Help with forming and resizing 223 brass to the .221 fireball help????

BHLBAMA

BHLBAMA

New member
Hey fellows I havent been in the reloading section in a while and need some help. I recently came across a 221 fireball now residing at my house and I have a problem with brasss i have 50 new peices of 221 fireball brass but ofcourse would like a LOT MORE. I have read some articles on running 223 brass through a 221 fireball full length sizing die and itll shorten the case and make the neck needed for the FB.

Will someone who has done this or is more enlightened on this matter please give me the ins and outs to doing this correctly. Im not a newby to reloading at all but want to hear this from a veteran before i attempt. Ill be using various types of brass LC WCC some and some factory stuff. Please let me know step by step on sizing any different type of lubing and a particular time in the process and/or any signs to look for or anything of that nature. Thanks so much in advance and as always I appreciate people knowledge. thanks BHL
 
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Hey fellows I havent been in the reloading section in a while and need some help. I recently came across a 221 fireball now residing at my house and I have a problem with brasss i have 50 new peices of 221 fireball brass but ofcourse would like a LOT MORE. I have read some articles on running 223 brass through a 221 fireball full length sizing die and itll shorten the case and make the neck needed for the FB.

Will someone who has done this or is more enlightened on this matter please give me the ins and outs to doing this correctly. Im not a newby to reloading at all but want to hear this from a veteran before i attempt. Ill be using various types of brass LC WCC some and some factory stuff. Please let me know step by step on sizing any different type of lubing and a particular time in the process and/or any signs to look for or anything of that nature. Thanks so much in advance and as always I appreciate people knowledge. thanks BHL



Some guys run the 223 case through an intermediate case forming die, others just run the 223 case through a 221 FireBall FL sizing die with the insides removed.

It works both ways. You should anneal the body first, it will save you from getting "pleats" in the shoulder and neck.

When you have trimmed the cases, check and make sure that there is enough room in the neck of the chamber to accept the neck of your cases - the new case necks "might" be too large for the chamber and you will have to turn them.

It might be cheaper to just buy the cases (Midway has them at ~38 cents), unless you have a bunch of already fired 223.

.

 
I have made 221 fireball brass from 223, I did not anneal the brass before I started but should have. I used a redding form and trim die to start with and then found that forming them to 222 helped quite a lot, I used a tubing cutter to trim cases to near length and then finished with a trimmer. You will need to turn the necks on them because the brass is thicker farther down in the case.I chronographed some loads and found that the LC cases would run about 100 feet per second faster than factory brass with the same charge. I would reccomend doing this as you will appreciate factory brass a lot more, but it is an interesting process.
 
I have all the stuff to do it, but I would advise exhausting all other means before forming your own. It makes fine brass but its time consuming.
 
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I have all the stuff to do it, but I would advise exhausting all other means before forming your own. It makes fine brass but its time consuming.



I am going to side with the other guys on this one. I mean, it would be one thing if you had some old relic that you wanted to shoot and the only way that you were going to be able to do it was to make the brass from some other case. But factory R-P brass is avail (but like all the other stuff getting no cheaper) and it really does last a long time. I don't load mine as hot as possible so that may be why I get many loads out of each piece of brass.

Enjoy that Furball, but making brass is a PITA. You be better of to buy it off the shelf in my opinion.
 
Not to mention the fact you could buy about 300 rounds for what the "recommended" 2 dies and shell holder extension costs.
 
I just used my .221 dies to do it. Once I got a system down I had very few failures. It was the learning curve that took me the longest. As was mentioned I had to anneal first, I sized about halfway using the seating die, then sized down full length with the .221 size die, made a jig to cut off the excess and cut/trimmed them. By that point they needed the necks turned....real PITA. I did it just to see if it could be done and atthat point very little .221 brass was available.
 
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