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Old 08-17-2012, 06:51 PM
22_boomer 22_boomer is offline
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Default What's a good fire-forming load for 17 Fireball?

I went ahead and made a bunch of 17 Fireball brass from .223 brass. I used PMC brass and RP brass -- I'll be keeping the cases seperated. Right now I use 16.3gr of H4198 and 20gr Hornady V-max bullets in my AR. The Max H4198 load for the 17 Fireball per Hodgdon is 17.3gr so do you think I can just stick with my regular 16.3gr load and use it to form the fresh made brass or should I drop back to say 16.0gr which is the minimum load per Hodgdon?
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Old 08-17-2012, 07:40 PM
hemiallen hemiallen is offline
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How tight are the formed brass in your chamber? I always start adding masking tape to the base of any case that feels loose, and determine how much headspace is there by the thickness of the tape stack up to the thickness causing resistance.

I would, if the cases fits loose, jam the bullet 0.005" and reduce the load to 16.0.

Allen
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Old 08-17-2012, 07:42 PM
GrdhgKiller GrdhgKiller is offline
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In my situation I used about 1.5 grains less of Benchmark to get the same velocity in my 17 RFB from .223 brass. I would say this is because the case walls are heavier and there is less internal volume. Hopefully you have a chronograph to track and maintain velocities which relate to the pressure. Bill
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Old 08-17-2012, 08:53 PM
22_boomer 22_boomer is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by hemiallen View Post
How tight are the formed brass in your chamber? I always start adding masking tape to the base of any case that feels loose, and determine how much headspace is there by the thickness of the tape stack up to the thickness causing resistance.

I would, if the cases fits loose, jam the bullet 0.005" and reduce the load to 16.0.

Allen
I added one piece of tape to the base of the case and the bolt would close but it would not close with a second piece of tape -- does that sound good to you?
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Old 08-18-2012, 03:46 PM
hemiallen hemiallen is offline
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It sounds like you have a good fit with the chamber. I would still consider setting the bullets .005 into the lands and give a few rounds a try before loading all the brass, but I do have a range on my property making this easy to do.

I didn't think of the brass difference and am sure GHD's experience is spot on for charge.

Allen
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Old 08-18-2012, 04:11 PM
22_boomer 22_boomer is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by hemiallen View Post
It sounds like you have a good fit with the chamber. I would still consider setting the bullets .005 into the lands and give a few rounds a try before loading all the brass, but I do have a range on my property making this easy to do.

I didn't think of the brass difference and am sure GHD's experience is spot on for charge.

Allen
I can try a few loaded rounds with lighter powder charges -- I just don't wan't to go less than the minimum charge of H4198 (16.0gr) as stated by Hodgdon. I'm already using light loads with the factory Remington Fireball brass for no other reason than to test the operation of my ar-15 and to go easy on the brass -- it's kinda hard to find.

Edit to add: I tried three rounds with 16.0gr of H4198 and they worked fine so I went to 16.3gr and they worked fine also. I plan on measuring the fired cases to see if any change took place. I can't see any difference just eyeballing them.

Last edited by 22_boomer; 08-18-2012 at 06:31 PM.
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