Alriiiiiiight... finally some decent pics of my setup. Not as ###y as Suputin's, but it works...
First - here's the 'rig' as-is, in 5.56x45:
The front sight is going to stay, for now... until I buy another front BUIS. The .300 Fireball is slated to get the YHM front BUIS (just need to bolt it on; will do it before the next range trip) and is presently wearing the Bushmaster carry handle as a rear sight. Eventually the .300 is getting some glass... but finances, as always, win out over desires.
Now - here are the 5.56 and .300 Fireball bits side-by-side:
The .300 Fireball upper alone:
The rest are all .300 Fireball.
Stock extended:
Stock collapsed:
Alright... nice rig, but how do you feed it? Well, right now I'm necking up .221 Fireball brass... but messed around with a bit of .223/5.56 conversion tonight too.
I have the Redding 2-die set; it comes with a .284" expander "carrot" which necks from .221 to .284; then you change buttons and put on the .308 button for a final size. This worked extremely well - I lost many fewer cases than with my "homebrew" ground one-step process. Converting 100 more cases today, I lost only about 6 (and 4 of these were me being retarded and in a rush - I dented the neck because of misalignment with the initial expansion button; only 2 were split necks, which I can't do anything about). Using the one-step expander, I must've set back the shoulder on about ten or so in the first hundred.
Alright, here are the pics of the three steps, side-by-side:
Left: .221 Fireball, "factory".
Middle: .221" to .284."
Right: Finished .308" neck and full-length sizing.
An intentional mid-way stop between the .284" and .308" expansion step - you can see how gentle the taper is.
And.... prime it, seat a 147gn ex-M80 ball projectile:
So, that's the process starting with a .221 Fireball.
Starting with a .223 or 5.56 case:
I had some .223 cases with dented necks, and just ran them through the .300-221 sizing die with the EXPANDER REMOVED. I can't overstate how important that step is... lol! Good luck trying to toss a .308" expander into a .223 neck without putting some SERIOUS taper on it.
Above, from left:
1 - .223, "as is."
2, 3, 4 - Run through the body portion of the die (no expander)
5, 6, 7 - Pre-cut at the shoulder, then run into the body portion.
Note that when cutting at the shoulder, I've left 30 to 40 thou of room; the calipers below should read no greater than 1.400" - the trim length of a .221 Fireball, which also goes for a .300 Fireball.
Being that they're at 1.435", I've got about 35 thou to trim - which I would do in an RCBS trimmer.
Finally, here's what's coming to the range with me Saturday. A few things are missing - you can't see the shellholder, since I tucked it into the die case, and I'm bringing a digital scale that I use to measure charge weight. The bullets in the recycled Sierra case are the 147gn M80 pills. Oh, and of course my Shooting Chrony 'Gamma' will be coming too...
The powders are H110, Lil' Gun, and W296.
And if you want load data... I'll be forwarding my data to the guys at ATRS - and I will allow them to distribute it as they see fit with the purchase of a new AR15 .300 Fireball upper.
Needless to say, I'm friggin' excited about this Saturday... if you're in Edmonton, I'll be the guy shooting a lot at the 25yd target board and loading at the bench at the SPFGA range.
-M
