Home Forums Reloading Varmint Rifles Stretching out brass life... 223 and 22.250

With components cost going up this year still, and now the potential of components getting scarce, I have been working on ways to stretch out the components life span that I have on hand...

since I like to shoot varmint stuff a lot and those bullets are the cheapest when bought in bulk, I have been working with the 223 and 22.250 a lot...

now on several batches of 223 and 22.250 brass, I am hitting the 20th reload amount, with few casualties and the rest of the brass going strong.. I've had like 2 different 22.250 casualties and those were handloader operator error....

if any of you have done this, what kind of numbers have you experienced on the number of reloads that you have been able to get out of a batch of cases?

also what are some of your techniques???

some of my success so far I am crediting to changes in reloading techniques...

1.starting off with seperating my brass into lots of 10, and using them in the same rifle instead of just grabbing the batch and loading it for any rifle I was going to shoot in that caliber...

2. learning multiple ways to neck size.. including with a Full Sizer Die...

3. picking up different types of dies.. and using them...
such as, a Redding Body Sizer Die, and a Lee Neck Collet Neck Sizing die...also a hornady univeral neck sizer caliber specific...

4. Depriming with a universal depriming die, instead of using the sizing die to do that also...main mission is to minimize stuck cases...

5. Since this is experimentation, but is also searching for simplicity, to utilize out when shooting high volume varmint for a couple of days, without carrying out 10,000 loaded rounds of ammo...

6. Adjusting loads to maximize brass life, instead of velocity...
with the eye on the fact that 90% of all the small varmints I take are within 200 yds...this also extends barrel life out dramatically....

so right now I am on 20 reloads of 223 and 22.250 brass.. I have been testing batches of 10, in Rem, WIN, Federal and Lale City in 223.. and in Win and Rem for the 22.250...

so interested in hearing what anyone else may have done along these lines...

yeah it saves money, but being able to stretch of the life of hard to get rifle cases, which keep getting spendier all the time.. well that is a darn nice by product of this effort...

Do you anneal your cases? If not, this is something easily done with the Hornady annealing kit with Tempilac. This will help with ES if you anneal.

I use the Lee Neck Collet Neck Sizing die in every calibre that I have if they make it.

Annealing helps a lot (I used to anneal about every 8-9 shots, but with the Lee Collet neck sizing die, even that is reduced to about once every 13-16 loads (and even then, I am not sure that I need to!).

If you get a Lee collet neck sizing die, take it apart. Use some 400 or 800 grit wet and dry paper to break all edges and then clean and reassemble with lube (I use a dry moly lube). It is a great design, but could use a bit better finishing!

I first got one of these dies when faced with the costs of brass for my .375 Ouch & Ouch. When I saw how much it prolonged brass life and loaded straight ammo (as measured by my RCBS case gauge thingy), I bought Lee collet neck sizing dies for my other calibres. The ammo it loaded for my .222 Rem was as straight as the ammo loaded in my Redding neck dies (which I later sold).

John
PS: read and follow the instructions that come with the Lee collet die! I know it is against the "man code", but you will avoid problems!

I always have batches of brass kept with the rifle that shoots it. I am NOT at 20 loads per case...not old enough yet, I guess?

For annealing, I have probably been doing it not often enough. My protocol is to shoot until I see a neck crack in that batch. Then, when that batch is shot out, I tumble then anneal the whole mess in one sitting. I have a drill rig, five gallon bucket with water, set up a torch. The cases fit in a spinner, I watch the color and when it's "just so" dump it in the lake. Every so often I'll punch the drill chuck in the water and cool it. Overall, the process is consistent because you get in "the groove," and on my favorite brass batches, I've gotten five more reloads without any more cracks.

