Just finished my first batch of .17 Fireball "match" quality brass!

[sparky123321]

Took a lot of work and fine tuning of the process, but I just finish forming my first batch of "match" quality .17 Fireball brass from RP .223 Rem brass. Forming was done using 7 different dies and or bushings. Final pass was done using a FL .17 Fireball die in a Forster Coax Press. Brass was annealed using a Bench Source annealer before starting the process and annealed again after the completed brass was cleaned in SS pins. Necks have been turned to .013 and reamed. Brass was rough trimmed during the forming and then final trimmed before cleaning using a Giraud trimmer. Flash holes were deburred and primer pockets uniformed. Brass weight varies less than 2 grains. Next time around I will keep it within 1 grain. I was just a couple cases short to keep it within 1 grain this time around. Besides just culling by weight, any brass that didn't look, feel, form, trim, etc right was discarded immediately. Guessing that I culled at least 30% of what I started with.

 

[sparky123321]

Even thought I tried to use "power" whenever possible, my thumbs are going to need a couple days to recover. As such, I won't be taking orders anytime soon. It really was quite the process. Next time around I'll start with Lapua brass.

I agree with you about the only real way to determine the case volume, but I still feel culling out the extreme highs and lows is a good practice.