Convert 7 BR Brass to 22 BR

[jds holler]

I just scored my second batch of a hundred 7 BR brass, locally, for 35 bucks. (Remington brand). I think that's a pretty smoking deal, especially since almost no one around this neck of the woods even knows what a BR rifle or brass even is.

I'm not an Okie, but I was taught by some of the best. To get this stuff down to 22 BR, I had to use an intermediate step from 7mm to 6mm. To do that, without a bushing die -- (yeah, I know, I'm a tight wad), I took an old .243 neck sizing die, and cut it off at a point that allows me to down-size the neck of the case. I stop just before the shoulder deforms from the 20 degree angle of the .243 die.

After that step, I final size the case in my full length Redding 22 BR die.

Then in a separate step, expand the neck with the .223 expander set low.

Next, trim to length, and chamfer the mouths -- again.

The necks now fit the mandrel on my neck lathe, and I turn them to .011". My chamber neck dimension is .248", and my loaded round neck measures .246". This seems to be working pretty well.

The shoulders look a little funky until after one fire-form shot. The last batch I did, the fire-formers grouped sub MOA, and were plenty good for squirrel shooters. The second load that I grouped with these brass went pretty well, without much experimenting, giving some .5" groups with powder loads that I had worked up with Lapua brass.

Overall, I'm pretty happy with these brass, although I've got a lot of time invested in them before I'm done.

I think it's about time to invest in a bushing die, for this process, and to better size my necks without an expander.

Any thoughts?? jd

 

[Dusty Stevens]

Before you get too far gone is your 22br a modern chamber or the old br rem chamber?

 

[jds holler]

Before you get too far gone is your 22br a modern chamber or the old br rem chamber?

I believe it would be considered the older Remington. Pretty tight. Rifle is a seventies vintage 40XBR.

 

[Dusty Stevens]

Ok thats good. Just trying to maybe save you some headache

 

[jds holler]

Ok thats good. Just trying to maybe save you some headache

For my knowledge, just what would that headache be?

 

[Dusty Stevens]

Using rem br brass in a br norma designed chamber

 

[jds holler]

Using rem br brass in a br norma designed chamber

How bout the inverse -- using Lapua/Norma brass in the old Rem chamber? jd

 

[CJ6]

Make sure you anneal the brass after sizing it down or you'll be splitting necks in no time.

 

[RGRobinett]

How bout the inverse -- using Lapua/Norma brass in the old Rem chamber? jd

Dusty is correct in pointing this out: the old 7mmBR (Remington) brass probably measure about 0.463-.464" right above the extractor groove (web), while contemporary 6BR brass (Lapua) is usually 0.469-4695". Many of the "old" reamers cut a web diameter of .466-.467" - too tight for the Lapua brass. The Remington brass can shoot well in the
common .471-.473" chambers - at least for a little while. Good shootin'! RG

 

[Dusty Stevens]

Thanks rg. I looked for the measurements earlier but forgot. I do remember back when yall first started on the 30br i bought a ton of rem brass for my new ronnie long 30br and learned all about it right around that time- the hard way

 

[jds holler]

You guys are on top of it. My old chamber does in fact measure .465" at the web, and I of course had "too tight syndrome" with my first batch of Lapua. A small base 308 die fixed the problem giving me easy bolt lift. I've done that batch one time, and after several loadings haven't had to repeat.

These Remington brass do in fit nicely, without the small base sizing, and I'll pick them up when I can find them. There are some 30 BR available to me, but don't know if I want to try getting them down to 22. These 7's are enough hassle.

Thanks for your response. This rifle is my first go-round with this stuff, and I'm making progress, although it seems slow. I've got a bunch of different bullets now, and powders to try, but not enough time to do much load testing.

I'm gonna have to be careful, or I'm going to wear this rifle out on squirrels before I find out how accurate it might be. jd

 

[Dusty Stevens]

Have fun then put another barrel in

 

[jds holler]

Have fun then put another barrel in

Heck, I'm starting to get things figured out now. I don't figure in swapping barrels anytime soon. I expect to hit on some loads that at least for me will shoot real well. I try to keep my hobby economical and fun. This rifle is probably forty years old, but until I got it had hardly been fired. jd

 

[RGRobinett]

Heck, I'm starting to get things figured out now. I don't figure in swapping barrels anytime soon. I expect to hit on some loads that at least for me will shoot real well. I try to keep my hobby economical and fun. This rifle is probably forty years old, but until I got it had hardly been fired. jd

Just to make you feel good - ya should have been around when, to make BR brass, one had to form all the way down from .308 Win., or, something similar! We had to purchase (or, make) a set of form dies and set the shoulders ALLLLL the way back - real wildcatting - until Remington finally began making the 7mm BR brass. Had the Remington big-wigs the foresight to have offered either .22, or, 6mm BR brass, there may never have been a PPC . . . perhaps some/more shorter versions of the BR.

