Boats,
I found one email I sent to a friend about how to form 38-72 brass and load ammo.
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Here's the only die set to order:
http://www.buffaloarms.com/38_72_Win_RC ... x?CAT=4042
Process for forming 38-72 brass from Hornady’s 405 Winchester brass.
1. Run your press ram all the way up and then screw the FL die all the way to the top of the shell holder and back it off 2 revolutions.
2. Very lightly lube a piece of brass.
3. Size the brass about 1/2 way.
4. Remove the brass from the shell holder and wipe off any accumulation of lube in the neck transition area that is now forming. If you don't, you will dimple the neck due to too much lube. Now finish sizing the piece of brass.
5. Trim the piece of brass to about 2.580" so the mouth will not hang-up in the chamber from being too long. This sacrificial case is used to set the FL die for minimum sizing.
6. Try to chamber the brass. It should not chamber quite yet
.
7. Screw in the die body 1/4 turn, resize and try to chamber the brass.
8. Repeat this process until the brass just chambers and comes out easy. When the brass is getting close to chambering go to 1/8 turn increments as the objective is to minimally size the brass for an excellent fit in the chamber. By doing this you will eliminate the need to fire-form the brass and be able to go straight to load testing.
I strongly recommend the following concerning loading for the 38-72 and 38-70 after thousands of rounds fired in testing and even more in matches. A fellow top BPCR shooter has been working on his new 10-twist 38-72, but did not listen completely to my recommendations. His results have NOT been satisfactory yet. During each conversation we've had over the past month he has repeatedly reported doing something I told him not to do with the expected less than stellar results. I wish you better success.
1. Use Federal Match Large Pistol primers.
2. Use an over-primer-wad: Punch out 0.008" thick wads (I use water color art paper that can be found in most office supply stores in the art section). Use a 45-cal wad punch for this operation. I fold a sheet of the paper so that every punch produces 8 wads. Place a wad in the shell-holder of your priming tool, slide the case over the wad and punch the primer through the paper so the over-primer-wad is in the primer pocket on top of the primer. This also backs the LP primers out to where a LR primer would be.
3. Use only Swiss 1.5 powder; between 68 and 72 grains depending on bullet and loading technique: slip-fit vs neck-tension.
4. Use a 0.060" LDPE. It must not be below the neck-shoulder junction.
5. For slip-fit bullets use between 30 and 60 thou compression. Once the compression goes much over 60 thou you will get lots of vertical from MV variation. Don't even bother to try. And, don't seat the bullets out so far that the chambering operation pushes the bullet back into the case more. The rounds should chamber with just a little thumb pressure with the bullet seated out as far as possible.
6. For neck-tension use 0.002" NT, zero powder compression and a 0.060" LDPE that is no more that 0.002" in diameter larger than the base band of the bullet. If the diameter of the wad is too large you might get case stretching.
7. Properly cleaning the cases after each firing is a must.
8. Properly annealed cases, after each cleaning, work best.
I have gotten the best accuracy using 2 thou neck-tension. Slip-fit has also delivered excellent accuracy, but I'm looking for the best accuracy possible so have gone to using neck-tension.
Hope this helps and let me know how your progress goes.