I am in the middle of converting 218 Bee to 17 Ackley and I am having a lot of trouble.
I don’t have a firearm for this, it is a project I have taken in from my BIL.
I have a 2 die set for 17 Ackley Bee from RCBS and have added the two stage 17 caliber form die from Bullberry Barrels.
The brass I am working with is new 218 Bee made by Hornady.
I ran my cases through a .223 Rem Lee collet die to round out the case mouths, champhered inside and outside on the case mouths.
I am using Imperial sizing wax.
The wreck comes when I try to make the final pass in the RCBS FL die. The shoulders are collapsing when the base of the neck portion of the FL die nears the top of the shoulder.
Today, I ran the balance of the cases back into two ends of the dual ended form die, first the larger chamber and second through the smaller end. I ran the form die ends deeper to soften the contact of the FL die when it approach’s the shoulder area.
It seemed to help as I finnally made a successful single case but then had a string of wrecks again.
I have been handloading for 42 years. I am not a stranger to case forming as I have done .223 to 7.62x25, .30-06 to 8mm Mauser, .30-06 to .338-06, .270 Win to .25-06, .308 Win to .243 Win, .30-30 to both .30 and .357 Herret, .223 to 222, .30-30 to .25-35 Win and a few I have likely forgotten.
I read where folks have pretty fair luck with the 218 to 17 AB conversion but something here is alluding me.
Best regards
Three44s