slightly. Most chambers are overly generous in the neck, so the neck walls don't usually need thinning. Also, the case will lengthen a bit and will almost always require trimming and chamfering. New or once-fired brass is always better for necking-down than brass which has been fired multiple times and is work hardened.

ALL of the .25-06 brass (.25 Neider) for the first half-century of its wildcat existance came successfully from necked-down .30-06. Remington's making it a "factory" cartridge in 1969 didn't change this.

#1). Way back when Uncle Sam left free brass lying around, making other calibers was common... 7x57, etc. Common... This .25 is a good one. Little over bore with all but the slowest powders and heaviest bullets, but cheap is cheap.
#2). Many old timers will tell of just shoving '06 brass into a full length .25/'06 die and having a case. With stout, mil surplus free brass a few losses was no big deal.
#3). While you are not working the brass all that much, an intermediate step with brass that costs money makes sense. How about a .27/'06? More common name: .270 WCF. .28/'06 will also work. One common: .280 Rem. As suggested, this reduction in diameter may add to length. Mr. O'Connor claimed the .270 was planned for this. No idea about your chamber. Trim if you need to.
#4). You are "working the brass" which "work hardens" the brass and means that it will crack sooner, so an anneal with brass you pay for is a good idea. You can get Timplac from better machinist supply houses or Brownells. Stand the case, sans primer, in water to keep the base at less than the boiling point of water, 212 F... heat the neck to light pink in a dark room where the correct templac should melt, propane torch works fine... knock over into water to quench... OR the short cut is to dip in molten lead, PURE lead--alloys melt at lower temps, melt muzzle loader balls if you have too--- best is around 650 F as I recall. This is about 615 F, easy and alot better than nothing. LUCK. Happy trails.

You can...as has been suggested along with an excellent history lesson and ways of doing it that are history in action...I have many times for several rifles using most of the suggested ways and some of my own...But WHY??? 25-06 brass is available everywhere online.

Neck thickening is the biggest problem and WILL happen. You HAVE to make a chamber cast if you start messing around with resizing any of the larger caliber cases so you know how much to turn off...otherwise you run the risk of a bullet jammed in the neck of the case while in the chamber, over pressure loads and a BIG ruckus when you pull the trigger.

I think the better solution is to use 280 Rem cases as the case is longer and the shoulder is farther forward allowing you to "custom fit" the brass to a slight crush fit to your chamber and then adjust your sizing die to a minimum amount of shoulder set back. Improves accuracy a bunch if you also do the required other accuracy enhancing processes. You can do the same by setting up a "false shoulder" by sizing down in steps and leaving the shoulder at the right point by size and fit.

Most of these processes are time consuming but you will learn a great deal...hopefully...in the process...Otherwise it is much easier, quicker and simpler AND SAFER (if you aren't an advanced reloader as the question suggests) just to by 25-06 brass, load up and go hunting.

Good Luck

Back when I bought my first 25-06, Rem in 1971-72?? brass or ammo wasn't readily available where I lived, so it was all made from 06 and 270, just run it through FL sizer and trim to length, works fine. I bought a Winchester chambered for 25-06 in 1990 and for it I used brass with the correct headstamp, mostly because of shooting a 25-06, 270,280 and 6.5-06 and several members of the family using them I wanted to make sure they got the correct ammo.

Thanks for the info. I used 270 brass and it worked well. I just have to load and shoot a few.

quote:

Originally posted by swheeler:
Back when I bought my first 25-06, Rem in 1971-72?? brass or ammo wasn't readily available where I lived, so it was all made from 06 and 270, just run it through FL sizer and trim to length, works fine. I bought a Winchester chambered for 25-06 in 1990 and for it I used brass with the correct headstamp, mostly because of shooting a 25-06, 270,280 and 6.5-06 and several members of the family using them I wanted to make sure they got the correct ammo.

+1

I made my first .25-06 rifle in 1959 when there was no .25-06 commercial brass. Used GI surplus '06 brass, for which I paid $8 per thousand. Decapped it, removed the primer crimps, washed it, and ran it through my RCBS sizing die, trimmed for length and chamfered. Didn't lose a single case.

Am still re-loading the same brass some half-dozen or more .25-06 rifles later. Has fit well in all of them; have never needed to turn any case necks.

It doesn't hurt a bit, BTW, to initially trim .010" or even .015" shorter than nominal length. Saves having to trim again for quite a few reloadings. Should check length regularly, though, just to be sure.

Since the 25-06 wasn't actually commercialized until 1969 before that there was literally no other way.

I've made a fair ammount of 25-06 brass from 30-06 brass, both milsurp and commercial '06 brass new and used....

I found in general that resizing in a single pass with
a 25-06 trim die, trimming and then FL sizing worked with the fewest losses due to forming.

Virgin Rem brass formed most easily.

I started neck reaming to thin the necks
(I have a special RCBS reaming die made for doing this)
but I switched to outside neck turning because it produced more consistant and concentric neck thickness.

AD

quote:

But WHY??? 25-06 brass is available everywhere online.

I used to do it because I'm a cheap bastard and can't stand throwing anything away! I don't shoot a 25-06 any longer, but I did pick up ~120 once-fired 06 cases at the range the other day...they are now 9.3x62 cases. Guess I'm still a cheap bastard!