Reforming 223 brass to 222

[dmitch]

Before I purchase the case forming die set, I thought it would be smart to ask a few questions. I'm considering buying the ever abundant 223 brass for reforming to 222 brass. What advice and/or experience can you provide? Is the process worth the time and trouble? Is there slight or significant case loss? Is there significant hydraulic wrinkling? What about neck reaming after the trimming?
Thanks for any assistance.
Doug

[john hayslip]

Stop and rethink what you need. All you probably need is a sizing die for the 222.
Lube the case body of the 223, (if you get case lube on neck it will wind up on the shoulder and you'll get shoulder dents) run it into the 222 die and trim to length. I'd be extremely suprised if you'd need to inside neck ream as they both shoot the same diameter bullet.
It won't hurt to anneal them if you want to. All you need to do that is a bucket of water and a propane torch. Hold the case by the base and rotate the case neck and shoulder in the blue part of the flame until the case gets too hot to handle and then just drop it into the water. If you let the small white cone on the inside of the blue flame touch the case you'll get a copper colored dead soft spot that makes the case eligible for the trash or recycle bin..

[john hayslip]

Added thought, There is a trim to length die probably available. with it you lube and run the 223 case into the die and use a hacksaw with many teeth or a file to cut to length - probably not needed here unless you are doing many, many of them. The top of the die is file hard and you'll not hurt it. With the little you are taking off with this conversion it's probably not needed.

[GRUMPA]

Funny that you should ask that, I've been tinkering with that off and on for about a month now. I did have my share of failures along the way but I think I finally have most of the kinks worked out. I ended up using some swagging lube and very darn little of it at that or a person will get those dreaded dimples in the brass almost every time if I used to much.

During my learning curve if you want to call it that I tried every head stamp case I had on hand just to find out which ones would be the easiest to convert. FC was the easiest for me but not by much, LC was second in line for being rather easy. Next to super clean cases being real important a very thin coating of swage lube for me was another thing to be aware of. My failure rate for doing the 222 from 223 I got down to about a 7% failure rate.

As far as reaming goes that's important, I noticed when I converted mine there's a definite step in the ID of the neck, so I reamed it so it took out most of the step. I do anneal them after all the other work is done to them. I'm sure more of the seasoned people will give some of there advise on this.

[john hayslip]

I'm back again. I use Lee's case lube and a match head worth of it will do 4-5 cases if you rub it on with your fingers. It is water soluble and wipes off the cases with a rag. I think RCBS has some that is close to the same stuff. White, jello-like consistency. I think use of it will solve the dent problems. I guess one could always stop every once in a while and clean the inside of the die but I'm usually too impatient for that.

[Littlewolf]

i've been resizing 223 into it's predaccessory 222rem and just trim the 223 to 222rem minimum trim length use a very very thin coat of rcbs (clear goo) case lube into a full length sizing die for the 222.

X2 on the keep the lube off the shoulder and neck

about every 5th case though it doesn't hurt to put a thin coat inside the mouth of the case to spare the expander ball a lil bit BUT wipe off any on the outside of the case neck and shoulder a cleaning patch does this just fine.

i only do maybe a pants pocket full at a time from range scrounging but once i worked out the bugs on my own about lube on the neck and shoulder i loose maybe 3 out of 50 to hydraulic wrinkles.


side note when pulling back off of the expander ball it can be a bit stiff to pull and when it gets to the point of putting some grunt into the pull it's time to lube the INSIDE of the case mouth by tipping the mouth into the case lube pad then wipe off the outside.
it can be a pain inspecting the case for hydraulic wrinkles but it's worth not having to buy 222 brass imo

[tenx]

I've use a RCBS 222 trim die and have made a bucketfull of 222 brass from 223. With a rock chucker press the die sits low enouch so a lock ring won't fit but I use an extended shell holder. I did wrap the threads in teflon tape (or something similar) to make the threads a manageable interference fit and hold the die in place without the extended shellholder. Go easy on the lube to prevent case dents in the neck. RCBS trim dies will full length size the case body, Redding trim dies don,t.

[flashhole]

I reform 223 to 221 Fireball. After you do it a few times your yeilds should go way up. It's rare I lose a case during reforming. I put this together a couple years ago. Since then I've been able to eliminate a step or two. The biggest pain for the Fireball is cutting the neck short but with a 222 you should be able to use a regular trimmer.


http://shootersforum.com/showthread.htm?t=54312&highlight=flashhole

[altheating]

I have made many 222's and 221 Fireball's out of 223 cases. I use only the 223 or 221 FB full length sizing die depending on what caliber I want to make. I find that the Redding sizing wax used very, very sparingly works best and really cuts down on the failure rate. One other thing I do is use a small tabletop band saw to cut the necks back after running them through the sizing die. Then trim to the final length with the a Lyman trimmer. I clamp a short piece of scrap wood as a length guide on the band saw. I can cut 50 cases down in about two minutes. That cuts down the time needed to trim with the Lyman. It really helps when I cut the 221 Fireball cases back. Just my two cents worth.

[skeettx]

I have made loads of 222 Rem from 223. But that was years ago when 222 was lots of money and I had NONE!
I used an RCBS trim die and a #10 extended shell holder. A small jewler's hack saw and then a Forster trimmer.

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