.222 Remington neck size

[Baily]

In my Sierra reloading manual there is a case diagram on .222 Remington. It shows a loaded round at the neck being .253 so I order a .250 neck bushing for my neck bushing die.????? I have a box of Federal Premium V-Shock here at in my hand and the necks loaded are .247? What's up with this? Also does anyone know how far off the lands I should load a Berger 55 Grain MEF bullet? Thanks for all your help.

 

[JohnJ]

Im useing a .248 bushing for my 222 with remington brass and a sierra 53g...I tryed a .250 and the bullet fell into the case

JohnJ

 

[rayjay]

A while back I measured at least 8 different 223 factory loads plus reloads and the largest measured .248. The 222 should be the same.

 

[Baily]

Thanks for the replies!!Do you guys know why the neck thickness in the brass has changed?

 

[Ole]

For accuracy I use Norma or RWS brass and both of those loaded measure .247. I did buy some PMC .222 brass and those measure .245 when loaded, little thinner necks.

Ole

 

[pintopete]

Coincidently I have been working on the same stuff. I have a few brands of brass. I have Winchester that I bought new. I also have Herters, Frontier,Hornady), WW Super, Super-X, and Lapua. I had others but scrapped it. When I got the idea to try to trim the necks I decided on the K&M neck trimmer. I was in the process of buying it and while talking to the retailer I mentioned that I was shooting a 222. He said really, well I have some Lapua brass on the shelf. I asked how much he had. 200 rounds was the reply. I bought it all. That was good fortune for me. If you are buying from a retailer I would suggest that if you want the Lapua brass, that you give it shot and ask. Anyway I measured the brass and began learning how to use the trimmer. I started with the Frontier brass. Here are my notes on the brass that I have.

RWS - No experience
FC - had some, scrapped it all, don't remember why
R-P - don't remember having any
Herter's - NLA new, fairly nice brass, small flash hole, necks are on the thin side but fairly uniform
Super-X - thickest necks I have found so far, will neck trim to .013 min. No longer in production.
WW Super - current production, maybe the best readily available and economical, fairly thick necks with average uniformity
Frontier - very deep primer pockets, did not clean up well, necks have quite poor uniformity and are of medium thickness
Lapua - standard size primer hole, some are not so uniform, necks are the most uniform of this list, currently unavailable unless you are lucky and find some NOS

For those of us with factory rifles with .253, or actually .255 - .256 chambers, I would think it is most logical to use the best brass with the thickest necks and bullets that have the largest OD and a flat base. For me this means WW Super brass with Sierra 53 gr #1400 bullets. If I have any luck and decide to trim the brass, I would try to remove ony enough to even up the necks which will still have some portion unturned. The closer to .013 the better. Good luck, Peter.

 

[CatShooter]

In my Sierra reloading manual there is a case diagram on .222 Remington. It shows a loaded round at the neck being .253 so I order a .250 neck bushing for my neck bushing die.????? I have a box of Federal Premium V-Shock here at in my hand and the necks loaded are .247? What's up with this?

The diagrams in the Sierra are the "Maximum" allowable size, taken from the SAAMI manuals.

These figures do NOT represent what the factories are making.

Most .222, .223, and .222 Mag necks are ~0.011" to ~0.012", so finished, loaded necks are ~0.246 to ~0.248"

I use 244 and 245 bushings for these cases.

Also does anyone know how far off the lands I should load a Berger 55 Grain MEF bullet? Thanks for all your help.

Try them into the lands and off of the lands. They will probably be more accurate into the lands.


.

 

[billmo]

Baily, From my measurements, Catshooter is on the money. You may wind up ordering a couple of smaller bushings. My loaded round using IMG brass is .247 and Lapua brass is .2495 on my .223 brass
Bill

 

[BoydAllen]

A Lee Collet die, used with a body die when needed, may get you around brass neck thickness issues and will produce straight cases. I have various bushing dies that I use for my tight necked chambers, but I tend to favor the collet dies for unturned necks, where I think that they do a better job.

 

[pintopete]

My loaded brass measures:

Frontier trimmed to .0114 = .244
Super-X untrimmed = .250
WW-Super trimmed to .012 = .248

The chamber neck on my 700V is .2558 - .256 at least as well as I can measure.

What were the popular tight necks when the .222 was in its hay day? I have heard of .239, .242, .245, .246, .250 & .251. Peter.