#11
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Annealing will make your life easier in the long run, since you are trying to size down from one caliber to a shorter/smaller case. I have bought factory new brass for my 220 Swift that split necks on the first firing. That brass was very hard, right out of the factory. I annealed the remaining brass that had never been fired were annealed along with any once fired that weren't split. After annealing, I loaded up a bunch and all worked well with no split necks.
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#12
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Hi TinMan,
thank you very much for sharing your experience. I am learning something new every day. Kindest regards, M |
#13
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I'll second the need to anneal. Look at the LC 5.56 brass. It shows signs of a recent annealing. It's also required convting 22 to 17 Hornet.
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#14
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Look of annealing on that LC is probably from the original loading. It is how they look and it is done when they load it the first time. As others have mentioned anneal it yourself, AGAIN.
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#15
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20 VT brass
ORRR, call High Plains Brass and buy 100 cases for 40 bucks that load ready. They do great work & very nice guys. Dave
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#16
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Greetings all,
please do not take the below as making light of your advises, I do appreciate them. At the same time, if one does search on, e.g., full-length resizing people seem to be able to do that without annealing. My friend, who is an accomplished F-class shooter does it about 4-5 times before he anneals. Now, I accept that the brass springs back, and even that the un-annealed springs back more. However, since people are able to adjust their dies to compensate. Hence my suspicious that the die is out of specifications. Kindest regards, M |
#17
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Annealing may or may not be of benefit before sizing down, a lot is dependent on the brass. Virgin, your usually OK. Once fired, dependent on what it was shot in. Range brass, well you end up with no better than what you start with.
I have necked down 357 magnum and maximum to 17,20 and 22 for a friend years back. That is a chore and never again. First off resize FL in the 223 die. Replace the decap pin with a 17 or 20, no sense in dragging it over the ball. I would recommend a SB die as well. Take the decap pin out of ALL the dies when sizing down. I would suggest going slowwwww. Don’t try to move all of metal at once. Just keep bumping it and bumping it till your at the point you want. I would highly suggest you anneal before firing. You are moving a lot of brass in a cold form and changing the characteristics of the brass drastically. The heat will let it relax. Most folks just think you “squish” the case trim and your ready to go. I get the thoughts of the satisfaction of making the case yourself. I find my time more valuable the older I get. I won’t say I am getting lazy, just more sensible. |
#18
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Reforming .223
I have made a lot of different stuff out of .223 brass of all kinds, the smallest being the .22 TCM. While more tedious than making Vartarg brass out of .221 Fireball, the cost and availability of .233 brass (to me) makes it a no brainer. I would definitely latch on to a Harbor Freight chop saw. I have the box for mine and can get you the SKU number if you need it. For your length issue, first I would try running the sized brass into your die a second time, maybe turning it in a little for that little bit of extra sizing. If that doesn't help, then take a shell holder to your favorite machine shop and have them mill it down. Don't overdo it, though -- there isn't all that much metal to work with, and if you remove too much, you will just wreck it and leave the case stuck in your sizing die. Once formed, most of what I made would chamber OK, but after firing a bullet would not drop into the fired case, indicating too thick of a neck. I inside reamed some and neck turned some and both neck reamed AND neck turned others. Had to play with sizing die expander balls a little to be able to get the neck turning mandrel into the case. All in all, it takes some monkeying around to get where you want to be. Be patient. I don't anneal, but it's not a bad idea if you want to get into it. I neck size my cases just enough to hold a bullet, and don't lose many to neck splits that way.
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#19
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#20
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If your end goal is 20 vartarg, why sweat the intermediate step of the 221 shoulder. Run it through your 221 body die, then cut, and deburr.
You are not going to use as 221, and you are going to change the shoulder angle and datum for a vartarg. Run it through what ever vartarg die you plan on for your next step, and check your dimensions. I would suggest getting a go gage to compare to for your end product. Then you can deal with oal and either turning or reaming. |
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