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Let me preface this by stating ; Mods, if this belongs in the reloading section I apologise, and please move it. I figured it pertains more to anyone owning a 8x57 mauser though.
So I got a great deal on a mauser, only to find out that it is seriously expensive to feed, and hard to come by. Onwards, with the quest for mauser brass! I am creating this thread to attempt to provide anyone else trying to do the same thing with information. I used my google-fu, which is admittedly marginal to average. However, most of the information was disjointed and some contradicted itself. This is my experience, with what works(ed).
I started with a good quantity of 30-06 military brass with crimped primer pockets. I did this for 2 reasons, one, I allready had the RCBS primer pocket swaging tool from prepping lake city 223 brass, and Two; the brass doesn't say 30-06 on the bottom so I figure its less likely to confuse me or anyone else.
After the first step of obvious cleaning in media to polish it up, I lubed the cases. The method I have come up with for this is extremely lube efficient, and doesnt require expensive lube. I am using the basic frankford arsenal case lube from midway, a gallon ziplock, and some plastic bins. I pump 2 squirts of lube into the ziplock, to coat either side, fill the bag half full of tumbled brass, pump 2 more squirts of lube in, seal it, and toss it like its shake n' bake for a min or so. This works the lube around and gets a very thin coating all over the brass. even gets some in the case mouths, but not much. I then dump it in a plastic bin for the lube to dry, and set it aside for at least an hour.
Here is a pic of the whole setup, kinda.
After the lube is dry, I remove the expander/decapping rod from my FL 8mm mauser sizing die, and full length size the brass. If you do not remove the rod, the brass will crush against the bolt that holds the rod.
After the first sizing, approx. 6mm of brass must be trimmed off to bring the brass close to spec. I am using my own homebrewed version of a possum hollow trimmer in my drill press. I can only do 30~ pieces of brass at a time or the cutter will get too hot and not cut as efficiently, and this is a low buck setup. As a result, I am willing to take my time. I come back to it every so often and do a few more.
I made a chip deflector out of a couple gatorade type bottles to contain all the brass coming out of this thing, spinning at 2000 rpm it flings brass shavings everywhere, and in great quantity.
After the brass has been trimmed, you need to chamfer the inside and outside of the case mouth. This constitutes the major difference from normal case prep.
From this point, you need to put the expanding/decapping rod back in the size die, and F/L resize the brass, do your finish trim to the length you want, and chamfer again. It is time consuming, but it beats paying darn near a buck a piece for mauser brass, if you can find it.
Here is a pic of how the brass looks through the process. I will update this with additional pics once i get it all prepped, and loaded
Left to right: Clean 30-06, lubed and sized, trimmed, chamfered.
So I got a great deal on a mauser, only to find out that it is seriously expensive to feed, and hard to come by. Onwards, with the quest for mauser brass! I am creating this thread to attempt to provide anyone else trying to do the same thing with information. I used my google-fu, which is admittedly marginal to average. However, most of the information was disjointed and some contradicted itself. This is my experience, with what works(ed).
I started with a good quantity of 30-06 military brass with crimped primer pockets. I did this for 2 reasons, one, I allready had the RCBS primer pocket swaging tool from prepping lake city 223 brass, and Two; the brass doesn't say 30-06 on the bottom so I figure its less likely to confuse me or anyone else.
After the first step of obvious cleaning in media to polish it up, I lubed the cases. The method I have come up with for this is extremely lube efficient, and doesnt require expensive lube. I am using the basic frankford arsenal case lube from midway, a gallon ziplock, and some plastic bins. I pump 2 squirts of lube into the ziplock, to coat either side, fill the bag half full of tumbled brass, pump 2 more squirts of lube in, seal it, and toss it like its shake n' bake for a min or so. This works the lube around and gets a very thin coating all over the brass. even gets some in the case mouths, but not much. I then dump it in a plastic bin for the lube to dry, and set it aside for at least an hour.
Here is a pic of the whole setup, kinda.
After the lube is dry, I remove the expander/decapping rod from my FL 8mm mauser sizing die, and full length size the brass. If you do not remove the rod, the brass will crush against the bolt that holds the rod.
After the first sizing, approx. 6mm of brass must be trimmed off to bring the brass close to spec. I am using my own homebrewed version of a possum hollow trimmer in my drill press. I can only do 30~ pieces of brass at a time or the cutter will get too hot and not cut as efficiently, and this is a low buck setup. As a result, I am willing to take my time. I come back to it every so often and do a few more.
I made a chip deflector out of a couple gatorade type bottles to contain all the brass coming out of this thing, spinning at 2000 rpm it flings brass shavings everywhere, and in great quantity.
After the brass has been trimmed, you need to chamfer the inside and outside of the case mouth. This constitutes the major difference from normal case prep.
From this point, you need to put the expanding/decapping rod back in the size die, and F/L resize the brass, do your finish trim to the length you want, and chamfer again. It is time consuming, but it beats paying darn near a buck a piece for mauser brass, if you can find it.
Here is a pic of how the brass looks through the process. I will update this with additional pics once i get it all prepped, and loaded
Left to right: Clean 30-06, lubed and sized, trimmed, chamfered.
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