20 Practical forming questions

[Lefty2506]

I have had good luck using a 223 Redding small base bushing die with .235 then .227 bushings. I just replace the deprime stem with one from a 204 die and use a 204 die to seat.

That's my current plan as well, but my bushings are a couple thousandths smaller.

 

[Lefty2506]

Folks who try a necked-down case, sometimes make a mistake where they misread difficulty with chambering as being caused by headspace when it is really due to an incorrect neck-shoulder radius.

If they then turn down the die, the case may chamber easy, however it comes at the cost of shorter case life. For this reason, it is important to nail the headspace with confidence so that you can tell the difference if other reasons cause problems.

20P is about as easy as it gets, so try not to over-think it, but at the same time you must learn to understand your chamber and cartridge dimensions.

If you don't have much wildcat experience, the 20P is a good place to start. I'm never going to say don't use mixed range brass but I am going to recommend you consider including virgin brass to begin and running only small tests till you gain functional reliability.

That's exactly what I'm concerned about with the way my necks look. Personally, I'm not a fan of turning down a sizing die. To me that would be fixing a symtom instead of the problem. It was built to a specific dimension with a very tight tolerance. If something isn't right, the odds of the problem being that the sizing die is too long are extremely low.

I'm currently running my bushing die with the bushing all the way down as far as it will go. I'm wondering if the bushing isn't starting to get into the neck just a little. I'll play around a little with that and see what the results look like.

To clarify, I'm playing around with PMC range brass just to gain a little experience on brass that I'd otherwise toss in the trash. I may end up loading a few dummy rounds to see if i can dry cycle them in the upper, but I'm not going to make any loaded ammo with it. For loaded ammo, I will be using once fired LC brass. Not as good as virgin brass, but I couldn't pass it up for the price.

 

[AlNyhus]

When necking down for my 20 Practical, I used 204R dies. One pass into the 204R seating die and then into the f.l. 204R die was all it took. Check the length with a chamber plug, trim if needed, do the pockets and flash hole and full length size in whatever 20P die you're going to use and you're done.

Make sure and check neck diameter with a seated bullet and compare that to what you know the chamber neck is. Problems here aren't uncommon with 20 Practical reamers.

Good shootin' -Al

 

[urbanrifleman]

Seems like a lot of work for something so practical.

(I think) if you are doing much more than taking a 223 bushing fl die, in one or two bushing passes, you are over thinking it.

 

[Coyotefurharvester]

Urban is correct, new brass easy as 2 bushings (can use a neck sizer if you have it, I do)steps. Range brass is a different can of worms.

 

[L.Sherm]

Some just want to over complicate things, its simple neck down the brass to .002 smaller than loaded round, if the bolt closes on the first firing shoot away then bump .002- .003 after the first firing using the Wheeler method now your 95% done.
Adjust your loading accordingly.

 

[f4l]

Redding makes a full length 20 Practical die. It's not a catalogued item but they had a few in stock when I got mine a couple years ago. It works great. From 556 brass I:

• Decap
• Swage primer pockets (Dillon super swage)
• Anneal
• FL size
• Trim

Ready to load

That's it. And subsequent loading of that brass I start with the 3rd step above and use a Redding 223 S die with proper bushing and shoulder setback for my chamber.

 

[nmkid]

Some just want to over complicate things, its simple neck down the brass to .002 smaller than loaded round, if the bolt closes on the first firing shoot away then bump .002- .003 after the first firing using the Wheeler method now your 95% done.
Adjust your loading accordingly.

A few years ago I used the info in the Daily Bulletin and it was easy peasy.

 

[JohnD]

Didn’t read all replies and apologize if this has been covered. If using once fired military brass which many of us do, anneal first and get a small base sizing die. The die will save you a lot of headaches especially in an AR platform. I really like the .20 Practical and have been shooting them a long time.

Good luck, John.

 

[Coyotefurharvester]

Redding 20 practical FL sizing die #91950 according to email I received from Redding tech. No direct sales need to go thru a dealer.