Home Forums Reloading Varmint Rifles .222 Rem brass from 223?

I read on another forum where one shooter runs .223 brass through a full length .222 die and trims to length. Supposedly he has had no problems. RCBS did make conversion dies, but I understand they no longer do this. As I recall the dies retailed for $180.00, I may be wrong. With the brass situation the way it is at present, and the availablity of .223 brass (?). I was wondering if anyone has used .223 brass for .222 conversion. Any problems? Or suggestions? Very interested.

Run it through a 222 die, trim to length and you are set to go. I use a 222 and make all of my 222 varminting brass from military 223 brass, and have done so for many years with no problems whatever.

However, there does seem to be 222 brass available, the last time I was in a couple of sporting goods stores there was 222 brass available but no 223 to be had.

drover

I've done it for about 20 pieces of Dakota stamped, Lapua manufactured brass. Resized and trimmed to length. Didn't work as well as I'd hoped. Had a few with creases in the brass. That might work itself out after firing, and it might split the case. Don't know, because I haven't loaded them yet.

Lapua 222 brass is now available at Grafs. Buy a couple hundred pieces and you'll probably be set for life.

No more than I shoot my 222, it isn't worth the hassle.

Trim to length, chamfer, run through std. 222 SEATING die, then run through 222 FL (the trim prevents hitting the crimp, the seater first eliminates the creases).

Would rather buy 222 cases, they're easy to find.

Thanks all for the info. One of these days I'm going to Montana or Wyoming for some PD hunting, before I assume room temperature. At present I have about 500 empty cases, which I understand will last me about a 1/2 day. Would acquire about 1500 more cases by whatever means. You're right! There are more .222 cases available than .223! I guess I was thinking in terms of a couple of years ago when the market was awash in milsurp .223's. My outlet had one baggie of 100 .222's for $34.00! no .223's. Had plenty of loaded rooshian .223's however. Had a dozen AR15's and their clones and said he had sold "a bunch of them" in the last month. Had a poster of Obama "NRA salesman of the year" on display.

When you go doggin', simply take more than 1 rifle to shoot. It will allow your barrel to cool and you can spread the ammo load out over different calibers.

Hmmm....Maybe there's a 22-250 on the horizon.

Unfortunately the 500 round per day p'dogging is written about more often than it occurs. In all actuality if you shoot 250 rounds in a day at PD's it is a big day. I think what happens is a lot of the folks who talk about the 500 round days have done a lot of shooting at gophers along with the PD shooting. And you can bet that most of the gopher shooting is done with rimfires, not centerfires.

I have shot PD's in Montana and Wyoming for over 50 years, mostly on private ranches with lots of dogs, and have yet to have a 1000 round day - which is what 1/2 day at 500 rounds computes to, my best day at actually shooting dogs was somewhere around 400 rounds, and that was all I wanted for a day. I was burned out at the end of that day - it had stopped being fun and was turning into work. If you shot 500 rounds in a half day, assuming that is 5 hours, that means that you would be shooting a hundred rounds an hour which works out to about a shot every 6/10 of a minute or just slightly over a shot every 30 seconds. You will definetly need more than one gun or by the end of the first day the barrel will be gone out your 222 anyway.

Not trying to put a damper on your hopes but keep them realistic - 1000 shot prarie dog days are like 1/4 inch groups - there are more of them shot on the internet than anywhere else.

Good shooting - drover

I was going to point out the math end of that as well but didn't want to come across as a killjoy.

But dang, doggin' sure is fun, ain't it? 4 guns, 1200 rounds of ammo and 3-4 days of shooting is a lifetime of memories.

A late friend of mine used to PD hunt on a ranch in Montana for years. He would also shoot ground squirrels. Would take several center fires plus rimfires. He was a real reloading nut. He even made his own jacketed bullets, not cast. He had one rifle, a Remington 722 in .222. He would document how many rounds that he had shot through each of his center fires, and if I remember correctly, he had the 722 re-barreled after 16,000 rounds! He said he loaded for accuracy and not necessarily for speed. He loaded his center fires on an old Pacific, one at a time press! Said it took him all winter!

Absolutely correct in what I see all the time. I shoot pds any time I choose on private land year round. Do the math, how many shots per hour and how many hours it takes to shoot 500 rds. Not to mention staring thru a scope for that long, in the hot sun with little time for breaks. It just doesn't happen much. I bring in friends from across the country and they shoot with more conviction than I do because its still a novelty to them....a good day they think they shot 500 times. The truth is they shot about 150-300. By then their eyes are tired, they are tired of being outside in the sun and are typically ready to call it a day. My best day is around 300 and my son and I combined for a day of around 450. For me, any more I consider 150 a great day and active shooting.

Back on point - Yes you can easily make .222 brass out of .223. I make .221 brass from it. Like was mentioned above start by using the seat die and make sure the case has been annealed. Then go to the size die. It may help to only do about half the neck on everycase and then go back and finish on the next pass. You will have fewer failures. Take notes because you will want to develop a system that is repeatable. You may or may not have to turn the necks of the finished cases. In my .221 I do.

Agreed on the 500 shot PD days...done a BUNCH of it, but there aren't many 500 shotters in the mix ( wish it were more prevalent though!)
However, I have indeed, as posted above, mixed gophers in with the PDs and got a few more 500 shot days...and in my case I did it with a centerfire on many occasions...just love the " frequent flyer miles" those gophers log up in front of the .223!
On topic, I just got into shooting a .222 and so far have just furnished it with factory brass, so I'm no good to you guys there...
Ingwe

"I read on another forum where one shooter runs .223 brass through a full length .222 die and trims to length."

Quite true. In fact, I see no advantage to even using a seater as an intermediate step, the sizer does quite nicely, for me anyway. Certainly, RCBS aside, no expensive set of "forming" dies is needed for such a simple change!

Just for kicks, I made a box of .222 from .223 mil stuff this afternoon, just to see if I had forgotten anything difficult about it ... I had not. Worst part is trimming the necks, which I don't do until after forming, and then annealing the finished necks.

The .222 neck is quite a bit longer than the .223, so there really isn't a lot to trim, but the shoulder does get set back quite a bit.

It's VERY easy to get mild lube dents in the shoulders early on and then those dents will get pushed into the longish .222 necks. The result will look like a series of tiny puckers around the base of the new necks, those puckers are likely to result in early splits. Not good.

The solution was to NOT LUBE the neck or upper portion of the body and shoulder that that will be pushed back. Lube is really not needed there and it's omission will GREATLY reduce the incidence of "pucker city" around the new necks!

The necks of my reformed WCC 5.56 GI cases did NOT need turning/reaming. The loaded diameter is still well under book limits for .222 cartridge necks.

I saved the procedures on converting .223 to .222. Might have to use it in the future. I was thinking in terms of surplus brass, which seems to be non-existant presently.

I was able to pick up 500 new W/W cases for $98 shipped. I also inventoried my brass both fired and loaded and have over a 1000 on hand. I've had some health issues in the last two years and haven't been able to be out that much.

I'll be ready for upland season and have already picked up my elk tag. Looking forward to hunting this fall.

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