I finally got the #1 Redding form die to begin the process of forming .222 Remington Mag brass for my .17 Remington. My .17 Remington Lilja barrel has a pretty generous neck diameter. Fired casings come out with a .201" outer diameter. I have some .222 Remington Magnum brass on hand and have read where quite a number of people had been forming .17 Remington brass from that and also from .223 brass as well as some are just using .204 Ruger brass to form .17 Rem brass. The expected benefit for me is brass with a larger OD and a little bit thicker walls in the neck.
So, I thoroughly cleaned the #1 Redding .17 Remington form die to use for the first step in this process. The .222 Rem Mag casings started out at about 1.841" long. The length after running them through the #1 form die was 1.819". Next, I ran the brass into my .17 Remington Redding body bump die to push the shoulder back to final position. That reduced the outer OD of the neck to anywhere from .2045" to .205", the inside diameter of all of these casings is at .1785", and the length was anywhere from 1.805" on up to 1.815". I have no idea why there is such a wide range of casing lengths after this operation???? I guess it doesn’t really matter because they have to be trimmed anyway.
I would like to wind up with brass that has an ID of .170" to .1705" and an OD of approximately .196". So, thinking I had the real deal already on hand, I trotted out my Russ Haydon arbor press, my L. E. Wilson neck sizing die with the .196" Redding titanium nitride bushing in it and ran a formed casing up into the die! Oops!!!! The OD of the neck got squeezed down to .1945" and the ID of that casing wound up at a petite .167" and that’s a NO GO in my mind.
Then next die I could try would be one of my full-length dies from RCBS or Redding. However, those dies squeeze the necks of my other casings down to an OD of approximately .193" to .191" and I don’t want to go that direction. Oh, by the way, my FL Redding die seems to hate me. It puts dents in the shoulders of just about every casing I run up into it. I have cleaned it thoroughly, use extremely light amounts of Imperial Sizing Wax and get dented casings in 70% to 80% of the casings I run into it. I think it could benefit from a breather hole somewhere in the body???? Anyway, I digress—back to my quest for formed .17 Remington brass----------
Here’s a photo of my project.
From left to right: Formed casing that was trimmed to 1.791†in length and then run through my bushing die with the .196" bushing. Next, is a casing that was just run through the #1 form die and the body bump die and trimmed to 1.791" and the neck was not sized any further. The casing in the middle has not been trimmed yet. The next casing is what they look like after being run through the #1 form die. The one on the extreme right is the virgin .222 Remington Magnum casing.
"OK," I thought to myself, "I still have my .17 Remington Lee collet die to try." I screwed that into my reloading press, ran a formed casing up into that and wound up with a casing with an OD on the neck of .1985" to .199" and an ID of .171". I trotted out my K&M neck turner, got the cutting blade adjusted and turned the necks on a couple of these casings that I had run through the Lee collet die. I wound up with casings with a neck OD of .196" and an ID of .171". I may have Lee check the arbor on my collet die and have them make an arbor that will allow me to squeeze the neck down to an ID of .170" to .1705".
So, what is my problem??? My problem arises when I use the body bump die. I wind up with casings that have dents in the body and some casings that have little ripples up on the shoulder area. When I first started using the body bump die, I think I was pushing the shoulder down too far and wound up with an indentation that went around the circumference of the casing just below the juncture where the shoulder meets the body of the casing.
I have used an extremely minute amount of Imperial Sizing Wax on these casings and still get way too many dented casings. I finally resorted to using a lighter fluid like liquid on a Q-Tip to clean the lubricant out of the body bump die after about every 3rd or 4th casing has been run through. That seemed to work. I don’t know how I could put on a smaller amount of sizing wax without having the casings tend to stick when the downward stroke is made on the ram.
Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
So, I thoroughly cleaned the #1 Redding .17 Remington form die to use for the first step in this process. The .222 Rem Mag casings started out at about 1.841" long. The length after running them through the #1 form die was 1.819". Next, I ran the brass into my .17 Remington Redding body bump die to push the shoulder back to final position. That reduced the outer OD of the neck to anywhere from .2045" to .205", the inside diameter of all of these casings is at .1785", and the length was anywhere from 1.805" on up to 1.815". I have no idea why there is such a wide range of casing lengths after this operation???? I guess it doesn’t really matter because they have to be trimmed anyway.
I would like to wind up with brass that has an ID of .170" to .1705" and an OD of approximately .196". So, thinking I had the real deal already on hand, I trotted out my Russ Haydon arbor press, my L. E. Wilson neck sizing die with the .196" Redding titanium nitride bushing in it and ran a formed casing up into the die! Oops!!!! The OD of the neck got squeezed down to .1945" and the ID of that casing wound up at a petite .167" and that’s a NO GO in my mind.
Then next die I could try would be one of my full-length dies from RCBS or Redding. However, those dies squeeze the necks of my other casings down to an OD of approximately .193" to .191" and I don’t want to go that direction. Oh, by the way, my FL Redding die seems to hate me. It puts dents in the shoulders of just about every casing I run up into it. I have cleaned it thoroughly, use extremely light amounts of Imperial Sizing Wax and get dented casings in 70% to 80% of the casings I run into it. I think it could benefit from a breather hole somewhere in the body???? Anyway, I digress—back to my quest for formed .17 Remington brass----------
Here’s a photo of my project.
From left to right: Formed casing that was trimmed to 1.791†in length and then run through my bushing die with the .196" bushing. Next, is a casing that was just run through the #1 form die and the body bump die and trimmed to 1.791" and the neck was not sized any further. The casing in the middle has not been trimmed yet. The next casing is what they look like after being run through the #1 form die. The one on the extreme right is the virgin .222 Remington Magnum casing.
"OK," I thought to myself, "I still have my .17 Remington Lee collet die to try." I screwed that into my reloading press, ran a formed casing up into that and wound up with a casing with an OD on the neck of .1985" to .199" and an ID of .171". I trotted out my K&M neck turner, got the cutting blade adjusted and turned the necks on a couple of these casings that I had run through the Lee collet die. I wound up with casings with a neck OD of .196" and an ID of .171". I may have Lee check the arbor on my collet die and have them make an arbor that will allow me to squeeze the neck down to an ID of .170" to .1705".
So, what is my problem??? My problem arises when I use the body bump die. I wind up with casings that have dents in the body and some casings that have little ripples up on the shoulder area. When I first started using the body bump die, I think I was pushing the shoulder down too far and wound up with an indentation that went around the circumference of the casing just below the juncture where the shoulder meets the body of the casing.
I have used an extremely minute amount of Imperial Sizing Wax on these casings and still get way too many dented casings. I finally resorted to using a lighter fluid like liquid on a Q-Tip to clean the lubricant out of the body bump die after about every 3rd or 4th casing has been run through. That seemed to work. I don’t know how I could put on a smaller amount of sizing wax without having the casings tend to stick when the downward stroke is made on the ram.
Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
