Looks like everyone is out of 24ga Magtech brass

[milrifle]

Looks like everyone is out of Magtech 24 ga shotshell brass. I bought 1 box to get started loading my 577 Snider and have messed up 6-8 of them already. I ordered another box from Brownells but they are on back order. I just did a search on-line and can't seem to find anyone that has any. A couple of places I called said they didn't have an expected date for when they would get any and at least one place on-line had them listed as not accepting back-orders for them, so I'm beginning to wonder how long it's gonna be. Sure wish I had bought more when I got that first box.

Anybody know where to find some?

[ohland]

Looks like everyone is out of Magtech 24 ga shotshell brass.

http://www.huntingtons.com/store/pro...roductid=17266 it doesn't say they're out of stock...

http://www.lohmanarms.com/product_p/mhsbr24.htm

[Skipper]

Buffalo Arms expected delivery 7-21

http://www.buffaloarms.com/Shotgun_R....aspx?CAT=3832

[enfield]

Snider is the easy one, just trim, anneal, lube and size, the 577-450 is the tricky one. what step are you not doing.

[milrifle]

Lohman and Huntington are both out of stock. Lohman says if there is no qty shown above the product code, they are on back order. There is none shown. I called Huntington today and the fellow told me he was out of stock and did not have a date when to expect them. Said to try him in a month. I hope Buffalo Arms is correct. Brownells has them listed as "Not available for backorder". Funny thing is, Brownells website said they were in stock, when I ordered. Oh well.

I assume that the manufacturer only runs these things in batches, rather than them being in constant production, and we will have to wait until they run another batch.

[milrifle]

Oops, forgot to respond to Enfield..... I successfully formed 5-6 pieces (Collapsed 2-3 in the learning curve) of brass and shot it, only to find that the Lee dies form the brass WAY too small for my chamber, so the rest of them, I just sized small enough to hold a .600 round ball. Thinking it was such a minor amount of sizing, I didn't bother annealing those. Well, THAT was a bad idea, as three of them split when fired. Lesson learned. The biggest problem I see is that you have to size the brass down small enough to hold the ball, but the ball won't engage the throat, so the cartridge sits in the bottom of the chamber. Then, when fired, the case stretches more on the top side than the bottom. Need thicker brass. I want a conical, but I've not yet determined my groove diameter accurately enough to order a mold. I'm thinking I will need to be in the .604-.605 range, but haven't been able to determine for sure yet. With the 1:78 twist, the conical will have to be pretty short. I hope it will be long enough to engage the throat and hold the cartridge centered up so it will fire form evenly all the way around. Neck sizing only, after that, should be sufficient. I need to do a chamber cast. Did one with beeswax, but did not pre heat the chamber and the cast had too many wrinkles to be of much use. There are lots of things I know I need to do to get it RIGHT, but it's just so much fun shooting it, I just haven't taken the time to do anything but load and shoot, load and shoot.

[enfield]

Your right about the Lee dies, too small. I don't resize them much after firing unless things get out of shape. If nothing else, the Lee .575 Minnie will work o.k ( I enlarged one slightly on the lathe to about .590 to fit the barrel better). I must pull the old girl out and shoot it again, been a while since I did. Have fun.

[milrifle]

What type of tooling do you use to enlarge the mould? While I don't claim to be a machinist, I do have a small bench top lathe. But what with the lube grooves, how do you open up the whole thing?

[enfield]

I just ground a piece of tool stock down but left a 90 degree cutting tip with an edge the same width as the existing lube grooves, some careful measuring and centering the mould block in the jaws. If its already .575 and you want it .590 then you know you just have to move the cutter .0075 " to get the .015" extra overall diameter. Then move in and do the same thing to the next 2 "lands" .

[milrifle]

Thanks. I understand.

[bonza]

To reload for the Snider I don't bother resizing the cases, just use a bullet that will slip into the case mouth. On the majority of British-made Sniders (in .577 caliber) a bullet of .600" is ideal when used with cases formed from MagTech 24g brass (Bertram & Jamison brass is thicker & will require a slightly smaller diameter bullet). The best bullet I have found for accuracy in both of my 3-band Sniders (one military issue, the other commercial) is a 530gn solid base round nose design. Over 72.5gns of KIK 1.5Fg, & a 2.5cc scoop of CofW it will quite consistently shoot 4" groups or less at 100yds. The CofW is used more for controlling the seating depth of the bullet, as there is minimal neck tension, but also helps control fouling to a degree. This is the bullet mold I'm using:

[milrifle]

My chamber is a little bigger than that. I have to size the Magtech brass down a little to get it to grip a .600 round ball. I've yet to get a good measurement on my chamber slug, but I'm estimating it may be .604 or maybe a little larger. I'll have to measure a piece of fired brass and see what it measures. I suspect it is even larger than that inside.

I did a chamber cast with beeswax. Something I'm wondering about is the chamber length. It appears to be much longer than the 2" you always read about. Just guessing, but I'd say it is closer to 2-1/8". Makes me wonder about cutting the brass long. Considering the taper, that might buy another .001 or so, but might pose problems chambering as the breech opening is pretty short.

I don't have the real numbers in front of me right now, but lets say the groove diameter at the chamber is .605, but the inside of a piece of fired Magtech brass is .610 and I seated a .610 bullet in the case. That's good bit bigger than I've always heard you should be, as you usually hear .001-.002 larger than groove diameter. But you are usually talking about much smaller calibers when you hear these numbers. If .002 larger is good for .30 caliber, then maybe .004 larger is OK for .60 caliber? The other thing I've been wondering about is the depth of the rifling. Man, those grooves are like .015 deep! Is it OK to still go full groove diameter (or a little bigger) or do guys stay a little smaller and let the lead from the lands displace into the grooves? I see the number .590 thrown around a lot. That would not come anywhere close to filling my groove diameter unless some lead is displacing or otherwise obturating to get there.

[Tackleberry41]

I doubt they really sell that much of the 24ga brass to justify make alot of it. It comes and goes, its in stock, then won't see any for a bit. The gougers start jacking it up on auctions, then its back in stock again. I got it down to losing 3 or 4 out of a box of 25 making 577/450.

[bonza]

It seems MagtechUSA only bring in a shipment from Brazil every six months, or thereabouts. I go through quite a lot of it, mostly 24g but also a decent amount of 32g, so I try to 'guesstimate' how much I need for six month's worth of orders & pre-order that amount through a couple of suppliers, but I've been out of stock for 2-3 weeks now eagerly awaiting the next batch to arrive as backorders are starting to accumulate!

"I doubt they really sell that much of the 24ga brass to justify make alot of it."

I'm sure in the whole scheme of things you are correct, but there's certainly a demand there.....I've personally gone through 30K of the 24g brass in the last two & a half years.