I've been reading some of the "fire forming" post on here, and see they only really talk about the wildcat-type cartridges. Would the same theory/practices work in my case? I have a crap load of .270 cases and I don't shoot it that much any more. I was hoping to be able to make useful cases for the 30.06 with my excess .270 cases. I reload with a Lee single stage press and this morning tried fitting the .270 case into my 30.06 FLS die. With a bit of lube and some muscle, I was able to get it to resize to the 30.06. Are these rounds safe to load for the 06? Once I trimmed them down, my calipers showed that the brass was the correct length, and that the throat was the correct dimension. Will this work out, or am I just hastening the demise of my 30.06 dies? Any advice/suggestions would be great. Thanks!

They should work fine carbomb. May not last as long as 30-06 brass due to the necks being thined some.
Safe to shoot though.

Cheezywan

I was given, several months ago, several hundred range-pickup .270 cases. I resized all of them into 30-06 and 25-06 using my Lee dies. Before doing so, however, I annealed them. They shot fine for awhile (and still do for my 25-06), but then I arrived at 10 rounds I had handloaded for the 30-06. I had severe percussion and bolt sticking problems. You can read the thread here: http://shootersforum.com/showthread.htm?t=58367

Anyway, the problem wasn;t due to resizing from .270 to 30-06, but rather most likely to the annealing process.

Yes. They can be resized and they'll work well. I remember on my 25-06 I had to trim almost 1/8" after resizing, but the 30-06 were fine until shot (if I recall correctly) before they had to be neck sized and trimmed again.

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Search for threads on case annealing. That will de-stress the brass making it easier to form and less prone to splitting later. If your .30-06 has a typical 0.014" neck wall, you will shrink it to about 0.0127", which is still within SAAMI neck tolerance (0.012"-0.016"). Thinner works, too, but you start to work the brass more with each reloading. Annealing frequently will mitigate the loss.

Sinclair makes a die body that holds neck turning mandrels. These can also be used to expand case necks a little more gradually. If you choose to do a large number of these cases, that die and a .308 expanding mandrel (actually 0.001" undersize) to leave you ready to seat a bullet may make the process a little easier? Use plenty of neck lube.

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If your .270 brass is in good shape you can sell it or trade it for correct headstamp brass. I'm usually jumping from one project to another and I have to have correct headstamp brass or I'll get all kinds of things mixed up.

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I have no problem bumping up the neck from a smaller cartridge .I have used the 270's for making 3006 , then there has always been tons of 3006 brass , so why resize and trim. I have found it was just as fast to trade used brass.
How- ever going from 308 to 338 F. is another thing , since there is no buying brass here in Central Ontario Canada, so I am using 308 brass to make 338 F as well as 358 W. Once sized I have used just a neck sizing die and reloaded the same brass many times with no problem. Usual failure is loose primers .
I have tried going the other way from 308 to 7/08 but then the necks would require turning .
So if you want to take the time to open up 270 Brass to make 3006- go at it .Once it is trimmed and sized correctly it should do well, with out anything more .

I've always found it easier necking down - you create more neck thickness to work with. I make all my .270 and 25-06 cases from 30-06 Lapua cases. OK I turn all my necks, but I'd rather have 100 consistent cases than 400 variable ones. If your .270 cases are on the bottom end of SAAMI neck thickness specs and your 30-06 has a slightly loose chamber in the neck region ( say .341 or .342) you could end up with a loaded round that has to expand .006 to .007 every shot. You will get splitting of the case necks after 3 to 4 firings unless you anneal. What's worse is that you may well get inconsistent sealing of the chamber on lighter loads - you will know that this is happening by by the sooty coating to the fired case and by the poor groupings and variable velocities that result. How do I know this - due to a faulty ball micrometer I turned 200 Lapua 25-06 necks too thin , leaving .008 expansion between the neck of the loaded round and the chamber. My brand new Shilen Super Match barrel ( Macmillan stock, Rem 700 BDL action) started grouping 1.5 in at 100 ( up from .3 in a week earlier!) My advice - unless your .270 necks are on the thick side - go for standard 30-06 cases.

>270 brass makes good 35 Whelan brass. No trimming required.

About the only thing it's good for really.

Just kiddin'!!!

RJ

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To obtain 30-'06 brass, go to any shooting range in the continental US the weekend before deer season opens and hang out for a few hours. Politely ask if other shooters mind you picking up the brass they were just going to leave on the ground or throw away. You'll have enough for a lifetime in one afternoon, most likely.

Oh, and for goodness sake, start shooting your 270 again! It's the best deer cartridge ever designed and will do the job for 90% of the stuff you'd ever use an '06 for, anyway.

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I agree with Broom_jm. Cause down here in the south the old '06 is king, as I am sure it is most other places in the country. Go to any rifle range. I know the one I go to has a large plastic garbage can so that the people can deposit their empty casings in it. The rifle range then sorts them and sells them or they take it to a scrap company. They use the proceeds to pay for up keep on the range, but their is a sign on the can that says take 'em or leave 'em.

Last year the week before deer season opened that can was full. I dug out about 60 or 70 onced fired 300 win mag case. The best part of it, 20 of them were Nosler Brass. I know I passed up at least a couple 100 30-06 brass.

Well I would not buy a 270, just 'cause I have some brass. The odd 6 will do nicely and you can load with heavier bullets . And if the '06 is way to big , the 30/30 has done it's job over a hundred years on deer sized game .

Range brass is a fine way to get some brass for your rifle , and the usually you will find some one , who can use - what ever you do not need . Then too, not just looking for your own needs, some one just might hand over some brass just for you. This works for me .

I picked up a couple dozen 3006 cases the last time I was at the rifle range from the two guys next to me. so many shooters don't reload and are happy to know that their empty cases will be reused. I have more pistol brass than I will ever process because I usually stick around to sweep up at the end of the night at the pistol range. If the pile Looks good I bag it and take it home. if it looks like more steel or alum cases or odd calibers I'll drop it in the range can. this really keeps the price of my reloading hobby down. now If they would just let me sift their backstop material for lead slugs to smelt. Hmm... we could call it environmental cleanup and make the greenies happy.

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If you are serious about wanting to do the reforming order a tapered expander from CH-4D. All it does is expand the neck from 270 to 30 and it does it much more gradually than the neck expanding button, and a WHOLE lot easier. Then size and load as normal. I'd still anneal though.

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I have found with forming 6.5-06 cases that in general, the .270 cases will tend to have less capacity vs. the .30-06 cases. I always thought they were the same (other than the neck size) but In my 6.5-06 converted brass I would say the .270 had on average 2-3 grains less capacity than the 06.