221 Fireball

[StevenD]

I started this some time back and have been toying a little since.

My saga on making 221 FB brass continues. I am able to form the brass and so forth now, but am puzzled as to how to deal with the neck thickness. I can turn them but don't want to take off too much. I was hoping to try to use an inside neck reamer, but that only works, as I understand it, with fireformed brass before re-sizing.

I don't want to go too crazy on taking off too much material in the neck, so, I guess I'm sort of stuck with firing a case, measuring it with a micrometer and then working from there to get to the finished case dimension by summing the inside diameter plus wall thicknesses.

Does this seem correct, or am I missing a step....or 2?

Thanks

[foxhunter]

steven, i would be cautious about firing a case with a thick neck, a mild load can go to oh my god in a hurry when the bullet is clamped in to where it can't let go.
if you want to match the new formed brass to the chamber, what i would do is measure a factory loaded round that has been fired in your chamber, then load a bullet into a formed case from 223 and check the neck diameter difference. if a fired case measures say .243 (arbertrary#) and your loaded newly formed case measures .245 you will need to remove aprox. .004. this should give you .002-.003 clearance for neck expansion or a .241 loaded neck. the fired case should have about a .001 spring back from true chamber diminsions.
or you can measure the neck wall thickness on a factory case neck with a ball mic, then do the same to your new formed cases. you can then turn the brass neck to match factory spec's.

[WADE]

You might try something like Cerrosafe to get a cast of your chamber first. You can get it from Brownells or a few other places and it is really handy to have around. I take a cast of all my used guns before I ever fire them, just a bit of insurance and it can help in setting up dies also.

[StevenD]

FoxHunter & Wade.

Thanks Guys. Problemo is, I don't have any factory ammo to shoot in it.

No, I don't want to shoot a bullet with the thick-necked cases to fireform. I was thinking of the ol' cornmeal method, actually.

Cerrosafe is a good idea. I guess I've taken this long. I could wait until I get an order together.

Thanks again.

[Ackman]

Just seat a bullet in your newly-made case and measure the neck. The results may not be what you think. I made 221 brass from .223 Lapua/Dakota and also IMI. Don't remember the exact neck dia with a seated bullet except that it was surprisingly only just a little thicker than the neck of a 221 Rem case.....something like maybe 2 thou or so total dia. and not nearly what I'd expected. My reamer has a .250" neck and it's too large for that chamber. But I think that particular brass with unturned necks would clearance ok in a factory chamber which is much larger. Just know your chamber neck dia and do some careful measuring.

[StevenD]

Finally...

I found some of my old brass that was used in my Fireball from several years ago.

Fired Case Neck Diameter = 0.253
Loaded Factory Ammo Neck Dia. = 0.247
Reformed 204R case to Rem 221 Neck Dia = 0.257 (loaded with 224 bullet)

My Forster inside neck reamer is 0.225" diameter.

The brass is a little thicker than I hoped. But, it appears that I can ream the insides without touching the outsides assuming I can get the reamer started.

Does this make sense?

[flashhole]

This is what I do.


http://shootersforum.com/showthread....ight=flashhole

[StevenD]

Originally Posted by flashhole

This is what I do.

Looks good. I'll have to see if I can get mine to turn out close to that.

What are the advantages to reaming the insides of the necks and turning the outside? Do you still have excess material in the neck for your chamber, or is there something else?

[flashhole]

When I started the exercise I was concerned about creating a donut at the neck shoulder junction as a result of resizing. I can easily see how that can happen, especially with thick wall military brass. The inside reamer/mandrel cuts out anything that may create the donut. I've done a few hundred cases so far and have not had any problems. The brass flows nicely during fire-forming and smooths out the slight step where the shoulder meets the neck. Fire-forming loads were surprisingly accurate in my gun. The subsequent loadings are even better. The real advantage is if you use brass with thick webbing, when resized, you can turn the neck to a dimension that will be a tight fit in your guns chamber. The thick wall brass is too thick when the bullet is seated to even chamber in the gun so it must be turned. I have resized several different manufacturers brass. I like Lake City brass the best.

[StevenD]

Just found some 221 FB brass today. Bag of 100 Remington for.....$47