260AI fireforming??

[MolassesTreeJ]

I was thinking that a cheap(very cheap) barrel blank, such as a green mountains barrel.. with an extremely short throat, would be ideal for fireforming?

Buy up a bunch of seconds/blemished 26cal bullets and jam them.

Would this "safely work" for fireforming say... alpha, peterson, adg or any other SRP 260rem case?

 

[Steel head]

Why not jam them in a standard barrel with a moderate charge?
If it is a new barrel it’s a nice way to break in a barrel and get brass sorted out at the same time.

 

[MolassesTreeJ]

I was wanting to do about 500 brass. Is it really worth an expensive barrel?

I have no prior experience with burning up barrels, to make brass. However, I have heard the moderate fireforming loads can be decently accurate.

More insight please? Thank you

 

[spife7980]

If you’re wanting to form that many pieces will you be burning through many barrels often that you’ll try to reuse the brass for? Will you be losin lots of those pieces? If so then a forming barrel may be worth it. If this barrel will last you a few years I would do fewer pieces of brass so it uses less of your life.

 

[918v]

Use a case full of trailboss and a cheap bullet. No barrel wear.

 

[MolassesTreeJ]

Spife, I believs the 260AI is going to burn barrels a bit on it's own.

I supposed 500 is quite a lot. However, for any amount of shooting, I can see wanting atleast 150-200 loaded at given time. Factored with most brass buys are in 100 or 1000 piece lots.

I see the gmbc tubes are $130-140 and.. if I already buy a reamer and cut my threads/chamber.. it seems almost questionable. Will it be worth spending another $150 and dedicating a questionable barrel for specifically fireforming?

That way one of those $400 single point cut blanks is not being torched for cases.

However, on the entire other end I have been told fireforming generally does not affect accuracy much for close range shooting.

 

[MakeSawdust]

Look up hydroforming. It is a pain in the ass, but takes up less time and money than fireforming. Once you have a process it goes relatively quickly.

I shoot .243AI in matches, and I will not fireform again due to the fact that hydroforming is much cheaper and takes less time and effort. PM me if you would like to know the particulars of how I do it.

I will say, on a hunting gun, where 100 pieces of brass will suffice, I would fireform while breaking in the barrel and be done with it. For forming 500 pieces for match shooting there is a lot of component and barrel expense involved when water is free.