durango
10-20-2015, 04:41 PM
I bought 300 rounds of loaded 221 fireball from an estate sale. POINT OF QUESTION: I have no idea on the age of this ammo, but there wasn't any modern equipment, firearms or ammo in this sale. I'm guessing 30-50 years since the former owner had done anything with his collection.
I bought new factory loaded ammo, new factory brass (loaded), and once fired reloaded. All brass is Remington-Peters. All six plastic boxes had meticulous reloading data (except dates) with the rounds which is how I make the claim to the once fired. I have pulled down all but the factory rounds and have only been working with the once fired brass.
I'm attempting to neck this stuff down to 17 fireball but I'm having a horrendous loss due to split necks, both radially and linearly. I'm losing 40-80% depending on the protocol used. My best success has been tumble, anneal and run through a 221 fireball FL die with the decapping guts removed and then through the 17 fireball FL die. Lube used is mink oil around the base and the necks left dry (I've heard the dry neck idea from several sources, but I can't figure out why). The last batch that I did had very slight splits on the neck mouths after the 221 fireball sizing die- 3 of 7. Obviously, those three split wide open when run through the 17 fireball dies. Both sets of dies are RBCS, 221 are used and the 17 set is brand new.
While most people complain about short cases after necking down, I'm wondering if a light touch of the neck on the case trimmer would help alleviate the tendency to split after only going through the parent case size dies.
My questions/concerns are: Why is this happening? Can it be that the brass is just too old? Most accounts say that this procedure is a slam dunk, so I'm not wanting to invest in more dies. What am I missing?
Thanks for your thoughts, Steve
I bought new factory loaded ammo, new factory brass (loaded), and once fired reloaded. All brass is Remington-Peters. All six plastic boxes had meticulous reloading data (except dates) with the rounds which is how I make the claim to the once fired. I have pulled down all but the factory rounds and have only been working with the once fired brass.
I'm attempting to neck this stuff down to 17 fireball but I'm having a horrendous loss due to split necks, both radially and linearly. I'm losing 40-80% depending on the protocol used. My best success has been tumble, anneal and run through a 221 fireball FL die with the decapping guts removed and then through the 17 fireball FL die. Lube used is mink oil around the base and the necks left dry (I've heard the dry neck idea from several sources, but I can't figure out why). The last batch that I did had very slight splits on the neck mouths after the 221 fireball sizing die- 3 of 7. Obviously, those three split wide open when run through the 17 fireball dies. Both sets of dies are RBCS, 221 are used and the 17 set is brand new.
While most people complain about short cases after necking down, I'm wondering if a light touch of the neck on the case trimmer would help alleviate the tendency to split after only going through the parent case size dies.
My questions/concerns are: Why is this happening? Can it be that the brass is just too old? Most accounts say that this procedure is a slam dunk, so I'm not wanting to invest in more dies. What am I missing?
Thanks for your thoughts, Steve