And I thought converting 06 to 8mm was easy

R

Road_Clam

New member
Well folks this is turning out to be a LOT more work than I anticipated. I decided to start handloading for my Yugo M98 8mm mauser and the first thing I realized was brass is very pricey. I then learned you can simply (I thought) convert 30-06 brass to 8mm. Well there's a LOT more to it than just ramming your '06 case up into the 8mm die.

1) first tip use SOFTER brass like FC. Tried using some older free W-W brass and forget it the WW casings were beating the crap out of my dies (even after a neck anneal) !

2) Tip #2 ANNEAL the necks before resizing.

3) Get ready to do a LOT of trimming ! I ended up using a small "IMP" tubing cutter to trim the bulk of the extra length. Still had to trim about .040" using my LEE trim arbors chucked in my benchtop drill to try and speed things up a bit.

4) I now realized that the neck wall thickness was excessive causing some rounds to not chamber. New PPU ammo was about .347" OD , and the resized 8mm were running about .354". So now I had to buy a neck turning kit. No big deal I have been wanting to get into turning my necks anyway.

So after all is said and done, now I'm producing great quality 06/8mm Mauser ammo, but make NO mistake it's a LOT of work to save a buck...
 
And that's exactly the sort of stuff that scares me about the prospect of having to use 7mm Mauser brass to make 6mm Remington! Jajaja!
 
I have never had much trouble. I have used 30-06 to make 8x57 7.7 jap 7.65 x53 arg and even 257 Roberts. The 257 Roberts was the only one that didn't work out very well. The 7.65 Arg I found would not work with nickel plated brass as it split after first firing. The only ones I annealed was for the 257 Roberts. I did the same as you. I first cut with a tubing cuter or a dremel with a cut off wheel. Lubed well ran though a full length die. Trimmed with a lee trimmer in a drill. Sized again and trimmed again if needed. I used either Remington or Winchester brass for all of this. All range brass. 8x57 was the easiest if I remember correctly. I never had a neck size issue with any.
 
I know smart guys that complain they spent all day working on a piece of brass.
Fortunately for me, I have the work avoidance gene.
 
I've done about 75 casings thus far and in hindsight it's one of those "jumping over a dollar to save a dime" type situations. Think i'll just suck it up and buy 8mm virgin Privi brass and just get right down to shooting. On a positive note I did learn a lot about the sizing conversion in general so if I'm forced to do it in the future I have the method down pretty good.
 
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Congratulations! Welcome to the Grand Order of Case Converters!
originally founded well over a century ago, by innovative people looking for a better way, in the last half century or so, the majority of members have been people looking for a cheaper way, or in many cases, any way at all!

For most of us, at some point in our lives (usually early) sweat (labor) is cheaper than money. For some of us, our entire lives are like that. If you are prosperous, you usually reach a point where money is cheaper than sweat.

People at that point generally don't convert cases, they just buy new ones.
However, due to many factors, there have been times when brass/ammo for certain rounds simply was not commercially available, for neither love nor money, as the saying goes.

I always figured converting 06 to 8mm was a waste of time, economically. Remington makes 8mm ammo.

On the other hand, for a couple generations (at least) 7.7mm Jap did not commercially exist in the US. And unlike the 8mm Mauser, there never were great stocks of surplus ammo on the market, either.

When I found new made 7.7mmJap brass, I stopped chopping 06 for that.

As long as the head size is the same (or close enough), you can convert any case into a shorter one. 06 can be made into .22-250, although its a tedious multi stage process, it can be done. You can even convert them into .45ACP. I make .44AMP & .357AMP cases from them.

But if you can buy brass made for the purpose, even though it seems expensive, it could be cheaper in the long run.

welcome to the Order, brother! Acolyte status. You'll know when you are up for Master, and Grand Master status when you start lathe turning cases, turning the belts off magnum brass, thinning rims, or reducing rim diameter, cutting new extractor grooves, etc. Most never get that far.

Tip: While the tubing cutter is much better than doing it all with a case trimmer, if you are looking at a large number of cases, look into getting a trim die. RCBS used to have them, don't know if they still do.

Trim die forms the case a little, and is hardened. Excess case length sticks out the top, you cut it off with a hacksaw, then use a file to get it flush with the top of the die (die is harder than file, will not be harmed)

Then you finish sizing (however many steps it takes) and do final trim with a regular trimmer.

If you are looking at batches of hundreds, its worth it.;)
 
1) first tip use SOFTER brass like FC. Tried using some older free W-W brass and forget it the WW casings were beating the crap out of my dies (even after a neck anneal) !
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Case forming 101: Don't use work-hardened brass. ;)


It's one of those things that every case former knows, but almost always fails to mention when people ask about the process. :rolleyes:


One of the easiest conversion that I perform is .223/5.56 to 6x45mm. Neck it up, load, and shoot. It doesn't even require neck turning (or reaming) to get the dreaded "donut" out of the neck.
I use once-fired brass because it's free. When I come across a case that has multiple firings on it, it's pretty obvious because the neck splits as soon as it hits the expander.

That's the only conversion that I'll do with once-fired brass. Everything else gets new brass. (And, in the case of '06-to-8x57mm, I'd just buy 8mm brass.)
 
7.62X25 & 7.62X45 are 2 of my toughest... 7.62 X 25 made from 223 cases... 7.62 X 45 cases made from 220 Swift...

any chance I get I always look for PRVI brass or Norma cases for the odd stuff if for no other reason, to get correct headstamps... after FIL died, I spent many hours in the loading room with a caliper trying to figure out what was what...

