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first .222 freebore advice

swadiver

building my first .222 Remington. gonna be for 100 yds, as precise as possible paper punching. going to be using 52 gr Bergers or Barts. need precision over velocity if i have to choose.

i need to send 3 dummy rounds to Shilen so they can set the freebore. i have been advised to go with about .020" freebore.

i have a lot of experience with these bullets in slow twist .223's. but, seeing how much longer the neck is on the .222 vs the .223, what is the ideal amount of bearing surface in the neck with the .222? is .224" in the neck too much?

thanks
 
If it were me I would go with zero free bore. The throat will wear and you can then move the bullet
closer to the lands as it wears. You will get more out of your barrel too. ;):)
 
The SAAMI chamber dimensions include a “standard “ freebore or leade.

I don’t think swadiver wants zero freebore. He may, however, not want additional freebore since he wants to shoot flat base 52g bullets in a relatively long neck case.

If I was setting up dummies to send to Shilen for throating I would first want to decide where I want the base of the loaded bullet in the neck.
Above the dreaded donut would be a start in the thinkin.

I bet Mike Walker and Warren Page didn’t increase freebore in their 222 chambers.
 
I just built a 222 paper puncher with with a .249 skim turn neck with lapua brass.on the freebore I went with .020 freebore if was going to do it again I would go with .010 freebore.I shot barts 52gr bullets
 
1911nut said:
The SAAMI chamber dimensions include a “standard “ freebore or leade.

I don’t think swadiver wants zero freebore. He may, however, not want additional freebore since he wants to shoot flat base 52g bullets in a relatively long neck case.

If I was setting up dummies to send to Shilen for throating I would first want to decide where I want the base of the loaded bullet in the neck.
Above the dreaded donut would be a start in the thinkin.

I bet Mike Walker and Warren Page didn’t increase freebore in their 222 chambers.
Click to expand...

thanks much
 
ok. 0 to 20 freebore. keeping the base of the bullet above the donut area. not sure if the donut issue applies to me, will be using a Lee collet die in conjunction with a Redding body die to size the cases. so the question in my mind remains, how much bullet in the neck?
 
Swadiver,
I didn’t get what I was after with a Redding body die for a 220 Swift. The sizing the body and bumping the shoulder never seemed to work out, you got one or the other mostly.

In several rifles I have that shoot teeney weeney groups, I got there with Full length bushing dies, bumping the shoulders 0.001-0.002” and getting whatever neck tension the voices in my head told me.

My 2¢
 
Ok, I got numbers.
I have a standard Shilen chamber with a 0.250” neck, the neck part isn’t important; the chamber isn’t throated longer.

Barts 52g bullet. 0.701”
Lapua 222 case 1.698”
Loaded round @ 0.010” off touch 2.216”

The bullet is in the neck 0.183”. And the gun shoots in the 1’s
 
1911nut said:
Swadiver,
I didn’t get what I was after with a Redding body die for a 220 Swift. The sizing the body and bumping the shoulder never seemed to work out, you got one or the other mostly.

In several rifles I have that shoot teeney weeney groups, I got there with Full length bushing dies, bumping the shoulders 0.001-0.002” and getting whatever neck tension the voices in my head told me.

My 2¢
Click to expand...


thanks. i have had great luck with body die/collet die combo in all my other calibers. i am going to give ita go with the .222 and see what happens. i will go with a Harrel's custom bushing die if necessary
 
pacificman said:
If it were me I would go with zero free bore. The throat will wear and you can then move the bullet
closer to the lands as it wears. You will get more out of your barrel too. ;):)
Click to expand...
ZERO FREE BORE!! Start off with the lightest bullets you can get your hands on then go heavier as the throat wears and it will, but not as fast as larger calibers.
You can always go to a longer free bore but you can't go back to zero.;)

I prefer as much bullet in the neck as I can get. I seat to the shoulder/neck junction.
If you're shooting BT base bullets you can seat above the donut if it forms. Never had that issue because of the BT bases. Don't think I ever had donuts. Using shoulder bump bushing dies so everything stays where it is.
 
Last edited:
pacificman said:
If it were me I would go with zero free bore. The throat will wear and you can then move the bullet
closer to the lands as it wears. You will get more out of your barrel too. ;):)
Click to expand...

so with zero freebore and 52 gr bullets , Berger or Barts, what is your overall length of a loaded round?
 
The COL. of your loaded round will depend on the seating depth that YOU set for best groups in YOUR rifle.
With 52 gr. Berger bullets and zero free bore in a .222 I'll bet that the base of the bullet would still be right at or above
shoulder /neck junction. I will also be honest and tell you I don't own a .222 but I can see that with this cartridge there
is plenty of neck length on the brass case for a lot of life with zero free bore. My 20VT, two 20 Practicals, 22-250, 6br, three .223's,
etc. ALL have zero free bore and I would have the chambers set up this way again if I had to do it all over. I'll get maximum life out
of these barrels and the accuracy with these barrels is better than I am.;):) I'll also say that IMO if a bullet goes down a bit further
in a cartridge case past the shoulder neck junction it won't affect accuracy...the only down side would be a bit less powder in the case
as the bullet would be taking up some room being seated past the shoulder neck junction. just more info to think about.:)
 
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