Grafs

Buffalo Arms

Sign up for the email notification.

A lathe really is the best way to do this.  Chucking in a drill press sucks bad.

I made a bunch of French long cases by holding 32 Long/H&R cases in a collet, and cut the extractor groove with the aid of a dial indicator and the cross slide.  Fast and easy once you dial it in and establish your settings.

With a 3 jaw, you could make a spud to put inside cases while cutting an extractor groove.  Really, centering a case within the accuracy of a 3 jaw, say + or - 0.005 runout, is good enough.  That is what some American factory brass seems to run, anyways.

Gosh, I wish those 71 grain Magtech JHPs would get back into the supply chain.  These look good, and shoot good in the French long and 30 Luger.

I'd bet the people at CORBIN could help with a permanent solution to your bullet supply problem.  I'm thinking they could make a bullet sizing die and you could resize some .303 bullets (or other more popular caliber) to your caliber needs.

Also, if you bought an inexpensive (used), bench top lathe from Craig's List or ebay, you could buy a custom carbide cutter that would remove the rim and cut the extractor groove at the same time.

Let us know what model you pick. I would love a small one as well for my small house...

It is only brass, so sharpening would be reduced.  That is one consideration for going carbide.  It would last a very, very long time.

I wonder if Doug Giraud could or would help you.  His little trimmer is a miniature lathe.  Modify the machine to hold and spin the case.  Present a pre-shaped cutter to the spinning case to remove the rims and cut the extractor groove.  Cutter could have a controlled feed and a built-in depth stop.  A smart guy (oops, that leaves me out ) could modify the device to do what you want.

I was looking at used bench top lathes last night.  Everything was multiple hundreds of dollars.  They cost $500 - $700, even at Harbor Freight.  Used was about the same price but were higher quality machines.  Wood turning lathes were less expensive but a spud/collet would need to be fashioned and you still need the cutters.  I did not see any used Harbor Freight machines in my area.  That would be the best bet for a low priced lathe.  Runout and precision requirements are minimal for reworking cases.

I saw a Sieg locally for $600, IIRC.

Or maybe just save time and see if this guy has the brass made?

http://gadcustomcartridges.com/

I bought some Vetterli brass from him and worked fine. Sometimes it’s not worth the trouble. I say that as I look at all the 40 S&W brass on my reloading bench being converted to Nambu...