Post yours if you'd like to.
I lucked out two days ago!
It'd almost been better to buy virgin brass and start over, lol, read on.
It's been a journey...Back story is; I traded into two 5mmFBI's, basically just a neck turn 20-221 FB AI.
I got a neck size only die(non bushing type) that wouldn't bump the shoulder, a custom Wilson seater, close to 300 neck turned brass, including 1/3 loaded rounds in virgin brass, that had been neck turned, and the reamer, that came with the rifles.
Apparently the previous owner had his young sons do the neck turning, seriously??? because the brass and loaded rounds I got were "all over the place" in neck thickness, and length. Must have been a bunch of neck turner and trimmer adjustment going on, I'll tell yuh!
First order was fireforming that brass, I discovered they would fit in one rifle but not the other. Darn if the rifles weren't chambered the same even though the same reamer was used. I eventually got them all fired. The rifles were accurate and fun to shoot, I liked the cartridge.
I wanted to get all the cases as close to the same as possible which meant turning off as much as I thought I could get away with on 300 brass, the goal being to still have at least some neck tension left to save as many cases as possible, I did so but threw away 20-30 cases which had really thin necks or were too short in length. Something that the other guy should have caught but didn't do.
Shortening the story a little, I had one of the rifles rebarreled to 223AI which solved half my problems, yay. I'm skipping a bunch of hassles and it would take to long to get into. Mainly separating 5mmFBI brass for each rifle, what I already mentioned and a few I didn't. The neck size die would not work to bump so I had no way to bump the shoulder back. By a few firings the bolt was getting stiff on the remaining 5mmFBI cases with whatever brass would fit in it originally.
Only one 5mmFBI to deal with now, I sent off some 3 time fire cases to Whidden to have a custom FL non bushing die made. They didn't get it right??!! I could bump the shoulder and the body sized well, but the neck sizing was right on the ragged edge of sizing down, like to .0005"! Half the brass would provide .0005 neck tension and half wouldn't hold a bullet, argg again! Frustrated, I separated those too, but forced to single feed in the repeater.
The lucked out part... Years ago I got a coupon for half off Redding products. I had ordered 17PPC, 20PPC, 22PPC, form dies. I grabbed the 20PPC form die to try but it didn't touch the 5mmFBI necks, argg. Just out of curiosity I tried the 17 PPC form die thinking it'd be way too small. Ha, it worked great, giving .003-.0035 neck tension!!! That might be too much normally but the freebore on this reamer combined with the 32 vmax I'm using only permits the bullet to be 1/2 into the neck if just off the lands. So I only sized the top half of the neck and as luck would have it that's as far down the die will go anyway!
Well it's a quick fix until the brass I have wears out and I can start over with the correct neck thickness that'l work with the Whidden size die!!!
I'm happy for now anyway.
I lucked out two days ago!
It'd almost been better to buy virgin brass and start over, lol, read on.
It's been a journey...Back story is; I traded into two 5mmFBI's, basically just a neck turn 20-221 FB AI.
I got a neck size only die(non bushing type) that wouldn't bump the shoulder, a custom Wilson seater, close to 300 neck turned brass, including 1/3 loaded rounds in virgin brass, that had been neck turned, and the reamer, that came with the rifles.
Apparently the previous owner had his young sons do the neck turning, seriously??? because the brass and loaded rounds I got were "all over the place" in neck thickness, and length. Must have been a bunch of neck turner and trimmer adjustment going on, I'll tell yuh!
First order was fireforming that brass, I discovered they would fit in one rifle but not the other. Darn if the rifles weren't chambered the same even though the same reamer was used. I eventually got them all fired. The rifles were accurate and fun to shoot, I liked the cartridge.
I wanted to get all the cases as close to the same as possible which meant turning off as much as I thought I could get away with on 300 brass, the goal being to still have at least some neck tension left to save as many cases as possible, I did so but threw away 20-30 cases which had really thin necks or were too short in length. Something that the other guy should have caught but didn't do.
Shortening the story a little, I had one of the rifles rebarreled to 223AI which solved half my problems, yay. I'm skipping a bunch of hassles and it would take to long to get into. Mainly separating 5mmFBI brass for each rifle, what I already mentioned and a few I didn't. The neck size die would not work to bump so I had no way to bump the shoulder back. By a few firings the bolt was getting stiff on the remaining 5mmFBI cases with whatever brass would fit in it originally.
Only one 5mmFBI to deal with now, I sent off some 3 time fire cases to Whidden to have a custom FL non bushing die made. They didn't get it right??!! I could bump the shoulder and the body sized well, but the neck sizing was right on the ragged edge of sizing down, like to .0005"! Half the brass would provide .0005 neck tension and half wouldn't hold a bullet, argg again! Frustrated, I separated those too, but forced to single feed in the repeater.
The lucked out part... Years ago I got a coupon for half off Redding products. I had ordered 17PPC, 20PPC, 22PPC, form dies. I grabbed the 20PPC form die to try but it didn't touch the 5mmFBI necks, argg. Just out of curiosity I tried the 17 PPC form die thinking it'd be way too small. Ha, it worked great, giving .003-.0035 neck tension!!! That might be too much normally but the freebore on this reamer combined with the 32 vmax I'm using only permits the bullet to be 1/2 into the neck if just off the lands. So I only sized the top half of the neck and as luck would have it that's as far down the die will go anyway!
Well it's a quick fix until the brass I have wears out and I can start over with the correct neck thickness that'l work with the Whidden size die!!!
I'm happy for now anyway.
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