Of the 50 416 wby cases I bought off ebay (new, $1 each) I lost ONE in rough forming/opening to 550.. this was due to a split neck, that I don't think annealing would have helped... it just TORE

i had 3 "rivet" on me, but when the case is more or less straight walled, a few taps with a ball of a ballpeen hammer straightened things right out.

The forming tool was a cut off and cut down 8x57 SR turkbarrel!! if that makes you laugh, then you GET IT.

I left ~2" of straightned taper for shank, cut 1" to 5/8 (was going to thread), then .75 to 550, then tapered from there to .380 at 2.5degrees compound setting (5degree effective) and POLISHED the heck out of it.

Procedure was simple...

sit case on anvil of my vise, lube the tool every 2 cases (lube is ALWAYS important) and tapped lightly with 3# deadfall hammer, then one or two stout blows to drive the mandrel home. Since I had left a sharp angle at the union of .550 to .625, there was a pretty easy stop... I tried to avoid this, and only had ~7 cases "belled" by that taper.

So, of 50, I realized 49 proto 550 express cases... I'll make a trimming die today or tomorrow to cut them down with.

jeffe

Neal,
you KNOW i can't stand to wait!!

as for getting the brass off the mandrel, well, the whole thing fits right through the 7/8 die hole on an rcbs supreme and the rigby/wby/jeffe-ry shellholder clips right in... a single tap on the op-handle, and I have it!!

besides, Neal, M typ case expanders dont work for crap for more than ~.010 smaller case mouths@@

jeffe

The Renaissance Man lives!
Frank