30 Luger Cartridge Conversion

[sheepherder]

I had some spare time today, so I ran a small number of .223 Remington and 38 Special brass cartridge cases through the conversion process. (These are for 30 Mauser/30 Tokarev, but 30 Luger is exactly the same process). So, here we go again!!!

First is the .223 Remington cases -



Raw fired cases; cutting them to length with a parting tool in the lathe; Short case parted off; raw short 30 cal cases...



Sizing the short cases to form the bottleneck; trimming them to final length; chamfering/breaking inner & outer edges; finished 30 cal cases.

Cases can also be cut to approximate length with a mini-pipe cutter -



I next did some 38 Special cases, to 30 cal -



Turning the rim off; finished rim; Cutting the extractor groove; chamfering the groove. I didn't want to spend the time grinding a cutoff tool to the correct profile, so I just ran the wide cutoff bit in at an angle.



Sizing in the full-length 30 cal sizing die; chucking the sized cases in the Forster case trimmer; cases cut to final length; comparison of .223 Remington/38 Special/30 cal Starline finished cases.

I chucked the cases in the lathe using a drill bit for a mandrel and set the tailstock/live center to the required length. I also used the drill bit/mandrel while parting. There were a few steps I didn't bother photographing, such as lubing before sizing; de-priming; measuring length; etc.

Finished cases are now ready for reloading!

Here's the specs on .223 Remington vs 30 Luger cartridge cases.



There are other cases close enough to work, but (like the 38 Special) may require extra work.

I generally fire mild loads in reworked cases the first time, to 'fire form' them to final configuration.

Dave, I've read about sitting fired cases in water and heating the necks with a torch to anneal them, but I've never tried it.

Huntington Die Specialties makes all the dies for RCBS, it's usually faster to just contact them directly.

The steel in the dies is [IIRC} 8500 series steel; you can heat it to cherry red and let it cool slowly to 'un-harden' it. They can then be machined. I've cut down a couple of dies this way.

All old/obsolete reloading tech. There's easier ways to do it, but this has gotten me this far, so I've resisted change (so far!)

I tried the drill on the case trimmer; I'm still mulling over whether it's worth adopting that... But a big Thank You! to patronen for sharing the idea!!!