Fireform ?

[FLHunter87]

Here's a question. If i have several 6.5 PRC, can I use the same brass thats fireformed from 1 rifle to the next? I am curious as I have always separated. Does it matter if ones a Browning and ones a savage, etc? Better to keep separated?

 

[Wrench]

You can use it....you may find that it is difficult to chamber if the original chamber is sloppier than the new one.

Try a once fired one it in and see before you resize it.

 

[TaperPin]

Sometimes it works and sometimes not so much. I used to hunt with a pair of identical 7 mags and found a single load that both shot well and reloaded brass could be swapped between rifles.

In my broke younger years used to pick up brass at the range for plinking ammo and maybe 25% of the time the brass wouldn’t chamber with my ordinary RCBC fl dies. It’s something you quickly learn to check before loading the brass. Small base dies can reduce the brass further so it’s more likely to work, but I’ve just tossed brass that doesn’t chamber.

 

[FLHunter87]

You can use it....you may find that it is difficult to chamber if the original chamber is sloppier than the new one.

Try a once fired one it in and see before you resize it.

I meant for the reloading process. Say I shoot a savage 6.5 prc. Then size. Use it in browning and rotate. Obviously I'm sizing, and most likely I just answered my own question now. There are slight differences in headspace. I guess its easier just to keep separated them to keep adjusting the size die.

 

[Vern400]

You might get lucky. You might not.
I'm in the " bump the shoulder 0.002" crowd. That can be very challenging if your brass varies in hardness. Harder brass has more spring back I suppose.

I don't have a tremendous amount of experience with this, but I'm an engineer and I like to measure the results of what I'm doing. The only way I've been very successful getting very consistent shoulder bump is to keep my brass all fired in the same rifle, for the same number of firings, and with the same annealing process. And the head stamps have to match. I did a test with three pieces of once fired (same gun) LC brass and three pieces of FC brass. Using RCBS competition dies, I crunched all six pieces with the identical die height setting. FC came out very consistent, almost identical. LC came out fairly consistent but varied almost 0.002. But the important part was LC shoulder measurement was different from FC.

You can pick a shoulder dimension obviously that will work in both guns. But even if the bolt face the shoulder dimension is 0.002 different you're likely to eventually get caught. If you have 0.001 of interference you'll feel a very tight bolt. If it's 0.002 chances are you can't close it. I only have a sample of one. Two model 700s, both in 308. One hunting rifle and one precision rifle. I loaded the box of match grade ammunition, and only 75% of it would chamber. The Hornady headspace gauge only indicated 0.002 of difference within the whole box of ammunition. Some closed perfect, and some you had to beat the bolt shut (which I didn't do)

Considering all the dimensions that impact headspace, if you've got two identical rifles count yourself lucky.