Making 250 Savage AI brass

[Sled2live]

I recently bought a ruger M77 that was originally chambered in a 250 savage and was rechambered to a 250 AI by its previous owner. I am thinking it might be wise to "invest" in some of the 22-250 lapua brass to use in forming my 250 AI brass.

My question to the group here: What are my options and your reccomendations to upsize the new 22-250 brass to a .257 neck? Is jumping from .243 to .257 too big of a jump for the the expander button on my rcbs 250 savage sizing die? Will it open the neck without causing problems? Would the EZ expander/decapping rod from Lee do a better job?

I welcome your advise.

Thanks
Scott

 

[LHSmith]

Since it is a factory rifle (and barrel I assume) I would use the standard WW .250 Savage brass. If it was a custom action with custom barrel, then I might consider the Lapua alternative since you can run these at higher pressures at which Lapua excels.

 

[dmickey]

To expand the necks I would get one of the elliptical expanders.

 

[expiper]

Scott,,,be shure and use WW brass first to get the hang of it!!! try going to 6mm then .25 in expanders in steps,,,,and you might even fire form with shotgun powder and toilet paper wad (NO BULLET) and go right from 22 to 25 in one boooomm,,it usually gets the neck 90% of the way then you can resize with your 25 cal resize die and ready to go...if you can get a Lapua 22/250 case,,and measure it compared to WW,,they are usually .003 larger at the .200 line than WW!!! that may or may not matter with your chamber and dies...you just gota measure what you have and see what wo/rks,,,,,Roger
PS..I take WW and Lapua 22-250 brass all the way up to 30 cal (30 SAILOR--Hunter class ctg) and out of the last 300,,I only lost six on the last stage with expander and was pushing the case neck into the body,,they sorta looked like 45/70 hahah,,,,be shure and use Imperial Die Wax,,,it is 'slick' stuff,,,,(the necks are still .013" at 30 cal)

 

[Sled2live]

Thanks to all that have replied.

LHS; My thoughts were that the Lapua brass lasted much longer than the others...cry once...more money up front, same abount of work to fireform and prep with a much longer case life.

DMickey; I see that Hornady doesn't make the eliptical expander in 25 cal. But I see that Sinclairs has a tapered expander that goes from 22 cal to 25 cal....I may give that a try.

Expiper; I hadn't thought of the step up from 22-243-257, that might work. I am especially intrigued by the fire form method. Tissue paper wad....I will read up on the Cream Of Wheat method again too.

I appreciate all of your rsponses to my question.

Thanks!

Scott

 

[bheadboy]

i think you need to thik about this, when going from 224 neck up to 244, the necks thin and need to be tured to true as the brass does not streach out evenly all the way around,

Thus going to 244-257 you will really have thin necks, go for ww 250 brass and forget it, it will last a long time and you will have good bullet control on seating.

Bob

 

[Sled2live]

Bob,

Good point, I hadn't thought about it like that. I know that a few years ago people were told to stay away from the win 250 brass by some of the gunwriters due to quality issues. The brass is only run in a batch about once per year and wasn't readily available. So many began using 22-250 brass to shoot their 250 savages with. I figured that the lapua brass was the best....so I should start there.

But you have given me food for thought. I may have to look into a different cartridge that lapua makes that I would neck down to make my 250 AI brass. I will look into the dimensions of perhaps the 6.5 X 47L brass.....

There has to be someone out there with some first hand experience making 250 AI brass from a 22-250 original case.... I hope they chime in.
Thanks
Scott

 

[triggerhappy243]

THIS ONE IS RIGHT UP MY ALLEY

I have a ruger #1 rebarreled in 22-250 AI. IT CAN BE A NIGHTMARE.... PREPARE YOUR SELF. If you have not tried fireforming with factory ammo first, you need to try it first. I say this because if the chamber is cut too long you will have repeated case head separations all day long. It took me 3 years of trial and many many errors to finally work the bugs out.

My first questions I would ask would be... did the previous owner give you any of the spent brass he had? What did it look like? and there are 20 more questions I would ask.

Bottle neck cases headspace on the sholder of the case. and if the parent cartridge case does not securely headspace on that transition from the neck to the shoulder... that is where the nightmare begins.

It is my standing that there is not enough material in the neck area of 22-250 brass to expand out to .257. sorry to break your hearts guys. I dont care if it is lapua brass. I ruined every manufacturers 22-250 brass, trying in my rifle.

when I started working on this rifle, I had 50% case head failures shooting factory ammo. all because the headspace was cut wrong. It must be correct. there must be Zero... ZERO forward and rearward movement of the case during fire forming.... PERIOD. making brass for this is not as easy as everyone makes it sound.

If you want to talk more about this, private messag me and I can call you on the phone... I could type all day about this but I have to get back to work. there is alot of info you need to hear if you are going to make this work like you want.

 

[gotcha]

So far, bheadboy & LHsmith have the best advise IMHO. I use Rem. parent case brass in my AI's. I sort by case neck thickness consistancy only. FIRST: determine if you have a tight necked chamber to avoid any nasty surprizes. (pressure excursions) SECOND: Using an unfired 250 Sav case, insure you have a crush fit to the chamber neck. Unless you know the previous owner or the Smith that rechambered your rifle you're dealing with unknowns that could lead to disastrous results. Better safe than sorry.

 

[Hondo64d]

I think if I were still running a .250 AI, with 6.5 CM brass available, I would use it, necking down just enough to form a false shoulder. I have read in several places that recent Remington and Winchester .250 Savage brass quality is lacking, and necking down seems less problematic than necking up and trying to get the AI headspacing correct. using the CM brass would ensure good quality brass and one pass through a properly adjusted sizer should do it for you...

John

 

[Sled2live]

Thanks for all of the advice posted and pm'd. I really appreciate it. I think I will use the unfired 250 savage brass offered up by a member here (Thanks Jon) and build a false shoulder if necessary to ensure a crush fit.

If that give me issues, I agree that the creedmore brass necked down will probably be the best way to go for better brass if necessary.

Thanks again to all who have helped me work thru this.

Scott

 

[Barlow]

I had a TC Encore 250 Savage (not an AI) a few years ago. I sold it because of bad barrels and it was a pita. I could not get over three bangs before the cases were junk. I talked to Mike Bellm via the net about my problem, and he was very helpful. 250-3000 brass is thin in the web and will not stand repeated firing and sizing. His advise was to rechamber the barrel to use reformed 307 Winchester brass (it's rimmed) or reform standard 308 Winchester brass which is much stronger than the 250 Savage brass. I did the reformed 308 brass a few times, got weary of the whole project and sold the barrel. The reforming 308 to 250 Savage did work as he said it would but is a lot of work and requires numerous steps. If you are interested in doing this, pm me and I will dig up my info for you. Barlow