on forming 17 rem brass

larryinIA · #1 02-07-2010, 09:37 PM

A while ago, there was discussion about forming from 204 ruger brass. I tried to do this using a seating die, but only crushed brass. Maybe I missed something, sooooo....I was wondering if anyone would be so kind as to put it in "larry" terms for me.

Thanks in advance.

larry

bcp · #2 02-07-2010, 10:20 PM

When both necking down and moving the shoulder back, it often works better to move the shoulder back first, then neck down.

I don't know what dies you have available, but maybe you could use a 223 die first to move the shoulder back. That would leave a 2 diameter neck, but your 17 seater might work then.

Bruce

GLWenzl · #3 02-08-2010, 12:08 AM

I agree with bcp

Without form dies a 222 die might work as a shoulder pusher too (if ya have one) or if you have bushing dies maybe try taking the bushing out?? (I have never tried that??)

Larry definitely smaller steps will allow form less error and easier on the brass (IMO)

larryinIA · #4 02-08-2010, 03:35 AM

I will try some of the other dies I have, both that were mentioned. I was doing some serious scratching of the dander

larry

Silverfox · #5 02-08-2010, 03:54 AM

larryinIA--I sent you and e-mail on the subject.

Varminteer · #6 02-15-2010, 12:31 AM

I'm also thinking of going to .204 or .223 brass for making 17rem. I have a ton of .223 brass available and 17rem brass is mighty expensive at about $45 for 100ct. Remington has us by the short hairs on that....

I will have to add machining reducer bushings on my project(s) list, but for now have plenty of 17rem brass.

larryinIA · #7 02-15-2010, 01:44 AM

have tons of brass. I shot my rifle today, and thinking the barrel is definitely not good anymore. I passed lots of patches with flitz to try to polish it up, to no avail. It did shrink the groups up a little, but they are still a long ways larger than they used to be. I can't feel the speed bump anymore, but guessing the throat is rough, and is not going to come around for me.

I just have to shoot up the loads I have done for it, and will put it on the planner, as the next donor action.

I will probably form a few more up, just to play, but until I get this one re-barreled, or get another, thinking that my once fire brass, and my more fired brass will go for sale, and form up some good stuff when i get the new one.

larry

Ksmirk · #8 03-05-2010, 07:00 PM

I used the 17 Rem FL die but I took it in several steps down so it took me a couple three times to get there since I crushed several cases myself and still do on occasion. Lube them up real good but some good idea on bumping shoulder back with another die! I never thought about doing that. I made some from 223 brass but the necks were short and I don't know if that would be a problem or not but the 222 Mag would be the correct case if I recall the 17 Rem was made from. Later,

Kirk

Silverfox · #9 03-06-2010, 04:29 AM

Kirk--If you plan on forming .17 Rem brass I'd advise you to use .204 Ruger brass rather than .222 Remington Magnum brass. The steps to form the .204" neck down to .172" won't place as much "working stress" on the brass as the forming from .224" to .172". I have done both and it is easy to ruin the brass with the larger caliber necks. Shoulder setback is one of the steps that can cause a loss of casings and the suggestion by some folks in this thread to use a .222 or .223 die to set the shoulder back BEFORE forming the neck down is an excellent suggestionj. Just make sure you don't set the shoulder back too far.

Another thing that can put kinks or dents in your casings is too much lube!!!

WW .204 Ruger casings are what I used to form 250 casings for my new .17 Remington build which I have in progress. The first several casings I formed gave me problems with some mangled casings. I borrowed some bushings and a special Hornady die from a Board member here and things went a lot smoother. I still ran into a snag when I used the K&M expand iron to try to expand the necks so the mandrel would fit in the casing neck so I could turn the necks. The brass had been worked so much it wouldn't expand enough to allow me to get the K&M neck mandrel into the casing neck. When I annealed those first few casings, the expand iron worked great. So, before I began forming the rest of the casings, I annealed all of them. I didn't lose any casings after I did the annealing first. I put a few kinks in some of the casings before the annealing was done though!!!

I put those casings through quite a number of steps to get them formed properly, so once I get them fire formed I will anneal them again before I fire them the second time. With all the time and effort I have into those casings I don't want to lose any of them due to split necks!!!

Here's a photo of the casings in a step-by-step pose when I was forming .222 Rem Mag brass down to .17 Remington. I'll stay with using the WW .204 Ruger brass from now on. The casings in the photo below start with a .222 Remington Magnum casing on the right side and work their way down so on the left-hand side you'll see the final formed .17 Remington casing.

Mike Casselton · #10 06-17-2010, 09:50 AM

Go to your local boat supply place and get a can of motor de carb spray. I bought the Valv Tect brand because it came with a spray nozzle. I shot the barrel with it and let it sit for a couple of hours. I thought I had the barrel clean before I started and was totally surprised with the amount of carbon fouling I got out of it. Mind you, this was a pre owned 17 I bought so I don't know what the previous owners cleaning style was. It did go from 1.25" average to less than 3/4" with the same loads. Now I can concentrate on working up something thatshoots a tad better.