280 AI to 280 Remington

nhenry

Handloader
Feb 7, 2022
573
974
You've all heard of fireforming 280 Remington brass to make 280AI brass, but can you FL size it back down to 280 Rem brass?

Just something I'm curious about.
 
Unless you were dealing with brass that was very hard to find or some uncommon wildcat, why would you want to do that? I would think case failure rate would be high going from 280ai back to "standard" 280.
I was just curious is all :)

I don’t own standard 280 dies and Google wasn’t answering my question so I asked y’all
 
I was just curious is all :)

I don’t own standard 280 dies and Google wasn’t answering my question so I asked y’all
If you were able to locate a FL die and was curious enough to see if it worked, anneal and lube well then try it. One piece of brass won't break the bank. Then you can share your results with us. Make for a rainy-day bored experiment. Dan.
 
If you were able to locate a FL die and was curious enough to see if it worked, anneal and lube well then try it. One piece of brass won't break the bank. Then you can share your results with us. Make for a rainy-day bored experiment. Dan.
Might have to
 
I was just curious is all :)

I don’t own standard 280 dies and Google wasn’t answering my question so I asked y’all

Curiosity is not a bad a thing. Seeing that the 280 parent case is the 30.03 case, which is basically a 30.06, I was curious about making 280 brass out of 30.06 cases, wasn't hard.
 
Making 280 brass from 30-06... the shoulder on 280 brass is .050" taller on the case, they did that to prevent the bolt from closing if someone loaded 280 in a 270.

How did the reformed 30-06 brass headspace in the 280 chamber?

I know this "could" be fireformed by jamming the bullet into the lands...but in my limited experimenting with that years ago, it is inconsistent and often results in some separated case heads.

Hydraulic forming dies?
False shoulder leaving some of the 30 caliber in the neck?
 
Last edited:
I don't believe you could just run the AI version into the FL .280 die. If you had the dies, and the brass held up, you could neck it up in a 30-06 die or something then neck it back down tot he 280, but most likel;y still need to fireform it. Not sure, but it would seem that way "to me". I say try it, but put a lot of Imperial Sizing Die wax on it!
 
I don't believe you could just run the AI version into the FL .280 die. If you had the dies, and the brass held up, you could neck it up in a 30-06 die or something then neck it back down tot he 280, but most likel;y still need to fireform it. Not sure, but it would seem that way "to me". I say try it, but put a lot of Imperial Sizing Die wax on it!
I appreciate the response! I may have to try it eventually. I don’t have a set of 280 dies, only the AI. My dad used to own a Rem mountain rifle in 280; I might ask him if he still has the dies
 
Back
Top