Rod Outback
2015-09-19 01:40:08 UTC
Folks,
Against better judgement(and because I seem to be addicted to the process),
I have offered to reload some 250-odd .222 Remington cases for one of my
neighbours (named Dan).
I'm really just interested in seeing if I can load ammo for .222, as I have
a set of Lee dies for one, and I knew neighbour Dan has a rifle in this
cartridge.
The lee dies were purchased about 12 years back, as a mate in Brisbane owned
a .222 at the time, but subsequently sold it.
My other motivation, is that neighbour Dan is the sort of person whom keeps
a sledgehammer, a can of WD-40, and a 2" Stilson wrench in his computer
repair gear, because they will likely come in handy...
'nuff said...
Anyhoo...
Neighbour Dan drops the cases off last weekend, and the good ones are in
pretty poor shape; very dusty, and many have crap inside them.
The last of these ones are coming out of the tumbler this morning, and look
a shitload closer to being viable cases for loading.
[When Dan saw some of my brass that I was putting into the tumbler, he
thought it had just come out....sigh.]
The rougher cases(350+) arent going to be loaded by me, and will need a lot
of sorting, even before they go into the tumbler.
There are a lot of the rougher cases that are over 25 years old, and had
been fired a lot of times by the previous owner (roo-shooter).
So, 2 afternoons ago, I settled down in front of the press, and start F/L
sizing 15 of the newer cases, to see if I can iron out any wrinkles in the
process, and set the headspace on the die.
At this point, the tiny allen-keyed grub-screw that locks the headspace
collet onto the main body(hornady headspacing gauge), comes out as I am
loosening the screw to install the .222 collet, and I hear a tiny tinkle as
it hits the very dirty floor.
3/4 of an hour with a series of magnets being dragged across the floor in
all directions, and no grub-screw.
A search through all of my gunsmithing screw assortment with no joy; lots of
screws the same diameter, but wrong thread.
The thunderclouds are gathering, as it has been a bad day for other reasons
already!
I finally find that one of the no-name brand scope rings I have in the
house, shares the same thread pitch in the ring-lock screw, so I'm back in
the game...
Well, for the life of me, I couldnt get the bloody headspace adjusted!
I run out of adjustment on the die, before the press arm has stopped solid,
and we still havent bumped the shoulder back at all.
Now, whilst I'm happy to put my hand up as a village idiot, I have
successfully set the headspace on 4 different cartridges the past month, and
so the process isnt all that unfamiliar.
So, after a VERY frustrating afternoon, I pack it all in, and talk the
issue through with a reloading mate.
We keep coming back to the die being the problem, but that doesnt help me at
all.
One spark of thought, was the recently purchased Forster Neck/Bump bushing
die that I had for .223. The shoulder on the .222 and .223 are the same
angle, so I figured that maybe I could adjust the .223 NB die up so it works
on the .222.
Sadly, I had completely missed the fact that the .222 case has a shorter
body, and longer neck, which means the case cant contact the
shoulder-forming section of the die, before the case is completely inside
the die.
However, I suspect that if you were in trouble, you could do this with a
.223 case in the same die in .222...
[Like I said, I'll put my hand up as your local village idiot...]
So, yesterday added to the frustration, until I had another flash of
insight. I EVENTUALLY noticed that the .222 FL die wont allow the case all
the way into the die, before it stops.
A bit of fiddling, and I realise the .222 neck is actually hitting the
neck-sizing collet/lock-nut, when I try to FL size the die.
So, a bit of finger-crossing, and I remove the neck-sizing collet/lock-nut,
so the die is now just doing an outside resize of the case.
Lo and behold; the die can be adjusted to push the neck back 0.002", or even
more!
I run the 15 cases through, and they all now have their shoulders 0.002"
below the length of the fired cases.
I then re-assemble the die, and run the cases through the inside neck-sizing
process, but stop once the neck has passed the expander.
They arent perfect, but I am a bulls' roar from having the process right.
Elder brother is delivering a set of Lyman .222 dies later this morning, and
I'll test them out to see if they have the same issue.
I have inspected the 15 test cases, and they were all around the
trim-to-length, so all well below max case length. I think I had to trim
about 6 to get them all within a few thou of each other.
As best I can figure, the Lee die (Part No 90870 - which is still a current
number for the Pacesetter dies Lee sell today) dont have enough length in
the neck area to allow the shoulder to be bumped, while still having the
neck-sizing collet/lock-nut installed.
I ran another 25 cases through the die this morning, and whilst most of the
cases have had their shoulders bumped back 0.002", I find there is some
Norma brass that seems to be a bit squirrelly. I'm wondering if the Norma
brass is actually stuff that the roo shooter gave neighbour Dan, and hasnt
been fired in Dans rifle yet.
When it comes to sourcing brass, neighbour Dan seems to be a bit of a brass
tart, so I am now finding Norma, PMC, Highland (both head stamps), Federal,
Winchester and Remington, so I'll start getting tallies of them all when the
last of the brass that I'm loading, is dried, and ready for processing.
Anyway, when the Lyman dies arrive in the next few hours, I might be able to
establish whether this is something peculiar to the Lee dies(which is my
suspicion..).
Ahhh well; at least it takes my mind off the overwhelming desire to bury
elder brother in an unmarked grave; he is here for 10 weeks on Long Service
leave from the navy, and at the end of week 1, I'm surprised there hasnt
been a death in the family!
---------
Cheers,
Rod...Out Back
-------
For Photos I've taken since June 2013:
http://s1035.photobucket.com/user/Rod_Outback/library/
For a Roundup of photos taken until Flickr ruined their site in 2013, have a
look at
http://www.flickr.com/photos/rod_outback/
Against better judgement(and because I seem to be addicted to the process),
I have offered to reload some 250-odd .222 Remington cases for one of my
neighbours (named Dan).
