Rechambering an Encore.

[Four Fingers of Death]

I have a Virgin Valley SS Bull Bbl in 17Ackerly Hornet on my Encore. Toying with the idea of rechambering to a 17Remington Fireball, buttttttttttttttttt, with a rim! That is, made on 222Rimmed brass (always available here, popular on Cadet actions.

Apart from any rechambering issues, trimming the extractor to suit the bigger rim is all I can think of.

Sounds too easy, have I missed anything?

[rhbrink]

:kidding::bigsmyl2:Sounds like a great idea you would have a much stronger case to work with get a little more speed too. Hows them 17 cal boolits work getting any lead?:grin:

[StrawHat]

17 caliber anything is totally foreign to me but will the riflling twist be compatible with the increased velocity? Or heavier boolits? Is there even a 17 caliber boolit mold?

[Four Fingers of Death]

Yep, not real boolit friendly, but my Chinese wife wants fox fur! As does her (now our :) ) daughter, her sister and a few of her friends around town).

The Chinese seem to have missed the point on the Greenies anti fur stance and are very excited about getting a fur hat/collar/stole from Micka! (thats what the Chinese call me, their words invariably have a final on the end and if there isn't one there, they apparently add one).

I have a 22 mould arriving, but I thnk that it might be a bit hard on fur. It will be a bit heavy for the K Hornet (69+ Gns in solid), but might go ok throttles back in the 222.

[No_1]

Are they still manufacturing that brass? If so do you have contact info?
[QUOTE=Four Fingers of Death;1252935] made on 222Rimmed brass (always available here, popular on Cadet actions.QUOTE]

[elk hunter]

You might need to neck ream or outside turn your case necks if the Fireball cases are much shorter than the parent 222 R case.

An interesting idea, but I have a hard enough time with 22 caliber cast bullets, I can't imagine how difficult 17 caliber would be. Bet it would be fun to shoot though.

[lathesmith]

When I added a rim to my 7mm/08 Encore barrel, so I could use 307 Winchester brass necked down to 7mm, I didn't have to do anything to the extractor, my current extractor for the rimless 7mm/08 brass worked perfectly with the new setup. All I had to do was remove the flat spring from underneath it. So I'm guessing that an extractor that works with 17 Rem or 222 brass will work fine with the rimmed 222 stuff, just leave out the spring and you will probably be all set.

lathesmith

[stubshaft]

+1 on what EH said about neck reaming but the rechamber should be straight foreward. Rather than leaving the extractor spring out, move it from the bottom of the extractor to the top so it doesn't rattle around when there is no cartridge in the chamber. I prefer rimmed cartridges for break guns and have a 17 Ackley Bee. I liked the idea of the 222R case but it is too hard to get in my neck of the woods.

[leadman]

There is probably a factory extractor that will work with your case. Might go to Speciality Pistols and ask about this on that site.

[Four Fingers of Death]

Are they still manufacturing that brass? If so do you have contact info?
[QUOTE=Four Fingers of Death;1252935] made on 222Rimmed brass (always available here, popular on Cadet actions.QUOTE]

They are regularly available in some of the bigger or speciality gunshops here and are made by Bertram Bullets in Victoria. I think you can deal direct with them.

They don;t seem to have a website that I can see, but here is their email address:

mailto:bbertram@bigpond.com

I have considered converting the 308W to a rimmed case, using the 444 Marlin case that Mike Belm recommends, but 444 brass is expensive and I must have 8-10 US gallon ice cream buckets full of 308 brass downstairs so I can't see that it is a real option for me.

[bearcove]

You can cut the rim and use 307 or 356win brass and, still use 308 brass with the rim cut.

[Four Fingers of Death]

You can cut the rim and use 307 or 356win brass and, still use 308 brass with the rim cut.

I suppose if you convert it to 444 (307 and 356 brass are rare here, 444s are popular, just expensive) you would extract 308W cases by using the rim of the next round and save the 444 based cases for big game, use the 308s for practice, plinking, etc.