Is it worth forming your 300 BO brass

KnotRight

KnotRight

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I have access to a bunch 223 brass that was left at the range. I have time to do the resizing but not sure that I really want to.

I seen people use a Harbor Freight cut-off saw to cut the brass. Is that the best tool to cut the brass? If not what are you using?
To resize the brass are you using the reloading die? The die set that I am usings to reload is the RCBS dies (SB dies). And to trim the brass I am using the WFT trimmer.

Or would you just buy the brass?
 
I bought, but when I was thinking about forming my own I built a little doohickey that holds a case mouth up and then runs it into a cutoff blade held in the drill press. Have ideas for automating it, but haven’t had time.

I remember the internet saying that not all 223/556 brass is suitable for this forming, but that’s all I know.
 
Double check all brass for case mouth thickness ( their not all the same) you may need to thickness trim some of them. And use a go/no go gauge when finished loading.
 
From what I have read, LC brass is a good brass for the conversion and most or once fired.
 
I do it because winter is boring. No its not worth it if you're talking about $$$
 
Catfish, what do you cut the brass with? Do you have some type of jig?
 
Yes, the HF cutoff saw with a machined jig to hold brass. Got it from a forum member, no help, sorry.
 
I used to make mine with a jig I bought off eBay and a HF electric saw. Now, I make them on a Dillon 1050 with a Dillon RT-1500 which is kinda overkill for how much 300 BO brass I actually use in a year.
 
I just bought a bunch as I found great deals, 7-12cents/ea. Forming seems pretty straightforward and simple to do if you have time, and under $50 for a cutting setup. The relatively low cost of letting someone else do it, made buying more appealing.
 
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I do it, just because I got the stuff to do it. I also got a shit-ton of LC 5.56 blank brass which is otherwise useless unless you make .300 out of it.

Plus a WFT helps. But otherwise, no..........buy it fully processed from Wes Sage at sagereloadingsupply.com
 
Used to be a forum member that did it with a Dillon press. You send him 1,000 5.56 cases and he’d send you back 500 converted .300 cases. (He kept 500 for payment)
 
Its fun to make stuff.

The HF cutoff tool along with one of the little fixtures off of Ebay to hold the brass while cutting, works GREAT. That little cutoff saw is amazing on brass.
 
JohnFreeman said:
Its fun to make stuff.

The HF cutoff tool along with one of the little fixtures off of Ebay to hold the brass while cutting, works GREAT. That little cutoff saw is amazing on brass.
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Is it a saw blade, and do you know if they sell just the blade? I like my drill press solution, need to refine it, but using a fiber disk is slower than I’d like.
 
10 or so Years ago, when I first got into 300blk, I bought 1000 pcs of converted brass.
I primed it ALL with a hand primer and loaded 300 rds on a single stage.
(Newb mistake #1)

Went to the range and had light strikes in AR15 and my Handi rifle. Plus (unfired) rounds were difficult to extract after chambering.

I borrowed a case guage and realized that all the brass had headspace that was incorrect. Shoulder was bumped back too far. Expensive lesson.

Moral of the story, buyer beware.
If its mixed headstamp converted brass then be prepared for some issues.
Brass spring back, thickness and rim variations will cause problems.

300blk is very sensitive to headspace due to the small shoulder.
My advice if buying mixed headstamp converted, request the seller leave the headspace "proud" and bump it back yourself.
 
I cut and form 300BO brass using a HF micro cut-off saw with a DIY fixture. About 200 rounds every other month. If I needed more than that, I would just buy virgin 300BO brass and reload those until the case necks split.
 
BBD280 said:
I've never warmed to the idea of having ammo that's one caliber but it's headstamp says something different....... that's when @BatteryOaksBilly 's buddy Murphy normally shows up.
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Most of my .300blk headstamps say LC and the year, nothing about caliber at all ;)

I can look at it and tell it's bigger than a .224 diameter projectile pretty easily
 
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JimB said:
Is it a saw blade, and do you know if they sell just the blade? I like my drill press solution, need to refine it, but using a fiber disk is slower than I’d like.
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I purchased a Proxxon blade for mine to replace the cheap chinese one that wore out within a few hundred case chops.
 
JimB said:
Is it a saw blade, and do you know if they sell just the blade? I like my drill press solution, need to refine it, but using a fiber disk is slower than I’d like.
Click to expand...

It's a whole mini chop saw with about a 3" circular blade. Yes, they have replacement blades, though after hundreds of cut off brass it's not gotten dull.
 
JohnFreeman said:
It's a whole mini chop saw with about a 3" circular blade. Yes, they have replacement blades, though after hundreds of cut off brass it's not gotten dull.
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I like my setup better than the chop saw, might even add a motor and case feeder, so just looking for a saw blade to put on th arbor that runs in the drill press.
 
KnotRight said:
JimB, for the hell of it...........Pictures
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I’ll need to get it back together, I took it apart when I bought 1,000 cases. Basically it’s a slide with a hole in it to hold the brass, that slide runs in a track that insersects the edge of the saw blade, then the brass drops through a hole once cut.

It was pretty simple, and I gave it up mostly because it made a mess and I didn’t want to fabricate a way to collect the waste.

A guy over at castboolts built something similar but more refined and then automated it, if I need to start making my own I’ll copy his!
 
JimB said:
I like my setup better than the chop saw, might even add a motor and case feeder, so just looking for a saw blade to put on th arbor that runs in the drill press.
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Sure! The HF blades are in a two-pack and IIRC cost about 7-8 bucks for two.
 
Thanks! That's a good article , particularly the section about case thickness after trim. I'm not 100% sure but I believe all the brass I've formed has been LC.
 
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