BTW... not that spendy if you know where to look :)

http://www.grafs.com/retail/catalog/product/productId/12659
 
Nemesis said:
I'm glad I just bought 200pcs of PPU 8mm brass that sounds like a lot of work
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It is. I was initially drawn into the '06/8mm conversion based upon the fact that once fired '06 brass is so cheap and plentiful (about $10 per 50 for FC) it initially seemed a cheap alternative to new 8mm brass which is about $45 per 50)
 
Yeah I paid $0.62 a piece from Graf not exactly cheap but nothing compared to the $2.50 a piece for .338 Lapua brass :(

I was going to make my own .300blk brass but buy the time I bought a mini saw and made a jig and add my time it wasn't worth it since i found really nice converted .223 brass for $0.18 a piece.
 
Going from 30/06 to 8mm57, or 7mm57, or 7.65mm53 B.M and then there is the 7.7 Japanese etc..

Instead of purchasing expensive cases I purchased forming dies. When forming with forming dies trimming is a matter of using the man tool 'the hack saw' and finishing with a file. there are times when forming cases 25" inches of trimming is necessary.

Then there are forming dies that double as forming dies for other more expensive forming dies. Last week it was suggested I could have a die made for forming cheaper than the one I listed. $240.00:eek:, a reloader/case former, shooter surrounded with equipment does not find it necessary to waste time driving to a friends shop, except for a visit.

And, again, my favorite forming dies are short forming dies, my favorite forming die is the 308 W forming die, the second most favorite is the 243 W forming die.

F. Guffey
 
06/8mm Mauser ammo
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One of my chamber reamers takes the work out of forming cases, it is an 8mm06 chamber reamer, then there is the 6.5mm50 Japanese, same thing, I have a 257 Roberts/6.5 Japanese chamber reamer. Another chamber reamer I have is the 308 Norma Mag., magnum belted cases are not in short supply around here but when sorting by cases head stamps the cases must be stood up and separated by height.

F. Guffey
 
Road_Clam wrote:

And I thought converting 06 to 8mm was easy

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Well folks this is turning out to be a LOT more work than I anticipated.
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RC, If you would ream that 8x57 chamber to an 8mm/06 or an 8/06AI it would help you a lot with future reloads.
 
RaySendero said:
RC, If you would ream that 8x57 chamber to an 8mm/06 or an 8/06AI it would help you a lot with future reloads.
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When you ream to 8mm/06 can you still shoot traditional 8mm Mauser ?
 
Only thing I have to add, is the little mini saw /jig sets for 300blk can be used to trim any case to any length you want. You just need to add some extra cuts to the jig. Lots easier than pipe cutting.
 
Road Clam....you must really be doing something wrong or have a weak arm and or bad press because I found making 8mm Mauser out of 30-06 to be extremely easy once you figure out the steps. I use a green press that has plenty of leverage and I deprime first. Then I install my 8mm Mauser full sizer die all the way down to my shell holder and give another half turn but I do not use the decapping pin/ sizeing rod. I have found that fired 30-06 cases already have a wide enough neck. I dribble a small dollup of grease on the first case in two spots that I have learned usually hang up and partially size the 30-06 brass. It takes me from two to four partial strokes before I have the case resized. After you have sized a case or two you can tell that you are using enough grease if a grease string is barely being squeezed out of the die vents.

I use a Forester Case trimmer powered by an electric drill to cut the cases to length and then I champher the case mouth and champher the primer pocket on milsurps.
 
When you ream to 8mm/06 can you still shoot traditional 8mm Mauser ?
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there is the a difference between can and shouldn't.

8mm57 cases fired in an 8mm06 chamber will be ejected looking like 30/06 cases with very, very short necks. I have 2 8mm/06 rifles, I neck the 30/06 case up with an 8mm06 sizing die then load and fire them.

Then I install my 8mm Mauser full sizer die all the way down to my shell holder and give another half turn but I do not use the decapping pin/ sizing rod.
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hatcreek, why? the shoulder of the 30/06 is ahead of the 8mm Mauser by .121". when I form long cases for short chamber I size the case to fit. It seems adjusting the die down with an additional/fractional turn would would cause a reloader to keep making the same mistake over and over and over.

The 8mm Mauser case is shorter than the 30/06 by .250", when trimming that is 1" for every 4 cases and 25" for 100 cases, I use the hack saw.

F. Guffey
 
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When you ream to 8mm/06 can you still shoot traditional 8mm Mauser ?
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8mm57 cases fired in an 8mm06 chamber will be ejected looking like 30/06 cases with very, very short necks. I have 2 8mm/06 rifles, I neck the 30/06 case up with an 8mm06 sizing die then load and fire them.
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the shoulder of the 30/06 is ahead of the 8mm Mauser by .121".
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Then there are those that must insert 'head space' three of four time in each responses. For those that are keeping up the difference in length between the chamber form the shoulder and bolt face and the 8mm57 case length from the shoulder to the case head is .121". I said nothing about case head separation or a failure of the catastrophic type. I said the case was ejected with a very short neck:eek::confused::rolleyes:;).

F. Guffey
 
that is different when firing a 308 Winchester in a 30/06 chamber. The 308 W shoulder/case body juncture is larger in diameter than the 30/06 chamber at the same point, meaning the 308 W case head spaces on the 30/06 chamber because to chamber a 308 W case in a 30/06 chamber the case must be sized when chambered with the bolt. There again, the 308 W case is ejected with out a neck.

F. Guffey
 
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