.221 Fireball Case Forming

[fluesheet]

I'm looking into getting a rifle in .221 Fireball and have run into the brass issue - virtually none available, and what is available is expensive - 3Xmore than .223 brass.

Is forming .221 brass from .223 (or .222) feasible?

Thanks

 

[steveno]

it is feasible but not worth the time or unless you are very bored. you can get brass from Midway

 

[steve4102]

Remington is not manufacturing any 221 brass until 2008. I have no desire to form 221 brass from 222 or 223, I'll just wait till it's back on the shelves.

 

[alohanole]

I have been looking for some myself. Who has any in stock?

I have 500 rds backordered from Cabela's right now. Midway says Feb 2008!

 

[pcf]

Last time I checked .223 rem to .221 fireball case forming dies ran about $300 and were a special order item from RCBS.

By the time you got the dies from RCBS, Remington will have done another run of .221 brass.

 

[Jim M]

Forming .221 Remington Fireball from .223 brass is feasible. I have a Redding die set that does that. Once the case is formed, you will have to thin the case neck. The new neck is being formed from a part of the brass that was formerly a part of the body of the .223 brass, and it will be too thick for the neck. An outside neck reamer that attaches to the Forster case trimmer will do that easily.

That same Redding case form die set can be used to form .222 Remington brass, in case yoiu need some of that. Either use a spacer 0.190" thick, or simply re-adjust the die lock ring for the .222.

I got into the case forming when I was forming cases for the .17-222, the .17-223 and the .17 Mach IV. Since I had a lot of case forming, I decided to start with the cheapest brass around, once-fired military .223 brass. That worked quite well.

If you get started forming brass from the .223 and your case losses from case splits are too high, you might anneal the brass before you start these extensive forming operations.

Jim.

 

[fluesheet]

Good feedback, thanks!

Forming is something I've not done, intrigues me and would solve the problem of case availability. With the understanding that the thinking is almost always easier than the doing...