Harder than I though... .30-06 to 8mm HELP!

**Farbmeister** · October 2nd, 2007, 10:43 AM

Ok,

I read that you can squeeze doen a .30-08 into an 8mm.

Tried it and I simply cannot get the neck pushed back.

I trim about .20 off the -06 and can feel it start, but my little Challenger press is not budging that shoulder.

Is it simply that I need to get the Lee Classic Cast press?

Anyone else do the -06 to 8mm thing got any pointers?

**762xIan** · October 2nd, 2007, 11:22 AM

Did you lube the hell out of the case? What kind of lube are you using? What kind of brass?

If you did and it is still not going, I would NOT force it to much, you may break the press. The Challenger is aluminum isn't it, it may crack.

I have not resized .06 to 8mm....but I can see it taking a lot of force....easy as you go.

**762xIan** · October 2nd, 2007, 12:43 PM

You said you trimmed .20 off the case....you may need to trim .25 off the case to get it the 63mm down to a rough 57mm. That may be some of the issue.

If you are using military brass (which is thicker than commercial) it may explain why this is so hard, so lube the cases well.

Only thing I don't like about what you want to do is if you have a .30-06...you will have 8mm cases labeled .30-06...and a bad mix-up could happen...label and keep track of these cases well!

Keep me posted, I am curious how this works out for you.

**mauser** · October 2nd, 2007, 01:23 PM

You should get a different press. The press you have is a good press and will serve you well for a long time if you don't abuse it. What you are trying to do is too much stress for the aluminum link that connects the handle to the ram. It WILL break if you put too much pressure on it. The links aren't that expensive, but downtime sucks. I've been told that a link from the Classic Cast press is much stronger and will interchange with the Challenger, but I haven't tried it myself so I can't say with certainty that this is accurate. Maybe someone here can verify that?
I broke the link on my Challenger press several years ago while sizing military .223 down to .222. What you're doing is a lot more stressful than that.
I bought a second-hand RCBS press that I now use for heavy work.
As far as case lube is concerned, use the best you can get. The top 2 in my opinion are Imperial Sizing Wax and Redwing Mink Oil. Use enough to make the entire case slippery, but be careful, too much on the neck and shoulder will cause dents and wrinkles in the shoulder.
That's right, I said Redwing Mink Oil. It's in a can similar to shoe polish, you can find it at better shoe and leather stores. It's not nearly as expensive as Imperial Sizing Wax, and in my opinion, it works as well if not better.
Something else handy to have is a stuck case remover.
You can improvise one if you have to, with a drill, a 13/64" or 7/32" drill bit, a 1/4-20 tap with handle, a 1/4-20 socket head cap screw,and a stack of washers that will fit around the head of the cartridge, and one thick washer or a few standard washers with a hole small enough to stop the head of the cap screw.
Here is a link to a page showing the procedure:
http://www272.pair.com/stevewag/relo...eloading2.html
There's a good chance that you will get a case stuck in the sizing die while experimenting to find the proper amount of lube.
Even if you don't stick one now, It's handy to have the tools and knowledge to get one out if you or one of your friends happen to get one stuck.

**daschnoz** · October 2nd, 2007, 02:03 PM

I have squeezed 30-06 brass down to .308 Winchester. I used the same procedure... cut the extra off the length, lube the crap out of it, and apply the required amount of elbow grease to the press, final trim, and I'm off to the races. I don't have a 30-06, so there's no worry about the miss-stamped heads.

As for lube, I don't worry about minor wrinkles in the shoulder. The wrinkles "iron" themselves out with the first trigger pull.

The first time you load this brass, use minimum loads. The load ranges listed in the books assume that you are using genuine 8mm brass - with the internal volume and all the other properties of genuine 8mm brass. Your resized 30-06 brass may have different internal volume, so you'll be spending some time at the range dialing in your loads - but that's 1/2 the fun.

**WhiteFeather** · October 2nd, 2007, 02:22 PM

This may seem like a stupid question but why would you want to make a 30-06 into an 8mm anyway?

Especial considering that 8mm military brass is cheaper than 30-06 brass.

Everyone would be surprised at all the beautiful once used brass that gets sold as scrape metal cost.

If you really want to do this to make a point or as experiment, why don’t you warm (heat) the brass immediately before you try to force in into something else.

**762xIan** · October 2nd, 2007, 02:54 PM

Especial considering that 8mm military brass is cheaper than 30-06 brass.

I don't know of any 8mm BOXER primed military brass that can be had. All the 8mm military stuff floating around was Berdan primed.

Remington is about the cheapest for new 8mm brass and that isn't to cheap either. There is tons of once fired .30-06 around for a reasonable price.

why don’t you warm (heat) the brass immediately before you try to force in into something else.

What you are describing if not done correctly has the potential to weaken the brass, proper annealing (to the neck) is done once your brass is resized. Besides, once the cold die touches the hot case the heat will be gone.

What Farbmeister wants to do is a relatively common practice, it just takes a little "doing" and playing to get it right.

mauser, +1 on Imperial sizing wax....good stuff! I will have to give the Redwing Mink Oil a try...thanks for the tip.

**Brick** · October 2nd, 2007, 03:03 PM

You are talking about 8mm Mauser right? If so I'm even more confused than ever! 8mm requires the use of a jacketed bullet with a diameter of 0.323" while .30-06 requires a bullet with a diameter of 0.308". So how in bloody blue blazes to you "squeeze down" a smaller diameter neck into a larger diameter??? Moreover, all of the body dimensions of the 8mm case are larger than the .30-06 so somehow you need to expand the case. Maybe you better look at a couple good dimensioned drawings of the cartridges and rethink the whole process. I strongly suggest you read the information in Speer #13 reloading manual concerning the wildcat caliber 8mm-06.

**762xIan** · October 2nd, 2007, 03:27 PM

Found a tip from the Reloading Bulletin board.

"You can make 8mm out of .30-06 brass. Just replace the standard expander button in your sizing die with a tapered expander button from Sinclair and trim the case for length and your in business."

The tapered expander works only in Redding dies apparently, but it makes sense, the taper would "ease" the amount of force for resizing.

http://www.sinclairintl.com/catalog2.html

**762xIan** · October 2nd, 2007, 03:47 PM

I strongly suggest you read the information in Speer #13 reloading manual concerning the wildcat caliber 8mm-06.

The 8mm/06 ismade by simply necking up the standard .30/06 case to accept the 8mm(.323) bullet...the case is 63mm long.

Farbmeister is cutting down 63mm .30-06 brass and is going to make 8x57 mauser out of it.

So how in bloody blue blazes to you "squeeze down" a smaller diameter neck into a larger diameter???

With a mighty shove on the reloading press handle, you're moving the shoulder some 7mm or so further down the case, and necking it up from .308" to .323". Then you have to trim the case back down to 57mm. It is hard to do, and takes some work, but not impossible.