fire forming

[pighunter284]

with cost of components and lack of supply. is anyone using cream of wheat or any other type of fire forming before loading up bullets. i have a long range class coming up and was thinking of doing this with a new barrel and virgin lapua brass in 260 rem. i can go thru 300 rounds quickly and then load up for fine tuning my load one the brass is formed to my chamber. or do you think thats a waste of time.

[PhilC]

I wouldn't, but if you're well stocked with primers, go for it.

[Robinhood]

Depending on who made the barrel i might be more interested in breaking it in while doing a load workup.

[Dave Hoback]

Yeah, I wouldn’t waste the powder, primers, etc. just for. Like Robin said, work on load development. Every round used in load testing has been fire formed naturally. So just go by that.

[pdshooter2]

you can fire form with no bullet no media..just powder, no bullet..just a little 1" sq of tissue
this is done with a bunch of FAST pistol powder( zip acc no 2),
you need to work up a load that produces a nice sharp corner at the shoulder
take a scale and start adding a full grain until you get the sharp corner.
take water and a towel and cool the bbl as you go.

[charlie b]

Depends on how may surplus primers you have laying around. If you have a large stockpile, then consider fire forming. If not then just work up loads with them.

Fireform, like pd said, can be done without bullets using fast powder.

[pighunter284]

powder and primers arent the issue. its more of time. the range isn't close and i figured i could fireform more in one day than loading and testing. if pistol powder is best i have plenty of that.

[Dave Hoback]

Yes, pistol powder works well because it’s faster burning. Obviously can’t use any pistol powder with a bullet. The pressure caused by the fast burn rate would cause it to go NUCLEAR!

I still say fire form with a bullet. Either for AI, or just to make chamber match cases. It serves two purposes. It does the fire forming but also allows practice, & most importantly, load development while fire forming. Just my take. But then… this is new Lapua brass? Do you really believe you’ll even see any difference? I’ll just give it a name.. Personally, I don’t concern myself with some of the tiny things that serious target shooters worry about. Why? Because I know that my prowess as a shooter is not what it once was. I can hit what I want no problem. But I learned many years ago I was a better instructor than I was a competitor. I’m a “good” shot. But I’m a FANTASTIC instructor! So, that’s all I’ll say.

[South Prairie jim]

I would NOT use any breakfast cereal to fire form a case,( burnt debris can get lodged in the shoulder ) if I just had ff and saving bullets is key than drop a grain of my normal powder and use tissue paper stuffed in the neck.

[South Prairie jim]

powder and primers arent the issue. its more of time. the range isn't close and i figured i could fireform more in one day than loading and testing. if pistol powder is best i have plenty of that.
If not an Ackley you shouldnt hurt score just shooting them with a normal recipe either.. been there several times

[ragsflh]

just load them,shoot them and you will serve 2 things

[Fuj']

I use cheap military primers from back before the crunch. I'll buy a large quantity of the
cheapest crap bullets there is, and same with powder. Currently burning off some ancient
steel canned 748. I do my own chambering so I have the luxury of chambering a burned
out barrel and just use that for fire forming. One of these days I would like to make an
external water jacket barrel like what Shiraz Boloia uses !!

[charlie b]

Water jacket is easy to add if you want one :)

[tomme boy]

You can use pistol powders to fireform. You just have to know how. I use unique and red dot all the time with 308w, 7.62x54r, 3006, 223. I shoot mainly lead bullets but that is not the point. I use the same brass when shooting jacketed. but I would rather burn up 5 cents of powder and primer than $1.50 bullet and powder shooting jacketed