Hunting Washington Forum

Equipment & Gear => Guns and Ammo => Topic started by: duckmen1 on January 09, 2013, 10:12:32 PM

Title: Sizing 300 wsm to 325wsm
Post by: duckmen1 on January 09, 2013, 10:12:32 PM: Can this be done safely. Have the dies for both just curious. The 300 wsm brass is just more readily available for me.
Title: Re: Sizing 300 wsm to 325wsm
Post by: Heredoggydoggy on January 09, 2013, 10:27:45 PM: I just read an article about necking up brass cases. The old standby was to fireform the cases using a powder charge, Cream of Wheat, and a wax plug to hold the pressure when they are fired. The article went on to say that RCBS now makes a set of dies that do the same job with less chance of a split case neck. I,ve done quite a bit of necking DOWN cases, but never tried it the other way. The article was in a past issue of Predator Xtreme magazine. Probably available online....
Title: Re: Sizing 300 wsm to 325wsm
Post by: thinkingman on January 10, 2013, 09:48:16 AM: I have more than one Federal factory-loaded cases with split necks.
FYI
Title: Re: Sizing 300 wsm to 325wsm
Post by: duckmen1 on January 10, 2013, 09:55:17 AM: You mean when sizing like this. Or is that possibly just from over loading.
Title: Re: Sizing 300 wsm to 325wsm
Post by: AWS on January 10, 2013, 11:03:25 AM: Get a taperred expander plug for your dies, trim and chamfer the brass before sizing up and use plenty of lube(imperial sizing wax) inside the neck, if your doing once fired brass be sure you lube the whole case plus the inside f the neck. Triming and chamfering prevents splits from any imperfections on the case mouth. I size 204 Ruger cases to 224, 6mm, and .257 with very little loss of brass.
Title: Re: Sizing 300 wsm to 325wsm
Post by: duckmen1 on January 10, 2013, 11:23:31 AM: Thanks everybody. I'm just trying to make sure I do everything right the first time because I have never resized a case to fit another caliber.
Title: Re: Sizing 300 wsm to 325wsm
Post by: duckmen1 on January 10, 2013, 11:38:17 AM: The rcbs die set say includes expander decamping unit. Is that what you mean or are you talking a aftermarket piece.
Title: Re: Sizing 300 wsm to 325wsm
Post by: Heredoggydoggy on January 10, 2013, 11:58:53 AM: Quote from: duckmen1 on January 10, 2013, 11:38:17 AM
The rcbs die set say includes expander decamping unit. Is that what you meanorare you talking a aftermarket piece.

Don't really know, except the article said that RCBS was making die sets specifically for "necking up", now that the practice is getting more popular. I didn't read the article religiously, because I reload wildcat cartridges, but I neck down, not up. Anything reloading related interests me, even if it's something I don't do. There are usually "gems" hidden in every reloading article, and when it comes to reloading, there's no such thing as too much knowlege!
Title: Re: Sizing 300 wsm to 325wsm
Post by: AWS on January 10, 2013, 02:56:31 PM: The standard expander ball on most dies are caliber specific, you have to order a replacement tapered expanderball to size. The front part of the expanderba fits the smaller case and the rear part of it is your finished size, will post a pic in a few min, need to pull apaert a couple of dies and take a pic.
Title: Re: Sizing 300 wsm to 325wsm
Post by: AWS on January 10, 2013, 03:11:21 PM: here's a picture.

Tapered expander ball on left, standard on right.

(https://hunting-washington.com/smf/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi6.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fy222%2FBrowndaug%2Ftroopandexpander007_zps46b7734d.jpg&hash=2ad2a9de9b9bde9fb36ee9284fb81c82ab91d1d3)

The standard is designed to expand on the way out after the neck has been sized, the tapered is designed to expand a smaller neck on the way in and again on the way out after the neck is sized, I use them in my FL die.
Title: Re: Sizing 300 wsm to 325wsm
Post by: yorketransport on January 10, 2013, 07:23:22 PM: Follw AWS's advice and get a tapered expander (I think Hornady makes some). I have made hundreds of 7 TCU cases (necked up and fireformed 223) in one pass and I've only lost 2 cases. I also made hundreds of 338-06 cases from regular 30-06 without a problem. Use lots of Imperial Sizing Wax and go slow.

Also, when you neck up from 30 to 8mm, part of the shoulder from the 300 WSM case will become the neck on the 325. This could cause a "doughnut" on the outside of the neck where the shoulder used to be. If you don't outside neck turn the cases that doughnut could get pushed to the inside of the case neck after firing. This could cause bullet seating/neck tension problems.

Andrew
Title: Re: Sizing 300 wsm to 325wsm
Post by: AWS on January 10, 2013, 07:32:17 PM: Was just looking at some Lee dies and the lee FL 325 WSM has a tapered expander ball built in., See link

http://leeprecision.com/ez-x-exp-8x57.html (http://leeprecision.com/ez-x-exp-8x57.html)

the 8x57 abd 325 wsm use the same expander.
Title: Re: Sizing 300 wsm to 325wsm
Post by: Heredoggydoggy on January 10, 2013, 07:47:14 PM: I use Hornady neck dies to make my 20 LBC cases. Tapered expanders, and the individual dies are reasonable. It takes 3 passes to neck down a 6.5 Grendel case to .204 without crushing the case, and the Hornady dies do a great job. Lots of lube is the key, and a skim with a neck turner to take the slight flare off the mouth, and even up the neck thickness... :tup:
Title: Re: Sizing 300 wsm to 325wsm
Post by: duckmen1 on January 10, 2013, 09:01:34 PM: Great info can this be done with the rcbs die set. That is what I have.
Thank guys for all your help
Learning more every day about reloading
Title: Re: Sizing 300 wsm to 325wsm
Post by: Heredoggydoggy on January 10, 2013, 09:22:51 PM: One thing to consider: Brass is a very forgiving metal, but there is quite a bit of difference in the hardness of the brass, even between manufacturers. If you are running into difficulty in resizing, such as a large number of split necks, you might need to anneal the case necks to soften the brass.
Title: Re: Sizing 300 wsm to 325wsm
Post by: yorketransport on January 11, 2013, 05:21:41 PM: :yeah:

I hate annealing cases, but it may be necessary here.

Andrew
Title: Re: Sizing 300 wsm to 325wsm
Post by: duckmen1 on January 15, 2013, 05:03:06 PM: I tried five nickel plated 300 wsm rounds through the regular 325 wsm die and it looks good to me. No split necks, cracking nickel coating or any visual imperfections to the outer case.
Title: Re: Sizing 300 wsm to 325wsm
Post by: iusmc2002 on January 15, 2013, 05:27:05 PM: If you didn't have any problems with the nickle-plated cases, you won't have any problems with regular brass.

Like yorke said, I've made some 338-06 cases out of 25-06 that have 5 firings so far, with only one split neck. Also, have some 30-06 that are now .270, vice versa; 30-06 that are now 25-06, .270 that are now 338-06, just because I wanted to see if it could be done.

The only difference between all these cases and your situation, is the shoulders are in the same place, and it sounds like there is some difference in the 300 and 325 necks/shoulders.

I've tried to make .222 Rem out of .223 Rem without success due to the different shoulders. Tried to make .243 Win out of .308 Win without success due to the drastic step-down in sizes without using a die calibered in something in between those two. Just ended up with some crushed cases and whatnot. No big deal because it was fun to try experimenting.
Title: Re: Sizing 300 wsm to 325wsm
Post by: duckmen1 on January 15, 2013, 06:40:46 PM: The shoulders look exactly the same so i think its good to go. Thanks everybody for your help.