As for sizing, I only size enough of the neck to hold to the base of the bullet, leave the rest fireformed. When a batch seems to be getting fat and hard to chamber, I'll drag out the FL die, or go for a full shoulder bump with the NS die, depends on the gun.
On some calibers, I have bushing dies, and use the minimum sizing needed for good grab. Usually it is two thousandths or so under the loaded round diameter. In the press, I feel just a "nice" tug on the expander ball, and it's easy to cull the "hard" or "easy" cases as you get in the groove. I prefer to do that rather than mess around with the ball micro.
I had one batch of Rem 22 BR brass that was really icky in the neck and using the touchie-feelie in the press was a fast way to cull the oddballs. At some point I will neck-turn that batch so I can get the oddballs back in the pool, but to do so I would have to buy another bushing, never mind the PITA of neck turning.

Is...



...the proper way to word this?

Mac....

think outside the box for a brief second...

JPB,

I also recommend you trying out those Redding Body Sizing Dies...

Even tho I have had it quite a while, I'll disassemble my Collet Die and sand her down and polish it up a little, per your recommendation...

I admit to have it for each caliber I shoot if available...

I also have to bring Hornady's Caliber Universal Neck Dies also...

That is pretty slick also, I have been using one on the 22.250 and one on my 6.5 mm stuff also...

finding that a lot more than just 10 reloads is possible on brass, is really getting me excited..allowing me to spend my money on other items such as powder primer and bullets...

Hi Seafire

You might be luckier than I, but all 4 of the Lee Collet neck sizing dies that I bought had a lot of wire edges and burrs from machining and 2 had some metal chips inside. Just breaking these edges the slightest amount, cleaning and lubing made everything much smoother. Yours will likely have worn smooth, but a periodic cleaning and lube will never hurt even if so.

A friend bought one of these dies on my recommendation, but did NOT read the instructions. He screwed it in to the press (an RCBS Rockchucker) way too much and pushed the aluminum cap right out of the top of the die. Lee sold him a new cap for something like 3 bucks, so he is happy. Still, if Lee made that part out of steel and finished the dies just a bit better it would be darn near perfect!

John

Lee Collet Dies for everything

No FL until a little tight to chamber, then only shoulder bump with the expander ball removed completely from the die

Use same brass in only one gun

Don't push for too high of velocity

Hi I'm new to this fourm ,I shoot 223,223AI and use the same collet die on both.What sold me was very little bullet runout with the collet dies.best dies for the money.

Has anyone tried the RCBS X dies? I'm curious if they perform as advertised.

cheers,

Creek

They do keep cases from lengthening and thus reduce trimming. However, your cases will also not lengthen if you use the Lee neck sizing collet die, and it loads straighter ammo based on my testing in one calibre (for what that is worth).

John

Can you size PART of the neck with the Collet?

sure just don't crank it down as far...

you can do the exact same thing with a full sizer die also...by not cranking it down all the way...

Okay, I was just wondering, since I've not one. Hmmmm. Why is it that every time you guys give me an idea it costs me MONEY?

As they use to say on Mickey Mouse when I was a kid " Why? Because we like you!!!"

Creek - welcome to the 'fire.

I use the X die for sizing my .220 Swift cases. This cartridge is the worst for stretching of any caliber I have ever loaded for. The X die definitely works!

Something no one seems to have mentioned in regard to number of reloads possible is the quality of the rifle chamber involved. I had a Sako 30-06 one time that had such a flawless chamber I was able to get 800 reloads from the first 20 Winchester cases I used. i.e. 40 reloads per case. The loads were not reduced either!

I have never experienced this degree of case life since no matter what caliber I was working with.

Jim

Ditto ! on the quality of the rifle chamber involved .
I have a custom 220 swift. I purchased a 220 swift reamer with tighter diamentions to my specifecations and had the gunsmith rebarrel it with a tight head space. Very little case stretch.

Many years ago I had a 6mm Rem Ackly . It did not stretch cases but the necks would get thicker at the junction of the shoulder.
I'm not sure what that was all about but it made bullet seating difficult with the longer 100gr. bullets.

Jim,

excellent info!