Thread: 17 Mach 1V
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Old 02-20-2013, 11:59 PM
Tom_Brush Tom_Brush is offline
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Join Date: Sep 2006
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I have been experimenting with making .221 Fireball and .17 Mach 4 from .223 brass. I have been using fired range brass so cost is nothing but my time. If I ruin a case who cares. The initial brass has been laying in a box for years. It was already deprimed.

I started with using a Sinclair Expander Die to smooth out the necks. I then champfer inside and out. Next I used a .221 Fireball die with the guts removed to move the shoulder down. One thing that I noticed is that if I used the extended shell holder I could not size them. Using the standard shell holder allowed better leverage on the linkage of my Redding T7 press.

At this point you can cut the excess neck off. I do not have a .221 trim die. I have a Harbor Freight 2" cutoff saw coming so for now this is where I stop for .221 Fireball.

For the .17 Mach 4 I neckturn the .221 brass to .012. It does not matter that the .221 brass was not cut off since the first part of the brass will not touch the cutter. Only the bottom of the neck will be turned. (I ran the .221brass thru the neck expander before neck turning.)

Next I run the brass thru the #1 Redding form die for .221 to .19 using the standard shell holder. Then I run it thru the .17 Trim Die using the extended shell holder. The extended holder is necessary to get the case up into the die so it can be trimmed. I cut the excess neck with a hacksaw. Crude but until the cutoff saw arrives it will have to do. Besides I am too impatient to wait.

I then champfer the inside and outside of the case and run it thru the Mach 4 full length die. It is now ready to trim to length. After that I heat treat.

I have only made 40 Mach 4 cases so far and about 20 .221 Fireball cases. It was fun and a learning process trying to make the brass without expensive form dies for .223 to .221. I hope that I did not leave anything out.

Tom

Last edited by Tom_Brush; 02-21-2013 at 02:49 AM.
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