Quote:
Originally Posted by georgeld
Steve:
Once I had some instructions from foxhunter and his Bulberry die.
Necking down the 5.7 cases was a one shot deal and went slick w/o problems.
Until I got that, I had a hassle, mostly not having any experience with such
things before. All my guns before this were factory and smallest was .223.
I seldom have even had rim pull off problems with 5.7's for the VR. When I first got into it, RCBS was the only one that made shell holders and none for the hand priming tool. Bob said to cut the base ring off one. Since I have a lathe and carbide tooling that was no big deal and went quick. I cut two off in case I misplaced one.
I've loaded around 3000 maybe 3500 of them, fired maybe 200 in all between the two rifles. Mostly due to health issues keeping me from from going.
I do have just less than a 1000 4.6 cases, they were annealed and decapped. So far the only thing I've done with them is run 'em thru the shaker a couple hours to polish them up.
Recently there was discussion on finding shell holders that fit the 4.6 cases. I don't know yet whether mine will or not. Depends on whether the rim is thicker, or larger dia. IF thicker, I'm SOL, if just a touch larger dia. IF I decide to use them, I can turn them down a touch fairly easy. At this point I don't have a clue how they'll fit. They do look a lot closer to 17 size than the 5.7's. But, no bigger deal than those are, I can't see any difference IF they'll fit my shell holders.
I get an easy 3460fps with 9.5gr 1680 and they're fairly quiet compared to .223.
You'll find the longer ranges will be harder to hit with in winds no matter what caliber you try.
IT's all in how much you enjoy these challenges. IF petty stuff upsets you, just stick with factory all the way. Sounds like you've got a whole lot more experience with these things than most of us had when we started.
Have fun, Stay safe most of all! Main thing to keep in mind. Just .1 gr of powder in these tiny cases can JUMP from plumb safe to blow the gun up as I learned the hardway. The smaller the case, the more touchy things get. Remember that!
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George, I think you were writing this post as I was writing mine to Mikie.
I got to thinking, I wonder how 4.6x30 does as is? Seems like someone would make good bullets for it???
Pondering all the attributes and downsides of each still.... Looks like the easy answer is 17HH or 221 fireball.