Making 17 Mach 4 brass from 17 Remington Fireball Brass?

[titus123]

So I found a Contender barrel in 17 Mach 4 for sale very reasonably priced. My question is, can you shorten 17 Fireball Brass to the proper length, and fire form it to 17 Mach 4 brass? From my understanding, the 17 Fireball Brass is slightly longer, and slightly smaller in diameter. Has anyone tried this with success?

 

[L.Sherm]

The fireball is .006 wider at the shoulder, so I'm pretty sure fireball brass would work fine. Question is what is the neck dia. on the barrel will it be no turn?

 

[shoot4fun]

This is from 10 years ago but, from what I remember from owning both, seems accurate.

The 17 Mach IV will chamber in the 17 Fireball but the 17 Fireball will not chamber in the 17 Mach IV. The fireball is wider at the shoulder by . 006". So the Mach IV dies will load both cartridges but will work the Fireball more when FL resizing and the Fireball will not size the Mach IV at the shoulder.

My question would be do you actually have17 Fireball brass in hand?
Haven't seen any in quite some time.

 

[titus123]

The fireball is .006 wider at the shoulder, so I'm pretty sure fireball brass would work fine. Question is what is the neck dia. on the barrel will it be no turn?

It is supposed to be a no turn neck.

 

[titus123]

This is from 10 years ago but, from what I remember from owning both, seems accurate.

The 17 Mach IV will chamber in the 17 Fireball but the 17 Fireball will not chamber in the 17 Mach IV. The fireball is wider at the shoulder by . 006". So the Mach IV dies will load both cartridges but will work the Fireball more when FL resizing and the Fireball will not size the Mach IV at the shoulder.

My question would be do you actually have17 Fireball brass in hand?
Haven't seen any in quite some time.

A shop fairly local to me has 300 pieces of Nosler 17FB brass in stock

 

[titus123]

Bump

 

[vlcakc]

Many years ago, before the introduction of the .17 FB, I bought a MGM Contender carbine barrel in .17 MIV. It was surprisingly accurate producing several groups less than 1/2" for 5 shots @ 100 yards using my reloads in necked down and turned R-P .221 FB brass. A few years later I was browsing in a LGS and happened on a box of R-P .17 FB loaded ammo that was on sale. With more than some misgivings, I decided to try them in my rifle. To my relief the factory R-P ammo chambered, fired and extracted with no problems whatever. In fact, it probably extracted a bit easier and smoother than my reloads. I didn't do any formal accuracy testing with the factory ammo, but it seemed to be decent in field use.

Do I recommend others try this. Absolutely Not! I was lucky. Other chambers or ammo may not be so forgiving. Remember YMMV!

 

[232]

More than likely, Nosler 17fb brass is going to need neck turned.

 

[swd]

17 Fireball chambers and headspace’s in my Cooper Mach 4 just fine.

 

[L.Sherm]

I thought I read one time that Nosler loaded ammo was .199, I know Coopers 17 MachV reamer had a .2015 chamber nk

 

[hogpatrol]

Another option is rechamber it to 17FB. The IV is .022 longer so it'd need to be a setback.

 

[wildcatter]

Run it thru a full length 17Mach IV die and load em!

You might try one first. Some 17 Mach IV chambers will accept 17 Fireball ammo, if so just load and shoot.

Most standard chambers will interchange, and a contender is not known for overly tight chambers, even from custom makers like a custom shop Dakota, Kimber, Cooper, etc. would be.

I'm running Nosler 17 Fireball brass in a custom tight neck 17 Mach IV chamber, and shooting 4100 fps under .3" 5 shot groups, with 20 grain Hornaday Vmax. Enjoy, it's a great round for the Contender.

 

[wildcatter]

Another option is rechamber it to 17FB. The IV is .022 longer so it'd need to be a setback.

There is no reason to set back, shoulder length is the same. Any Mach IV is custom chambered, and longer trim length will be of little significance, and definitely not interfere with chambering.

There is so little differance in the two cartridges, that most will interchange when full length resized in either combination. I said most, their will always be the exception.

 

[swd]

I thought I read one time that Nosler loaded ammo was .199, I know Coopers 17 MachV reamer had a .2015 chamber nk

Some did. I was told by Cooper that they needed a new MK4 reamer and they told one of the office gals to call and order one. She wasn’t a gun person and when the reamer manufacture asked if she wanted a “target reamer” she figured it was better so she said yes, but it ended up being a tight neck reamer. They has so many complaints about that chamber that the reamer “rolled off a workbench and broke” and they replaced it with a no turn reamer.

 

[L.Sherm]

That sounds like a bad mistake on Coopers higher up part for asking an office gal to order a reamer.
The Cooper MachV ive made 200 brass for had a .2015 nk chamber.

 

[wildcatter]

I prefer a tight neck, and minimum specs. But all Mach IV 17's are custom! It is not a cartridge standardized by SAAMI. But this is why Remington Standardized the 17 Fireball.

But most chambers are so close that most will interchange from Mach IV to Mach IV but not all.

But with the 17 Fireball all should. This is why so many 17 Mach IV's will chamber 17 Fireball ammo. But making brass is as easy as running either case in the desired cartridges FL die, he'll even 22 Fireball is a simple run thru either 17 Mach IV or 17 Fireball dies and load.

As for neck dia. or oal length, it is no different than forming cases for any other cartridge, most have a different max or if you check the individual chamber. And all brass can have different neck thickness. All forming will vary any brass to some degree!

 

[snert]

Try it. If it doesn't work I can use a 17 M4 pistol barrel