Cream of wheat fire forming

[TradLife406]

Eventually I'll be needing to start fire forming some 6 UM brass. A few years back I ran across the cream of wheat method and buying a 6 UM improved has me wondering if this is a better way to. Especially since the barrel life is short on these hot rods.

I guess too how loud are they? Could I pop these off in the basement while blasting Creed and be ok? Can you keep your suppressor on?

After your first barrel is smoked could I just keep it and use it to fire form with the normal way vs the cream of wheat?

 

[Mojave]

You are better off with a hydraulic form die.

cream of wheat method sucks.

 

[TradLife406]

You are better off with a hydraulic form die.

cream of wheat method sucks.

Roger off to Google that. Thanks!


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[Mojave]

Hornady makes them in their custom shops, so do others.

I am currently using one to convert 416 Remington to 10,3x68 RWS. Mine is from Triebel here in Germany.

 

[mother_plucker]

Roger off to Google that. Thanks!


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Hornady Podcast just had an episode about it. Episode 180 on May 8th.

 

[TradLife406]

I guess the right way to do it is go ahead and order barrel number 2 right now. And go ahead and fire form 100 pieces and get the trigger time in.

Pretty sure the fear is burning a barrel out is worst in guys who haven't burned many out


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[waspocrew]

COW method is fine, just messy. Do not shoot that through your suppressor.

You could do that in your basement, but you’d want good ventilation. I did this in Cleveland, so the blasts probably blended in haha. I had a 5 gal bucket with a bunch of old rolled carpet to insulate. Then had a lid. Wasn’t too loud and saved me a trip to the range.

 

[gbflyer]

I’ve done it in a brand new Hart barrel with paper towels fire forming .22 SPPC. That barrel never fouled either.

 

[HuntHarder]

Why is the C. O. W. Method terrible? I have heard of guys doing this with success. Seems like a decent idea given how short the barrel life is on the wildcats.

 

[pbroski]

It works well for me. As long as the case is tight inside the chamber. So the cartridge-base-to-shoulder dimension of the case should match the chamber dimension. Sometimes you have to make a false shoulder to accomplish this.

What also will work for some cartridges is a case OAL long enough to stop on the case mouth inside the chamber. An example would be forming .270 Win to 6.5-06AI. Size the .270 neck to 6.5mm, then trim but leave long enough so the case mouth butts up inside the chamber.

You want the case head to stay tight against the bolt face, and resist forward movement from the firing pin strike.

Use a pistol powder and work up to get the right charge weight so the cases come out with fairly sharp shoulders. Should be able to get 95% of fully fireformed.

Expect them to be loud.

It's the route I would go for a 6UM.

 

[TradLife406]

Thanks guys.

Those hydraulic dies look good. It won't beat the out of my new Co Ax will it?


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[Mojave]

You need to find a shitty sacrificial press to pound on. I have an old lee.

 

[TradLife406]

You need to find a shitty sacrificial press to pound on. I have an old lee.

Send the wife to garage sale


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[Mike D Texas]

Thanks guys.

Those hydraulic dies look good. It won't beat the out of my new Co Ax will it?


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Do not use on in your Co-Ax.

But COW method works just fine and is less messy/noisy than hydraulic form die. Down side is it does use components (primers and powder).


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[Eleven]

COW method can damage suppressors and muzzle brakes. I’d leave those off just to be sure.

 

[lager]

If you have a new barrel on that rifle now, just shoot them with bullets with a mild load, and break in barrel and FF brass at the same time.

 

[longrangelead]

you could buy a cheap green mountain blank, have it chambered .002" shallow so your brass is ff'd with the first .002" bump.
If you're committed to the 6UM long term, you could even put the form barrel on a cheap action as a ff donor gun.

 

[khuber84]

Buddy of mine uses coffee grounds instead of COW. He prefers the smell, and he said the barrel is clean as hell afterwards, not kidding. All this aside, a barrel usually takes 80-140 rounds to fully stabilize and break in, good time to do that is fireforming. I traditionally chose 2 or 3 of the bullets I plan to use for the barrel, load a mild to mid charge, and conduct seating depth tests with the first 100 rounds in 5 shot groups. You'll see very quickly which depth the barrel likes. After the brass is formed, I think go and start upping powder charges to get more velocity at the known seating depths the bullet showed preference too. I generally do all my break in this way. I normally have loads that are shooting very well by the time I have 150 rds on the barrel.

 

[wy_will]

Used the COW method to fireform brass for my 338 lapua improved and it worked great. Used pistol powder and pistol primers as well, so it was much better than burning 90+ grains of powder and wasting a magnum primer.

It is dirty, but it does work well. Just clean your barrel well after and you’ll be fine. Much cheaper than a hydraulic forming die.