.17 Ackley Bee

H

HuntMac

New member
Hi All! I am trying to work up some loads for a .17 Ackley Bee that my dad built quite a few years back but all of the cases that he had formed are splitting when I am using the low end of the loads. I figure it is due to the fact that they are all extremely old cases and was wondering if anyone knew where I could find some .218 Bee cases to work with? The stores say they are a limited run case and are never available. All your help is much appreciated.

HuntMac
 
Can you take a pic and show us, may be able to help.

Annealing sometimes helps, and you may be setting back the shoulder too far...pics would help determine the problem.
 
I checked all of my regular sources and they all show "out of stock".

I did run across this excerpt from an article in Rifle Shooter
"The Bee case is a necked-down .25-20 Winchester (itself a necked-down version of the .32-20 Winchester)."

Blue Star Brass lists .25-20 brass and they don't show it as being out of stock.

http://www.blue-star-inc.com/catalog/nrbrass.htm

This might give you some ideas, I would think that annealing would be necessary as well as multiple steps to get .25-20 brass down to 17 cal.

Just some thoughts.
 
I think I figured out how to post pictures again. Hope this works

IMG_1955.jpg

This is the one that split the worst.


IMG_1957.jpg



This is one that I haven't shot yet.


These Cases are very old (26-30 years) They weren't ever annealed so we were thinking that might be a problem but when my father shot them they never split. This is why I was wanting to start fresh with new brass.


Mulie- Thank you for the idea...I haven't looked at any other cases to work with. I will look into the .25-20. Thanks!


Again thanks for everyones help!
 
Annealing all those cases would put you back in the game.

Anytime Im working witha wildcat I anneal every other time the shell is reloaded. period.

Its a pain to form, and it takes away from shooting time. I want to get the most bang for my buck.
 
So I can just anneal these old cases? That would be great...it might just keep me happy until I can find some new .218 Bee brass.

Thanks for your help!


HuntMac
 
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