I'm really just interested in seeing if I can load ammo for .222, as I have
a set of Lee dies for one, and I knew neighbour Dan has a rifle in this
cartridge.
The lee dies were purchased about 12 years back, as a mate in Brisbane owned
a .222 at the time, but subsequently sold it.
My other motivation, is that neighbour Dan is the sort of person whom keeps
a sledgehammer, a can of WD-40, and a 2" Stilson wrench in his computer
repair gear, because they will likely come in handy...
'nuff said...
Anyhoo...
Neighbour Dan drops the cases off last weekend, and the good ones are in
pretty poor shape; very dusty, and many have crap inside them.
The last of these ones are coming out of the tumbler this morning, and look
a shitload closer to being viable cases for loading.
[When Dan saw some of my brass that I was putting into the tumbler, he
thought it had just come out....sigh.]
The rougher cases(350+) arent going to be loaded by me, and will need a lot
of sorting, even before they go into the tumbler.
There are a lot of the rougher cases that are over 25 years old, and had
been fired a lot of times by the previous owner (roo-shooter).
So, 2 afternoons ago, I settled down in front of the press, and start F/L
sizing 15 of the newer cases, to see if I can iron out any wrinkles in the
process, and set the headspace on the die.
At this point, the tiny allen-keyed grub-screw that locks the headspace
collet onto the main body(hornady headspacing gauge), comes out as I am
loosening the screw to install the .222 collet, and I hear a tiny tinkle as
it hits the very dirty floor.
3/4 of an hour with a series of magnets being dragged across the floor in
all directions, and no grub-screw.
A search through all of my gunsmithing screw assortment with no joy; lots of
screws the same diameter, but wrong thread.
The thunderclouds are gathering, as it has been a bad day for other reasons
already!
I finally find that one of the no-name brand scope rings I have in the
house, shares the same thread pitch in the ring-lock screw, so I'm back in
the game...
Well, for the life of me, I couldnt get the bloody headspace adjusted!
I run out of adjustment on the die, before the press arm has stopped solid,
and we still havent bumped the shoulder back at all.
Now, whilst I'm happy to put my hand up as a village idiot, I have
successfully set the headspace on 4 different cartridges the past month, and
so the process isnt all that unfamiliar.
So, after a VERY frustrating afternoon, I pack it all in, and talk the
issue through with a reloading mate.
We keep coming back to the die being the problem, but that doesnt help me at
all.
One spark of thought, was the recently purchased Forster Neck/Bump bushing
die that I had for .223. The shoulder on the .222 and .223 are the same
angle, so I figured that maybe I could adjust the .223 NB die up so it works
on the .222.
Sadly, I had completely missed the fact that the .222 case has a shorter
body, and longer neck, which means the case cant contact the
shoulder-forming section of the die, before the case is completely inside
the die.
However, I suspect that if you were in trouble, you could do this with a
.223 case in the same die in .222...
[Like I said, I'll put my hand up as your local village idiot...]
So, yesterday added to the frustration, until I had another flash of
insight. I EVENTUALLY noticed that the .222 FL die wont allow the case all
the way into the die, before it stops.
A bit of fiddling, and I realise the .222 neck is actually hitting the
neck-sizing collet/lock-nut, when I try to FL size the die.
So, a bit of finger-crossing, and I remove the neck-sizing collet/lock-nut,
so the die is now just doing an outside resize of the case.
Lo and behold; the die can be adjusted to push the neck back 0.002", or even
more!
I run the 15 cases through, and they all now have their shoulders 0.002"
below the length of the fired cases.
I then re-assemble the die, and run the cases through the inside neck-sizing
process, but stop once the neck has passed the expander.
They arent perfect, but I am a bulls' roar from having the process right.
Elder brother is delivering a set of Lyman .222 dies later this morning, and
I'll test them out to see if they have the same issue.
I have inspected the 15 test cases, and they were all around the
trim-to-length, so all well below max case length. I think I had to trim
about 6 to get them all within a few thou of each other.
As best I can figure, the Lee die (Part No 90870 - which is still a current
number for the Pacesetter dies Lee sell today) dont have enough length in
the neck area to allow the shoulder to be bumped, while still having the
neck-sizing collet/lock-nut installed.
I ran another 25 cases through the die this morning, and whilst most of the
cases have had their shoulders bumped back 0.002", I find there is some
Norma brass that seems to be a bit squirrelly. I'm wondering if the Norma
brass is actually stuff that the roo shooter gave neighbour Dan, and hasnt
been fired in Dans rifle yet.
When it comes to sourcing brass, neighbour Dan seems to be a bit of a brass
tart, so I am now finding Norma, PMC, Highland (both head stamps), Federal,
Winchester and Remington, so I'll start getting tallies of them all when the
last of the brass that I'm loading, is dried, and ready for processing.
Anyway, when the Lyman dies arrive in the next few hours, I might be able to
establish whether this is something peculiar to the Lee dies(which is my
suspicion..).
Ahhh well; at least it takes my mind off the overwhelming desire to bury
elder brother in an unmarked grave; he is here for 10 weeks on Long Service
leave from the navy, and at the end of week 1, I'm surprised there hasnt
been a death in the family!
---------
Cheers,
Rod...Out Back
-------
For Photos I've taken since June 2013:
http://s1035.photobucket.com/user/Rod_Outback/library/
For a Roundup of photos taken until Flickr ruined their site in 2013, have a
look at
http://www.flickr.com/photos/rod_outback/