The UK's Finest Independent Forum for Shooters and Gun Owners. Est 2010.

Only 1,000? I would much prefer a run of 10k, so much easier to set up for :lol:

I am just about to drill the motor mount holes in the block, 6 off @ 30 degrees, I really do like this as I have to think about how to do the job

Gun Pimp wrote:I must admit, I'm yet to be convinced on the virtues of annealing.
For obvious reasons, we don't attempt to anneal the bottom of the case yet, for me, it's the base which gives problems - slack primer-pockets and eventually expands 'til they won't fit the shell-holder. Time to 'bin' the brass.
Yes, when brass gets work-hardened - 'springy' - it won't always bump back satisfactorily but I usually scrap 'em after 5 or 6 loadings - sometimes less. At one time, it was just WSM stuff but now my 308 brass gets slack primer-pockets after 3 or 4 firings.
Vince

My gut feeling is that you are overloading your 308 ammunition and that is why the primer pockets enlarge after only 3 or 4 reloads.
Difficult to be specific without details, but why not reduce the powder charge by, say, 10% and keep a record of the number of reloads the cases will take. My estimate would be 15 to 20.
You must never attempt to anneal any part of the case other than the neck and shoulder, but even that will not help with the expansion of the case heads.

There is a bloke in US, a former employee of an ammunition plant, who stress relieves case necks by holding them over a candle and rolling them slowly to spread the heat until they are too hot to hold by the bases. He did that every third reload and when he last reported he had reached 635 reloads and still counting.

Alex

Today was spent bushing the Geneva drive shaft, machining some access slots in the motor mount blocks and bolting it together, and here it is.... I have a couple of screws to fit and then some wiring so I need to build some mini conduits to keep that bit tidy (In aluminium of course) and then test it and I still need to make some motor/gearbox covers....

Steampunk springs to mind :lol:

Sputnik

ovenpaa wrote:Today was spent bushing the Geneva drive shaft

Glad to see you got some more work done on the annealing machine aswell :P

Seriously though - The fact that you made that in your shed, is quite inspirational ... you've got to do a vid of it in action

Well a couple of small jobs need finishing however I do hope to get some power on it at some stage over the next day or so.

[/quote]
My gut feeling is that you are overloading your 308 ammunition and that is why the primer pockets enlarge after only 3 or 4 reloads.
Difficult to be specific without details, but why not reduce the powder charge by, say, 10% and keep a record of the number of reloads the cases will take. My estimate would be 15 to 20.

Alex[/quote]

Alex - you are correct - I am 'exploring the limits' of the 308 but as most of my 308 shooting is at long range (1000 yds) a velocity of 3000 fps is needed with the 155 bullet to be competitive. I'm sure I could find a lower 'tune' but at say 2800fps there would be little point in trying to compete - just to save a few bob on brass.

I'm happy to ditch my brass after 3 or four firings - nothing shoots like new brass! Even when I shot Target Rifle, six loadings was the max. I would do.

Believe me, some of the hotter WSMs are even harder on brass!

Vince

Some temporary power and here it is working, I will get some power on the rotating station and push some 7,62x51 milsurp through it next..

ovenpaa, very impressive and is that a prototype bipod in the background?

regards phil