To this day, one of my favorites is a .22BR -.200". And, [the late] Fred Hauscuster's (sp?) 6mm TallDog, "ain't too shabby neither". The only problem with the 7mm BR (Remington) and
Rem. .308UBR (small primer pocket .308 Win. with .463-.464" web) is that the heads just aren't a tough as the the Lapua brass, thus, primer-pockets loosen much sooner. Keep 'em ON the X! RG

 

[boltfluter]

I would go easy on the pressures or the primer pockets will die quickly. Have fun.

Regards, Paul

www.boltfluting.com

 

[Dusty Stevens]

Hey i still have a talldawg. Complete gun, brass, dies and all. It was a big hit during the brass shortage

 

[Outrider27]

Just to make you feel good - ya should have been around when, to make BR brass, one had to form all the way down from .308 Win., or, something similar! We had to purchase (or, make) a set of form dies and set the shoulders ALLLLL the way back - real wildcatting - until Remington finally began making the 7mm BR brass. Had the Remington big-wigs the foresight to have offered either .22, or, 6mm BR brass, there may never have been a PPC . . . perhaps some/more shorter versions of the BR.

To this day, one of my favorites is a .22BR -.200". And, [the late] Fred Hauscuster's (sp?) 6mm TallDog, "ain't too shabby neither". The only problem with the 7mm BR (Remington) and
Rem. .308UBR (small primer pocket .308 Win. with .463-.464" web) is that the heads just aren't a tough as the the Lapua brass, thus, primer-pockets loosen much sooner. Keep 'em ON the X! RG

Amen to that; I've still got the form die set, including the neck reamer and reamer die, and had formed over 200 cases from .308UBR brass before Remington even thought of producing 7BR brass. That first die, moving the shoulder back, was impressive, lol. Guess you could say the 7BR from .308 cases was my first wildcat; I didn't think of it that way at the time, since it was chambered in a factory firearm (XP100 in my case), but it was a serious introduction to case forming.

 

[jds holler]

Yeah, I'm not gonna complain about the time it takes to form these cases compared to a lot of wildcats. Besides, it's all part of the hobby for me.

As a follow-up with these, I loaded up 5 groups and shot them Sunday for the first fire-form shot. Just wanted to see if I could get a quick load that would work for squirrel shooting/fireforming.

I threw metered charges of 4895 (IMR) starting with a minimum of 28 gr., up to a max of 32. Out of the five groups, (5 shot) all were sub MOA. The worst was the first cold barrel group of 28 grains, the best #2 at 29 gr. Three of the groups were just over .5", and one was .7 sumpthin. The two hottest were starting to act high pressure, and I had two primer piercings. (WSR primers) I guess we'll see how those primer pockets fared.

I'm pretty happy with the lower end loads, and am simply gonna put them all together and go squirrel shooting with them next weekend. To get .5" type accuracy with these gnarly, round shouldered, concentric challenged, cases seems pretty good to me. By the way, the bullets were Sierra 2'nds That member bheadboy gave me a killer deal on. My metered charges were running +/_ .1 gr., and I didn't sort bullets or cases. jd

 

[RGRobinett]

Yeah, I'm not gonna complain about the time it takes to form these cases compared to a lot of wildcats. Besides, it's all part of the hobby for me.

As a follow-up with these, I loaded up 5 groups and shot them Sunday for the first fire-form shot. Just wanted to see if I could get a quick load that would work for squirrel shooting/fireforming.

I threw metered charges of 4895 (IMR) starting with a minimum of 28 gr., up to a max of 32. Out of the five groups, (5 shot) all were sub MOA. The worst was the first cold barrel group of 28 grains, the best #2 at 29 gr. Three of the groups were just over .5", and one was .7 sumpthin. The two hottest were starting to act high pressure, and I had two primer piercings. (WSR primers) I guess we'll see how those primer pockets fared.

I'm pretty happy with the lower end loads, and am simply gonna put them all together and go squirrel shooting with them next weekend. To get .5" type accuracy with these gnarly, round shouldered, concentric challenged, cases seems pretty good to me. By the way, the bullets were Sierra 2'nds That member bheadboy gave me a killer deal on. My metered charges were running +/_ .1 gr., and I didn't sort bullets or cases. jd

Please keep us posted - it is realistic to expect better agging after fire-forming. RG