cant find 221 brass

[notenoughguns]

Originally Posted by Night Shooter

I got all the dies and stuff in by UPS yesterday. The barrel manifacture sent me the upper threaded with my thread pattern and two fired casses from the parent case of .221 Fireball. So, I had something to work with for making the new brass from the .223 Rem. I couldn't wait I made 15 pieces of brass from .223 cases. My hunting partner brought me some H-110 and I reformed the brass using a FL resizing die with a 7mm long expander ball, then again using the .308 expander ball, then put it into a trim die and cut it off with a hack saw, then ran it back through the resizer die w/30 ball to again strighten the neck (Hack saw cut was pretty rough cut)then into a standard case length trimmer for the final trim down to 1.335". Deburred the cases, primed them and loaded a 220 SMK HPBT on top of 9.2 Gr. of H-110...should be about 1060 fps per someone else's cronograph info posted with same length barrel.

Now, get this mental picture..two guys with a new toy in a serious city enviorment, almost dark...with a new toy that shoots sub-sonic, and a nice supressor..uh??? Yep, right out the back door into the ground ! The wife wasn't home so she didn't hear the brass hit her glass table top, etc. It is very quiet...just a little bit nosier than a bb gun. No pressure signs. The action works flawless. Now, understand I had a special short buffer made for this weapon. If I'm going to shoot super sonic loads I must change buffer springs and buffer to prevent it from damaging the action.

I made and loaded 60 rounds from the .223 brass. I have 300 .221 Fireball cases on back order...I may get them by month's end ? I'll try to go out to the country and sight it in today and see what kind of groups I get. I put a 4.5 x 14 Marc 4 Tactical Leupold on it to test loads. I thing I'm going to mount my Eotech Hologram type sight system on it for daytime use and then have it set up for a night scoope as well.


More updates later.

Try running it through your trim die first ,that will eliminate changing expander buttons

[Pitt300]

If your trim die is like mine you have to size it first to set the shoulder back far enough to get the case to feed up far enough to stick out the top so you can cut it off.
I only size w/.270 die & then cut off & then resize w/.308 expander ball & the trim to length.
Works great/cuts out a step/not as much working of the brass.
I also could not find .221 brass unless I wanted to spend a fortune so I went the .223 path & am very happy!
If you split a neck when sizing the 1st time, DO NOT throw it away as you will almost always cut that part of the case off anyway.

[notenoughguns]

Originally Posted by Pitt300

If your trim die is like mine you have to size it first to set the shoulder back far enough to get the case to feed up far enough to stick out the top so you can cut it off.
I only size w/.270 die & then cut off & then resize w/.308 expander ball & the trim to length.
Works great/cuts out a step/not as much working of the brass.
I also could not find .221 brass unless I wanted to spend a fortune so I went the .223 path & am very happy!
If you split a neck when sizing the 1st time, DO NOT throw it away as you will almost always cut that part of the case off anyway.

I use a redding form & trim 300/221 die pt# 83432 from midway about 35 bucks money well spent no lube needed saves much time then just proscess as normal

[miker557]

Many, many moons ago I got a Remington XP-100 in 221. At some point, I decided to make my own using 223 brass, but ran into the case thickness problem - case walls are thicker than the case neck. My solution was to get a neck reamer from Forstner Products, and reaming the neck after sizing the cases down.

When I decided I had to have a 300-221, I decided to go the same route. I do not yet have the dies (they are being ordered as I write), but I have already secured a 30 caliber neck reamer, to thin out the brass at the case neck. Another solution would be to get a case turner (RCBS and Lee both sell versions), to cut away brass from the outside of the neck. The advantage to that, is that it will make the case necks very uniform, more accurately centering the bullet in the bore before it is launched.

Anyway, thanks for letting me join the forum, hope I'm not sounding like some newbie idiot.

Miker