# Fire-forming Brass



## Bax* (Dec 14, 2008)

Ok, so I might be getting in a bit over my head here.... but I have always been intrigued by non-typical calibers. And I, being a young punk, still have much to learn and am hoping to get some sage advice / knowledge from you guys.

I have been interested in buying a 6mm PPC rifle for quite a while now (and Sawsman fed that interest, thanks Sawsman!) and have a pretty good idea of what I am willing to spend for one. But what I dont know a lot about it getting the brass (since it is a reletively uncommon caliber at this point). There are a few suppliers out there such as Norma. But from what I am gathering, it is more economical and accurate to fire-form my own brass out of 22 PPC brass. BUT I am not fully grasping this concept (http://www.6mmbr.com/6PPC.html) and am wondering if anyone can put this in "young punk" terms in a step-by-step process for me. Otherwise I may just consider buying the brass from a custom shop.

Second question: the parent case is from a 7.62x39 necked down to a 6mm, so I am also wondering if using a case forming die would be a good idea? (http://www.midwayusa.com/viewproduct/?p ... ber=151589) Has anyone used anything like this? What were your experiences?


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## longbow (Mar 31, 2009)

I do very little benchrest shooting but I work with some benchrest nuts who fly all over to different shoots. Here's a link one of them gave me for making 6ppc brass out of Lapua 220 Russian brass. http://www.benchrest.com/FAQ/2.1.shtml 
It's off the BenchrestCentral site, which by the way, is a great site.
That's all I have for ya Bax*. I form a lot of different brass but never 6mm PPC.


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## Packbasket (Oct 29, 2009)

20 plus years ago the PPC rounds were uncommon but they are factory made brass now so its pretty much no longer a wildcat, just a round that is super accurate to 200 yards and a real bitch to get started with :shock: .

You don't want the Norma brass, it's very soft and will NOT hold up to max loads and high pressure as well as 220 russian brass will, so scratch that off the idea list.

I made up some 6PPC Finnish and 6PPC US awhile back for a fella varminting he insisted I use his 7.62x39 brass he had horded.

I assume you are going with a 6PPC US version, it is pretty easy??...if "involved" is easy, then yeah, its easy... to make 7.62x39 into 6ppc but fire forming may not be the way to go with that brass, I've split many necks on 7.62x39 then gave up and used a form die ($70) then annealed (that is critical to do) then a trim die ($35) and went that route. then loaded them with the 3 die set neck sized only after first full length resizing (another $100)

Keeping in mind that RCBS forming die SET for this is very expensive, ($300+) the Redding dies are made to order and are a quarter the cost of the rcbs cost, still expensive with the trim die, and the necks still had to be turned on all the mil spec 7.62x39 after annealing.

can you do it, sure, its not a big huge hairy deal but its a big deal.

I talk you out of it yet? Well, here's the good news.

Don't use 7.62x39 and avoid all that crap above, go buy 220 Russian Lapua and life will be a little better, not good but better!

take your 220 russian and load it to the neck--- NOT THE TOP-- to the NECK, with Bullseye, this is a fast burning pistol powder, then take a bit of wax and seal the case mouth by pressing it over the case, I melt beeswax into sheets for this but its not rocket science, you simply want the powder to stay in.

you'll want a fire forming barrel for this, you will never want to form brass in your BR or hunting barrel..ever. Also the fire forming barrel should have a slightly smaller headspace, 0.002" is agood, you want what is called in BR a "crush fit" when fire forming.

then the necks need to be turned.

OR, and here is where life gets GOOD, call Bruno Supply in Phoenix and buy ready to go 6PPC brass formed from LLapua 220 Russian, they even have brass already neck turned to 6PPC!!

Mon-Fri 8:00am-5:00pm 
Saturday 9:00am-12:00pm 
21628 North Central Avenue Suite #4
Phoenix Arizona 85024
Phone: 623.587.7641
   

If I had told you that first you'd never believe me when I say $1.83 each piece of brass is WORTH IT, hell its worth twice that unless you love to turn necks and fire form and buy second barrels and fiddle endlessly... Me? I like to hunt, fiddling takes from my hunting.


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## chet (Sep 7, 2007)

if you can buy it, buy it! no matter the cost. :lol:


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## Bax* (Dec 14, 2008)

Packbasket, you clarified some confusion for me. Thank you. And you also made me realize that I have a lot to learn still... And after reading the info Longbow posted, I was a bit worried, but now things make a bit more sense.

Now I need to decide if I should take the leap....


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