Making 1st dummy rounds, have question.

[Red Dog Leader]

Sending to barrel maker.

Watched 2 good videos on youtube, so get how to make them.

One said use brass fire formed, the other virgin brass.

Just wondering how you all do it.

TIA

 

[butchlambert]

Ready to use fireformed and unsized brass.

 

[NorCalMikie]

Some do it a little different. My guess is, Butch has a pretty good handle on the subject.
Also depends on what caliber you're going after. 99% of mine are wildcats so, no off the shelf ammo available. Most are built from something close with a few mods.
Built a 6.8 BR Wildcat by taking a NEW (unfired) 6 BR case, necking it UP to 6.8, (.270) seating the bullet where I wanted it and having a reamer cut to those specs. Turned out to be a BUG HOLE MAKER.
Had issues with a new to me 20 VT. Using Remingtom .221 Fireball brass, sized to 20 VT, necks got a little fat and chambering issues showed up.
New Remington brass sized to the VT was pretty consistent but fired fireball and resized to the VT was all over the place. Decided that neck turning wasn't going to be "one of my favorite things to do" () so, I had a reamer cut with as .234 neck rather than the standard .232. Turned out to be one of the better reamers I had cut. Not too much later, I DID get into neck turning and it turned out to NOT be as bad as I had made it out to be.

 

[Jdne5b]

Ask your barrel maker. It's his preference/requirement/opinion that matters.

 

[butchlambert]

Ask your barrel maker. It's his preference/requirement/opinion that matters.

Sir, I really don't think a barrel maker cares.

 

[Dusty Stevens]

Sir, I really don't think a barrel maker cares.

Exactly

 

[Jdne5b]

Sir, I really don't think a barrel maker cares.

Even better.

 

[mikecr]

Is it a standard SAAMI cartridge, or a wildcat?
Savage type prefit, or Remington style?
Your finish reamer, or his?
With/without go/no-go gauges?

Stuff the barrel finisher would consider quickly, but I've never had one request brass.
This, as Butch described(#2 post), is usually for making custom dies.

 

[tmwinds]

Are you talking about a barrel maker or a gunsmith that will chamber the barrel? I don't think a barrel maker will care about your loaded round.

 

[Red Dog Leader]

Thanks for the reply’s…

My local club has informal F and F T/R matches. 300/600, and next year there’s talk of a 1000 range
I have a Savage .223 in the safe that hasn’t seen much use the last few years. It’s 1/9 24” barrel.
So, to get involved in these matches been researching here for what’s competitive and it looks like I’ll need a longer/better twist barrel for the heavier bullets.
I’ve swapped barrels on my savages numerous times so going with a suggestion from NS supply
To go with a Shilen.
James at Northland said they need dummies for the order if I want to load the BER 90 VLD with longer FB

This is the 1st response I got from from Shilen: “If the barrel is to be throat-ed to your dummies, we will need your dummies.”
Shilen Team

I reached out to Shilen today to see how they prefer a dummy sent to them, waiting on reply.

 

[tmwinds]

Makes sense now. The barrel manufacturer will also chamber the barrel.

 

[NorCalMikie]

IMHO, best to go with the shortest freebore you can.
Go long and you'll never be able to get close to the lands.
Go short and you can always lengthen the freebore.
Nothing worse than getting a long freebore, seeing the throat wear (and it will) and you can't seat the bullets where you had them.
Learned that lesson with my first off the shelf 6 BR barrel. Sold it to someone that wanted to shoot heavies. From then on, nothing but short freebore for me.
Starting off with the lightest bullets I can fine and going heavier as the throat wears.

 

[swd]

You might re title this thread to something like looking for the best free bore for a 223 FTR rifle. There are a few very high level 223 TR shooters on the forum that have posted a lot on this topic and give you some excellent advice. I think NedLudd is one of them.

 

[Jdne5b]

You might re title this thread to something like looking for the best free bore for a 223 FTR rifle. There are a few very high level 223 TR shooters on the forum that have posted a lot on this topic and give you some excellent advice. I think NedLudd is one of them.

Seat a 90/88/95 above the neck shoulder junction and send a dummy round.

That comes about .169 with a 90vld, .200ish with an 88 ELD, and probably .235-.250 with the 95.

I wouldnt rely on numbers unless you want to order a reamer. Just make a dummy where you want it and let Shilen match it. They typically do a good job.

 

[Red Dog Leader]

Appreciate all the help...