Brad has asked for more detail on forming the 256 brass and I thought some of the rest of you might be interested as well.
I use a 30 Luger sizing die for the initial forming step, necking-down and pushing the case mouth back far enough to form a noticable shoulder. I use Imperial Die Wax and usually size the neck slightly in the Luger die and then turn the case 180 degrees and size fully. Then into the 256 FL sizer with the same 180-degree rotation halfway through the sizing.
You MUST anneal the case necks if you want them to last more than 1-2 firings and you can do the annealing either before or after the neck-down; I do it beforehand because the cases are then easier to neck down. Annealing procedure details are in my post above and I'll be happy to go into even more detail if wanted.
I always trim and chamfer the case mouths beforehand, ALWAYS. If the case mouths are left at all ragged or uneven then the neck-down process will magnify and thus exacerbate any unevenness or incipient splits.
So far at least, I haven't had to ream the case necks. However I've used only one lot of Starline 357 brass so other brands may require reaming. I feel SURE that at least SOME accuracy benefit would result from a good concentric neck-reaming but I no longer have a 256 and so can't test this theory. I fireform with full loads or as close as I can get in the unfired case.
Private note to Brad: the 30 Luger die I sent you is now adjusted for forming the longer 224 Maxi from 357 Maximum brass, so you'll hafta readjust it for the shorter 357/256 stuff.
I HAVE formed 256 from 357 in one pass in the 256 die but lost more brass that way. Almost no case loss when doing it with the 30 Luger die as an intermediate step.
Don't hesitate to ask for more info if wanted.
Regards, Joe
