10G brass cases 2 7/8

[Steve Hastie]

Hi guys
I am thinking of making my own brass cases for my Parker 10g, I cannot get ready made (I live in the UK) any way my question is I would like to know what grade brass to use.
Steve

[William Davis]

Google RMC - Rocky Mountain Cartridge Company. Lot of discussion on the internet single shot rifles sites about RMC's turned cases and what they are made of. Try ASSRA.COM first.

I have a box of RMC’s in 32/40 purchased some time ago for Breech Seating my Schuetzen Rifle. One problem RMC had with rifle cases is turned does not have the same "spring" as a drawn case. They did not work well for me, hard to extract. Drawn expands when fired then goes back to near unfired dimensions which allows easy extraction while turned expanded and stayed expanded. I understand they have cured the problem with the temper of brass used. And considering Shotgun pressure vs Rifle it may not be a issue in the 10 G

William

[Elk Hunter]

I have some Red Willow brand 577 turned brass cases that I have used for several years with no significant problems. They are prone to cracking if you don't anneal them frequently. All of my books including those on case forming are in storage so I'm unable to see what type of brass may be recommended for turning cases.

[Bill Murphy]

Dennis, can you explain the annealing procedure and tell us how we are to determine when it should be done.

[Steve Hastie]

Thanks guys for your help so far,
Steve

[Dean Romig]

In Mike Franzen's article in the Fall 2015 Issue of Parker Pages on loading 2 7/8" brass shells he tells us that he got his supply of new brass shells from Track of the Wolf.

http://www.trackofthewolf.com/Catego...-SHELL-10-2-78






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[Elk Hunter]

Originally Posted by Bill Murphy

Dennis, can you explain the annealing procedure and tell us how we are to determine when it should be done.

Bill,

I anneal every 5 times I load the cases, remember these are rifle cases. The cases get brittle from cold working the brass when re-sizing them. Less of a problem if you don't resize. But sooner or later a case will expand enough they don't want to chamber without sizing. As to when you should anneal that is hard to predict. If you start seeing neck cracks, you've waited way too long. Drawn cases seem to hold up a little better. The every five times loaded works for me.

To anneal them I use a propane torch, the kind that screws on to a small propane bottle. I hold the case in my bare fingers and heat the open end of the case until I can just see it start to show a slight color change and then quench it in cold water. Some people heat them red hot, I don't recommend doing that as that amount of heat will make the brass dead soft. They need to have some spring back to release from the chamber. I hold the cases in my bare fingers to keep from over heating them. Believe me when I say you will not want to hold on to one with your fingers long enough to damage it by over heating.

[William Davis]

I do the same thing except I cut the shop lights off. You can see the color easier in the dark. Better to under aneal not over aneal. Tourch puts out enough light to see. Bucket of water between my feet let go of the case it falls in the water.

William

[Steve Hastie]

So am I better off with a softer brass or harder brass?

[Elk Hunter]

Originally Posted by Stephen Hastie

So am I better off with a softer brass or harder brass?

Personally, I would use hard brass and anneal the case mouth. If the base of the case is too soft it would expand and not spring back making it hard to extract and re-chamber.

After seeing that you can buy paper tubes to rebuild paper ten gauge cases using the original metal case head, I started thinking about looking for brass tubing to use instead of the replacement paper tubes. If the correct tubing could be found I believe you could replace the paper tube with a brass one with little effort.

Another thought was to machine the case head and then soft solder a brass tube of the proper size to the head.