Thread: Can I fire form with an action and dies like this I'm

This interesting technique of fire forming wildcat cartridge brass using

the FL die screwed into the front of an old lee Enfield, a light fire forming

charge blows the brass out and the case is ready to go, obviously

benefits are that headspace can be set at whatever you want, and

the fired case is fully sized! Case pictured is a 30 Gibbs.

@akaroa1 Have 7/8 14 taps and die nut if you need them.

Just a question
And I know it’s completely bullshit if so
But would the completely gun illiterate people making the laws consider the die a barrel
Even though it can only fire effectively blank rounds
If they did you would have an illegal pistol
Unless you bolted it to a plank of wood longer than 762mm and mounted it in the vice

Very valid point when you consider a derringers size

No rifling in it and you are shooting blanks: a big starter pistol at most…. Maybe

Originally Posted by Friwi

No rifling in it and you are shooting blanks: a big starter pistol at most…. Maybe

that sounds like something else entirely...never heard it refered to as a starting pistol though..a pisstool maybe but not a starting pistol.and rather than shooting blanks I prefer to identify as one of the just juice association.

Originally Posted by Friwi

No rifling in it and you are shooting blanks: a big starter pistol at most…. Maybe

Yes I agree because I know a thing or two about firearms
Problem is I don’t think that people who make and enforce the law have very little to no idea at all
And they may have issues with it I bloody well hope they didn’t as it’s effectively a reloading tool not a firearm at all but some people are pretty silly

would a large ring mauser action work,you could machine a bush to suite the 7/8 unf thread, good to go for any die

The legality issue was the first thing I thought of - a skeletonised lee enfield armourer's action body (cut away to view everything and used to check part function) is in no way operational and with the cuts can't be made to fire safely but is still considered as requiring an endorsed permit as it's made from a working firearm and shorter than the minimum legal length. There never used to be any section of the Arms Act that allowed you to 'deactivate' a firearm in NZ in such a way that it wasn't still considered a firearm under the Act... Or something like that.

On the practical side, a lot of people have done just this and it's quite feasible to do. I understand another option was to thread up a length of rod to fit the Enfield receiver threads, with a Savage style barrel nut to set the case length (I'm hesitating on calling it 'headspace'). Then chamber that using the reamer and a small non-caliber hole to allow the pressure to escape and go from there.

Originally Posted by akaroa1

When making custom chamber reamers I would like to be able to fire form new brass in the dies that will be used for the rifle chamber cut with a chamber reamer sized from those cases

Ive read that 3 times now..and chicken n egg comes to mind.
you will be making a chamber reamer
you will be resizing cases /fire forming

you are going to cut the dies,with a chamber reamer...so you must have a chamber reamer to begin with
chicken and egg again

so IF indeed you are starting with a wild cat idea......a nearly standard cartridge,so again...if you make the reamer FIRST...then you can cut a insert chamber inside a solid metal .12ga sized rod/bank/insert and fire form to your hearts content,AND give same to recipient of rifle.
or keep them in bottom draw for whenever you need them....
it negates the need to fireform in die themselves but the insert will be eggzachary the same size as the chamber and the dies as all three will have been cut with same reamer.
hope that makes sence

Originally Posted by Micky Duck

Ive read that 3 times now..and chicken n egg comes to mind.
you will be making a chamber reamer
you will be resizing cases /fire forming

you are going to cut the dies,with a chamber reamer...so you must have a chamber reamer to begin with
chicken and egg again

so IF indeed you are starting with a wild cat idea......a nearly standard cartridge,so again...if you make the reamer FIRST...then you can cut a insert chamber inside a solid metal .12ga sized rod/bank/insert and fire form to your hearts content,AND give same to recipient of rifle.
or keep them in bottom draw for whenever you need them....
it negates the need to fireform in die themselves but the insert will be eggzachary the same size as the chamber and the dies as all three will have been cut with same reamer.
hope that makes sence

@Micky Duck
no he is going to make his chamber reamer based on the die so that the dies he has available perfectly size the brass for the chamber.
it's a great idea

the thing is with Sammi specs is it's a spec, so it has a max and a min.
factory chambers are bigger towards the max spec factory ammo towards the min spec.
so that its a guaranteed fit no matter the brands or makers
dies are somewhere in the middle. as when we are reloading, we can adjust the tolerances to fit our rifle.
i think what akaroa is planning is one step further again making a custom reamer based on his dies so that the tolerances are super close so the dies don't need to work the brass as hard.
well, that's what if got from the idea anyway. clever bugger if he can pull it off.

Ok so he is making reamer based on dies.but he still making reamer BEFORE needs to fire form cases.therefore he can rean dummy chamber out of barstock and fire as insert in .12ga

Originally Posted by Micky Duck

Ok so he is making reamer based on dies.but he still making reamer BEFORE needs to fire form cases.therefore he can rean dummy chamber out of barstock and fire as insert in .12ga

No make reamers entirely in lathe with various standard chucking reamers and compound slide for the body taper
Lap it
Harden and temper

Fire form brass from this
Make chamber half a thou bigger than this brass

Wildcat baby !

so you are going to need...something of die size to fireform in.....correct so far??? and you are going to make tool /reamer to make this die..because without dies you cant reload...and you will make your reamer for chamber half thou bigger than the brass,fireformed in this...hole in a bit of metal..be it a die or insert OR BOTH cut at same time in same way to same size.....
so you will end up with both a die reamer AND a chamber reamer...... the die reamer can be used to ream an insert for fireforming giving you fireformed brass the prescribed half thou smaller than if you had done it in chamber

if Im following you right...

Correct he Will ether pull a factory round if available or load up a brand new case with a blank load to fire form in the die
If none of those exist then he will have to make a case using something else that is close
Getting the dimensions close enough to fit into the die for fireforming
Once fire formed he can measure the case and make his reamer so the case fits snugly in the chamber