Found 17 Fireball brass

[450BM]

My son and I visited EuroOptics in Montoursville PA today and I found a 100cnt bag of Nosler 17FB brass! It was more than I wanted to pay but I knew I’d regret not buying it since this is my favorite Centerfire and cases are fairly easy to wreck. They had decent prices on 17cal bullets to, in the $21 dollar range but I’m pretty well stocked on them so I left them there.

 

[Mike in Oregon]

My son and I visited EuroOptics in Montoursville PA today and I found a 100cnt bag of Nosler 17FB brass! It was more than I wanted to pay but I knew I’d regret not buying it since this is my favorite Centerfire and cases are fairly easy to wreck. They had decent prices on 17cal bullets to, in the $21 dollar range but I’m pretty well stocked on them so I left them there.

I too had a hard time finding brass other than Nosler. I was hoping to use Remington. That you cannot find! I ended up buying 1k pcs of new Starline brass and had a friend form them into 17FB fitted to my chamber for about what you probably paid for the Nosler. When reading your post, this is what caught my eye. You mention cases are easy to wreck. What do you mean by that?

 

[450BM]

I too had a hard time finding brass other than Nosler. I was hoping to use Remington. That you cannot find! I ended up buying 1k pcs of new Starline brass and had a friend form them into 17FB fitted to my chamber for about what you probably paid for the Nosler. When reading your post, this is what caught my eye. You mention cases are easy to wreck. What do you mean by that?

All the bullets I reload are flat base and I’ve crushed necks seating them. They all start hard and it’s hard to tell if its too hard until it is too late.

 

[Tommie]

All the bullets I reload are flat base and I’ve crushed necks seating them. They all start hard and it’s hard to tell if its too hard until it is too late.

Sounds like your die is possibly over-sizing the necks.

 

[Mike in Oregon]

All the bullets I reload are flat base and I’ve crushed necks seating them. They all start hard and it’s hard to tell if its too hard until it is too late.

The teenagers are new for me. I chose the FB due to it being pretty straight forward with a ton of fps. I wasn't sure about if the reloading would be a problem due to being itty-bitty. Time will tell? I built a Ruger No.1 with a Lilja 24-inch, MTU, 9t. Hopefully it will give me the accuracy I want with the 25 grain Hornady Vmax.

 

[Rick in Oregon]

All the bullets I reload are flat base and I’ve crushed necks seating them. They all start hard and it’s hard to tell if its too hard until it is too late.

This is what prompted me to start using a VLD chamfering tool on the case necks to avoid any crushing. The standard tools have an entry angle of 45*, where the VLD tool has a 28* taper. One caveat using the VLD tool is to use a very light touch or it'll cut a 'cookie-cutter' out of the case neck.

Once I started using the VLD chamfering tool on all my small caliber rifle brass, I never had a case mouth crushed or deformed in any way, and subsequent loadings of those cases so treated never had any issues after the initial chamfering. Bullets seat much easier with the 'funnel effect' of the VLD chamfer. My tool came from Holland's Shooting Supply, but I'm sure there are others to choose from. BT bullets seat without any fuss, and the FB bullets will slip in the case mouth much easier.

 

[450BM]

Thanks Rick, I don’t have one of those but I’m going to get one ordered. Looks like I can get a Lyman on Amazon.

I’ll try this first and hopefully it takes care of it without worrying about replacing a die…

I’ve only crushed 2 or 3 but it stings because I started with 200 and they are hard to find.

Mike, that’s a sweet looking rifle, hope it shoots great for you! IMR 8208 is my go to powder for the 17FB.