Forming 17 fireball brass.

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Done

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Good evening all,
I am looking for some guildance on forming 17 Fireball brass from 223. I know this is not easy, not fast, not cheap. But I’m a sucker for punishment.

I have the forming dies from Redding, 4 total. I am having some troubles with the last forming die. First 3 went easy, but the last one is scraping down the neck of the case leaving shavings. I have polished the die extensively. It made a slight difference in the weight of the handle pull but still scraping the brass off.

I have tried annealing the brass before the last forming die, and only left me with crushed and weirdly formed brass. I am reluctant to take a more aggressive grinding to open up the die to reduce the shavings, but I am running out of ideas.

I do have some photos, but I am going to have to figure out how to upload.

Open to ideas, and suggestions.

Thanks,
Done
 
Done said:
Good evening all,
I am looking for some guildance on forming 17 Fireball brass from 223. I know this is not easy, not fast, not cheap. But I’m a sucker for punishment.

I have the forming dies from Redding, 4 total. I am having some troubles with the last forming die. First 3 went easy, but the last one is scraping down the neck of the case leaving shavings. I have polished the die extensively. It made a slight difference in the weight of the handle pull but still scraping the brass off.

I have tried annealing the brass before the last forming die, and only left me with crushed and weirdly formed brass. I am reluctant to take a more aggressive grinding to open up the die to reduce the shavings, but I am running out of ideas.

I do have some photos, but I am going to have to figure out how to upload.

Open to ideas, and suggestions.

Thanks,
Done
Click to expand...

any chance more lube would help
 
I’ve tried, little lube to a lot of lube. No change with that, only dented shoulders.

I’ve tried 4 different types of brass I had on hand. Hornady, Winchester, Federal and Lake City. All are doing the same thing.

I might make a call or email to Redding to see if they can advise.

Thanks,
Done
 
I made a bunch of 221 Fireball from 223. Never again! Very time consuming, steps were anneal, form, cut necks, final trim and inside neck ream, anneal - close to 8hrs to do 150. Had several neck splits after first fire.
 
I know it's not what you want to hear, but I formed my 17 fireball brass from 221 brass, and even that took a lot of patience. I necked down to 20vartarg , and then to 17fireball, and even going from 20 vartarg to 17fireball takes a lot of patience to avoid the neck collapsing. I found Nosler 221 cases to form easier than other cases.
 
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Why don't you just buy brass?
When I bought my 17FB I just went to the store and bought 200 pieces and never looked back. Haven't seen it for sale for a while but it should still be available.

I know, sometimes we just want a challenge but making these sounds like a huge pain in the arse.
 
cr5 said:
Why don't you just buy brass?
When I bought my 17FB I just went to the store and bought 200 pieces and never looked back. Haven't seen it for sale for a while but it should still be available.

I know, sometimes we just want a challenge but making these sounds like a huge pain in the arse.
Click to expand...
When I purchased my 17 fireball, I couldn't find anyone with 17 fireball cases in stock. And the Remington factory cases that a friend was using, were quite inconsistent dimension wise. That is why I decided to purchase some 221 cases, and use them to form 17 fireball.
 
Issue solved

Well out of desperation and frustration I took a small diamond dremel bit and turned it by a drill on low speed so I wouldn’t mess it up too bad or too fast. It must have had a sharp edge in it because after that the issue of shaving the brass is gone. Put a good chamfer on the brass and it runs through easy now.

I agree this is not easy. But I’m making progress.

Thanks,

Done.
 
It is quite pricy and I can’t see it getting any more plentiful. I buy what I can find, but that’s not a lot. I have been thinking more of a long term, self sufficient solution. High plains brass will not ship out of USA, I didn’t press the issue with them.

Since “fixing” my die up to about 100 complete ready to reload. Just have to do small batches at each step, 20 here, 40 there. Time that’s involved is lots, but easier in small batches.

Thanks,
Done
 
Done said:
It is quite pricy and I can’t see it getting any more plentiful. I buy what I can find, but that’s not a lot. I have been thinking more of a long term, self sufficient solution. High plains brass will not ship out of USA, I didn’t press the issue with them.

Since “fixing” my die up to about 100 complete ready to reload. Just have to do small batches at each step, 20 here, 40 there. Time that’s involved is lots, but easier in small batches.

Thanks,
Done
Click to expand...

It’s ok to admit that you enjoy doing it, you’re among friends- no judgement here.:d
 
Got Juice? said:
Silly question, but why not buy factory from remington, and shoot it, then reload for it?
Click to expand...

Three reasons, nobody had any volume, I didn't feel like paying almost $3 per case for Remington cases, and I had plenty of Nosler 221 cases on hand because I also load for the 20 vartarg. The Nosler cases ran about $1 per case at the time.
 
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