Would someone please give me the rundown on how to fire-form brass with Bullseye and oatmeal? How much Bullseye? How do you "plug" the case mouth? How do you keep the powder form mixing with the oatmeal? Does it make a mess? Is it quiet enough to do outside in a quiet subdivision? Does it foul up your barrel?

Thanks.

What are you trying to fireform? Has an effect on the how much question, as a 22 hornet cat will need much less powder than a 505 gibbs

I've used tp instead of oatmeal, and red dot instead of bullseye, and then capped with a wax plug. While I did fire one or two off in the garage, I would advise against firing them off in a subdevision take them to the range.

Tom,



When I fireform large cases, I use 10grs. of Bullseye to start. I tamp it down with a wooden dowel, then fill the case to the shoulder with meal. I take a square of toilet paper (single-ply), cut it into quarters, then ball up one quarter and stuff it into the case neck.



Fire in a safe direction (or into a closed trash can with a hole for the barrel cut into it), and the case should form nicely. If 10grs. of Bullseye isn't enough, go up one (1) grain at a time until you get nice sharp shoulders on your cases.



If you are in a crowded subdivision, you might want to avail yourself of the trash can to shoot into.



George

Paul,

I thought you would know instinctivly that I am wanting to create 404 Jeffery cases from .375 Ultra Mag cases.

Sorry, I couldn't resist.

Actually, until you post, It didn't cross my mind to include that little detail.

Yeah, I should have known ;-)

It seems like a slightly denser filler would work, as when I just used tp, trying to blow a 6.5mm 30/30 cat out to 357 Herret, most necks didn't fully open up.

From what I've read, the ultra mag cases are larger in dia at the head than true 404 Jeffrey brass, .550" dia for the UM vs .540" for a Jeffrey. Depending on your chamber, this might be a problem.

Given the expenses of 404 brass, I can appreciate your approach.

There's a thread running here on operating costs for the .404 Jeffery, and earlier today I posted about my method of doing this .375-to-.404 alteration. Note that I use cornmeal, which is denser and much smaller-particled than oatmeal.

I sort of distrust Bullseye for this, but instead use 2400 or 5744 as noted. Bullseye is very sudden indeed, and I have on occasion used ONLY Bullseye, with NO filler and NO tissue (in other words, just Bullseye in an otherwise-empty case) to expand case-necks, such as .264s to 7mm Magnums. It works fine in that usage. BIG flash and bang...

These fireforming loads are LOUD, and I'd rather wait until I get to a range or open area without neighbors before firing them.

I find that pointing the rifle straight up helps minimize case-mouth irregularities, and I recommend doing this. This firing position also eliminates the possibility of the "stuffings" suddenly coming loose and dropping into the barrel or chamber, causing a mess.

I have 140 former .375 UltraMag cases (and 20 used-to-be .338 UMs) now serving admirably as .404 brass. I haven't lost a single case in either the reforming process or subsequent firings with "real" loads. That's about a lifetime supply for me....

Regards from BruceB (aka Bren Mk1)

It's not the expense of 404 brass that has me wanting to try this. It's because my rifle is reamed too big at the rear, and the Ultra Mag cases will take up some of that room. One very wise old member of this board, who shall remain nameless (Mbogo375), thinks this alternative to standard brass might just solve all the problems I've had with my gun.

The question of the dimensions arose while I was typing my last post.

This subject has also come up in the past few months. The .404 cases I have on hand include both Berdan-primed and Boxer-primed Kynoch .404s, plus the Remington UM brass. Careful measurement shows that there is an OVERLAP in dimensions on these cases. The largest diameter just ahead of the extractor groove is .545", and this was found on a Boxer-type Kynoch case. All others were smaller, even as small as .535", and NONE of these cases present any functioning difficulty even though the RIM of the .375/.338 UMs are about 5-7/1000ths smaller than the Kynoch stuff.

Buy a box of .375UM and try it, because you'll only be out about $12.00. Not really all that much of an investment.....you'll probably have to get some properly-headstamped brass (for legal reasons) for your next African jaunt, but I wouldn't worry about that until I had the money for such an expedition!

Regards from BruceB (aka Bren Mk1

Hi GAHUNTER,
Once you have your dimensions sorted out the oatmeal fire forming works like this.
17 grains of Bullseye powder with a small amount of cotton batton to hold the powder against the primer ( keep this amount to a minimum) fill the case with oatmeal just shy of the case neck and fill the balance to the case mouth with molten wax. Point straight up and fire. The wax plug will help to shape the neck better. Just pick up a bar of parrafin wax, apply some heat so it runs and let it drip into the case mouth. It's best to prepare twenty to fifty cases and once you have the wax running just keep filling the necks. Pick off any excess wax to keep your chamber clean and try them out.
Take care,
Dave

Can you use this same process to form 458 Lott from 375 H&H?
Will it split the neck?

Hi 450Watts,
That shouldn't present any problem. I've fireformed 375 H&H to 450 ackley without a problem. You can always start with 416 Remington brass.
Take care,
Dave

Was given a full box of 7-STW cases (1,000) a few years ago. Knew I'd never use that many so, when I got my .375 H&H, I sized the cases with the decapping rod removed from the die. Then used the powder, cornmeal, toilet paper trick to fireform the cases in my .375 chamber. Cases (150) came out beautifully and have been loaded at least five times each.

GAHUNTER,

I have some BELL 404 Jeffery brass. I'm waiting on John Ricks to make the rifle. If you'd like some of this brass I'll send it to you. Maybe fireforming this brass with the oatmeal will solve your problems, although the UM brass might be the ticket. Just drop me an email rkmojo@aol.com