Case forming 30 Herrett

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Nathan

New member
Anybody doing this?

My understanding is you:
-resize to about 0.1” long for base to shoulder.
-Then trim it a bit long with a chop saw or hacksaw. Then final trim in case trimmer..
-then fl size until the action will just close. Recheck oal.

After that, I’m unclear if I need to thin the necks??

They also say to never push the shoulder back again….until the action won’t close! Not sure if I want to neck size. My previous work tells me to fl size and bump the shoulder back zero on the second loading. Then about 0.002”.

I’m thinking I will:
-anneal
-resize to about 0.1” long for base to shoulder.
-Then trim it a bit long with a chop saw or hacksaw. Then final trim in case trimmer..
-anneal
-then fl size until the action will just close. Recheck oal. Trim if needed.
-COW fireform
- neck ream to get or outside turn to get a neck that is about 0.015” thick and will be 0.311 ID after firing.(I’m skipping a few steps here!)

Well, I don’t have the gun yet. Maybe the barrel will tell me something different!
 
4

44 AMP

Staff
Don't make any brass until you have the gun its going to be fired in. Until you've got it in your hands, you can't know exactly what its going to need, and any work done making cases without the chamber they are going into could wind up being a total waste of effort and materials.

Hopefully not, but why not just wait, and do it right?
 
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bbqncigars

New member
I did it back in the early seventies for a TC Contender. A tremendous PITA to make the cases from new 30-30 brass. You had to ream every neck prior to the first bullet seating. Discovering a piece that didn't get reamed was not fun. I never got better than 3MOA out of it when my SBH shot 2MOA (all off of sandbags).
 
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ammo.crafter

New member
Listen to 44AMP. Get gun first and then begin case forming for chamber.

I fire form with COW for Contender in 7x30 Waters from 30-30 brass and that's the way I have always run brass to be accurate.
 
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stagpanther

New member
Years ago I bought a barrel from AR15 performance made in one of Harrison's many 6.8 spc spin-offs called Tac 30. It was essentially a 6.8 case with shoulder knocked back and the neck changed to seat a 30 cal bullet. Dies were only available one time and then gone forever, but 30 herret dies work fine and that's what I use. I think you should have no problem using 6.8 spc brass as your base case to make your 30 herret brass, though it might be a two stage process.
 
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Nathan

New member
@stag….is that a different 30 Herrett. The 30 Herrett I’m speaking of uses a shortened 30-30 case. It is somewhat popular in the Contender platform.
 
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P Flados

New member
I have loaded for the 30 Herrett since the early 1980s. I have a 10" and a couple of 14" barrels.

When you adjust the dies properly the the gun should not be hard to close. If you are too long, you will be "slapping" the gun closed (a bad thing). If you can just close the gun with a small scrap of copy paper between the round and the breech (and this is not slapping it closed), you are better off than being too tight.

The vast majority of the TC made barrels have a "loose fit" on the necks to make sure that neck turning would not be needed. I have never turned any necks and I have run cast as big as 0.311" with no oversized neck issues. All of my brass started as 30-30.

Annealing is strongly recommended after the conversion.

There is no need to do a COW fireform. You can start your initial workups on converted brass.

Early on I tried out lots of loads from lot of sources. Many of these sources I would now consider as "suspect". Also, I really do not trust 296 / H110 in the 30 Herrett. I tried it and got some inconsistent/scary results.

Hodgdon on-line data is available and I will add a link to Hornady data below. If you substitute a different brand bullet, you need to either confirm you bullet is seated no deeper than the bullet used for the load data, or just stay well below the published max. A contender frame can be stretched with hot loads in any 30-30 based case. I ended up pretty happy with WC 844 (Milsurp version of H335). I think I worked up my load using Quickload.

https://press.hornady.com/assets/site/hornady/files/obsolete-data/30-herrett.pdf
 
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stagpanther

New member
@stag….is that a different 30 Herrett. The 30 Herrett I’m speaking of uses a shortened 30-30 case. It is somewhat popular in the Contender platform.
Click to expand...
I don't have a contender pistol and just checked the specs (they were kinda hard to find) and it looks like you need the rim that the 30-30 has--the wildcat that I use was originally called 30 HRT but uses the rimless 6.8 spc--in other words what I suggested would be incorrect if your chamber has to have the rim. It's a pretty cumbersome process taking big brass and whittling it down and then making sure the shoulder and headspacing are correct. You'll probably want to have the firearm in hand before investing time in making brass--no matter who makes it--since you'll likely need to "progressively size" the brass to where it chambers properly--and then make a fired case as a check of what the die settings should be. Or you could simply do a cast of the chamber. I'll look up the loads I did--the cartridge is pretty limited--and even though the cat I have is not exactly a 30 herret it's almost the same.
 
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stagpanther

New member
The 30 HRT/TAC 30 is more or less a 7.62 x 39 in drag IMO; I would look for good loads in the 125 gr bullet weight range and similar powders. While the 30 HRT is not identical to the 30 herrett--it is very close; like the difference between 6mm BR and 6mm BR Norma
 
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gemihur

New member
Herrett definitions to clarify

30 HRT (Herrett Rimless Tactical) was designed by Marty Ter Weems at Teppo Jutsu, is the 6.8SPC necked up to .308..
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30 Herrett was designed by Steve Herrett and Bob Milek, is formed from 30-30 rimmed case..
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30 Herrett AR (also called TAC 30) was designed by Harrison Beene from AR15Performance, is the 6.8SPC case necked
up to .308, and improved with case taper blown out to increase capacity.
- 30 Herrett AR (TAC 30) is optimized for use with 110-125-130 gr. bullets.

I go for the single shots
Herrett-with-figured-wood-sm.jpg
 
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pbcaster45

New member
I know I'm late to the conversation but I was looking at some old issues of Shooting Times and I found an article on case forming the 30 Herret by Bob Milek. I can scan it when I get back from my hunting trip. If anyone wants it that is...
 
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