Resizing 30.06 Brass to .280AI

[dave99]

I've been having a tough time sourcing Nosler .280AI brass for my Kimber Montana, and the 50 brass that I have is now up to 8 firings.

Also no luck finding good quality .280 Rem brass to work from, so starting to look at my options.

I have 100 Lapua once fired 30.06 brass and am thinking about necking down and then fire forming to .280AI.

The Lapua brass is in great shape but is shorter than the .280AI brass by a substantial amount (2.525"-2.484"=0.041").

41 thou seems like a big difference. Is it possible to shoot the resized 30.06 brass in my .280AI? Is it dangerous?

Do any of the accomplished reloaders here see any huge red flags?

Let me know what you think, or if any better options are being overlooked.

Thanks


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[TangoKilo]

Absolutely nothing wrong with forming 280 Ack from 30-06.

I'm just finishing up a batch of 250 for a friend.

Size the 06' brass in your 280 Ack die just far enough that they will chamber with a little bit of drag closing the bolt. The false shoulder you created will be well forward of the old 06' shoulder and will ensure proper headspace on your fireformed brass.

I then fireform with 12gr of blue dot and the rest of the case filled with cream of wheat.

Cases come out about 95% formed.
The cases are perfect with a little radius to the shoulder.
They are a touch short, like you said, 2.484" but work great.

Finally I full length size, tumble and anneal.

Finished product is better than nosler and 1/2 the price.

[qwert]

snip
I then fireform with 12gr of blue dot and the rest of the case filled with cream of wheat.

Cases come out about 95% formed.
The cases are perfect with a little radius to the shoulder.
They are a touch short, like you said, 2.484" but work great.

Finally I full length size, tumble and anneal.
snip

Why not anneal before fire-formng?

[TangoKilo]

Why not anneal before fire-formng?

I'm lazy...

But ya, anneal before.
Anneal after...
More annealing is better than less

[Dean2]

Lapua brass is annealed before it is shipped so no point annealing it before fire forming though with other brass you might want to. Fire forming stretches them a lot, working brass includes stretching it and that is was makes it hard or brittle, so you would want to do it after forming.

[David Henry]

The up-side to using 30-06 brass for the 280 Ackley is the case trimmer can sit idle for quite a while. What's not to like. D.H.

[gitrdun]

Personally, I don't see any issues with a neck turning out 0.040" shorter, certainly no safety issues. But if it were me, I would anneal before resizing simply because it has been fired once already, and because I have an annealing rig, but that's just me. :)

[dave99]

Thanks for the replies fellas.


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[bubba300]

I had good luck fireforming 270 brass,I just put a 30 cal pilot threw them and then 280 pilot leaving a little false shoulder(not sure if I needed to size it back down),I started at 15 grs.of unique and went up to 18 grs at 1 gr intervals measuring the shoulder with a case gauge,it took 18 grs to get shoulder close, and cream of wheat to the start of neck, they fit tight in the chamber with hardly any stretching in the web.They came out at 3.524 " for length.Mine seam to have stayed around that size .
But if all you have is 30-06 brass and you don't mind them being shorter then have at it.
Good luck

[Hunt4Ever]

I know nothing about resizing brass to a different caliber, theres some 280 brass for sale on TownPost, could they be resized to 280AI?
https://townpost.ca/buysell/stony-plain-ab-280-rem-dies-brass-new