UrduBob,

The "old" A-Square cartridges came in boxes of 20 or wallets of 10 depending on the caliber.

Splitting necks is a sign of embrittled brass. I have seen this with some old Winchester Western match '06 ammo from the 50s -- every neck split. The brass was work hardened from 50+ years of neck tension. I have also read of brass embrittlement from some primer formulations, but that is probably not the case here. I expect you have some of the older A-Square cartridges that were left.

jim

For the handloaders among us, I just want to mention (again) that excellent .404 cases can be made very simply from .375 Ultra Mag brass. No tooling is needed beyond the regular reloading dies.

Regards from BruceB (aka Bren Mk1)

Do you anneal after necking up?

George

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I agree with Alf, not sure how you figure on using RUM brass to make 404 Jefferys since it is shortened and blown out 404 Jefferys brass as I understand it????

Secondly, if one intends on shooting the 404 then by all means use Norma brass...Woodliegh bullets should work well enough...these old barrels will almost always shoot well with a soft copper jacket over lead, not so the monolithics, thats a gamble with any barrel....

We had a thread running here on AR for a while about this reforming job. I "disremember" which Board it was on, though.

First, the .375 Ultra is the same length as the original .404, which makes the conversion very simple. Note that the .338 Ultra is somewhat shorter than the .375 UM and the .404, but I have made useable cases with these as well....just a bit short in the neck, which really harms nothing.

The RIM diameter of the UM brass is a few thousandths smaller than the original .404 case. This was done to remove the need for bolt-face alterations, since Remington was all tooled-up for H&H-sized bolt-faces. The difference is too small to make any difference in the functioning of the rifles, and indeed allows handloaders to use the common H&H shellholder. SOME .404 cases will not fit the H&H shellholders.

The critical dimension in this situation is the case diameter ahead of the extractor groove. In comparing cases in my possession, the diameters between Kynoch Berdan-primed brass, Kynoch Boxer-primed brass, and Remington .375 UM brass, actually overlap. The gross difference from smallest to largest is only about .006", and this is essentially meaningless. I've seen that much difference between different lots of cases of the same make in regular production runs. All these cases function perfectly through my Cogswell & Harrison Mauser.

I now have about 100 .404 cases reformed from .338 UM, and another 150 reformed from .375 UM. All of them work just fine, and I have yet to lose a single case. I have not found annealing to be necessary so far, but if the need arises I expect to see it first in the .338 brass, due to the greater necking-up it had to undergo. The .338s have all been fired three times to date. Most of the .375 brass has been fired twice. No casualties to report! (most of my .404 shooting these days involves cast bullets.)

Although I have mechanically-necked-up a very few cases, it's much easier to fireform them. I size the cases in the regular sizing die until the bolt will JUST close on the case with a bit of "feel". A load of about 20.0 grains of 2400, under by a full caseload of cornmeal, forms the neck area perfectly. I found that the rifle should be pointed straight up when fireforming, to minimize irregularities in the case mouth area. A light trimming finishes the job. NO BULLET is used in the fireforming process! Just fill the case to within about 1/4" of the mouth with cornmeal, and add a small piece of loosely-installed tissue paper to prevent the rounds from spilling in the loading block en route to the range.

Trust me, group, it works perfectly and makes an inexpensive way to shoot the .404. I know, the headstamp has to match the rifle in some countries. I'll worry about that when I'm about to get on the airplane! Until that time, my .404 will munch happily on the Ultra Mag brass....

Regards from BruceB (aka Bren Mk1)

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Alf, you make it hard on a guy to be satisfied with what he's got. I wish you guys would allow me me finish my projects before posting all these originals. Now, I have a 404 itch.

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