5.56 case sizeing

[azfred]

Hello, let me first say this is a great resource for the 300-221, I ordered my upper last week from del-ton and am foaming at the mouth for it to come in. down the road I will put a match barrel on it.
any way.
is there any reason why I cant just lube the 5.56 cases and run them through the die with the 30 expander in and then trim to lenth?
why cut off at the shoulder first?
I've done alot of reloading but this is my first wildcat with such a big case change.
thanks
AZFRED

[WhisperFan]

I have done it in two different ways.

Method 1 - I use a set of Redding dies. Take a standard .223 case, expand it to 7mm with the first expander plug. Then expand again with the .30 caliber expander. Now you have a 300 Whisper with a super long neck. You cut and trim and that's it.
Advantage: You don't have to guess where to cut the shoulder on the un-formed 223 case.
Disadvantage: Jumping the neck up from .223 to 7mm sometimes splits the neck and a split is like a run in my wife's stockings, they tend to run.

Method 2 - Chop the neck off of the 223 case. Then put it in the die with the 30 caliber expander. Now do a final trim. Essentially, you are necking down the case wall of the 223, rather than necking up the neck of a 223.
Advantages: Less likely to split the case neck. Takes less force to form the case.
Disadvantage:You have to kinda guess where to cut the 223 case so you aren't left too short or have excess that needs a lot of trimming when you are finished.

[pug]

Expanding from 22 to 27 is tough enough but going from 22 to 30 in one pass ruins a lot of brass. If the brass has been deprimed and swaged and I plan to shoot a lot I will remove the stem and expander completely and just size, trim, load and shoot. Then the next loading I will be a little more precise. Since most of the processed 300/221 mil brass you would buy also has a inside neck diameter of .303 I am quite sure they use the same technique. If an expander is used you will get a inside neck diameter of .306" which gives slightly easier bullet seating.

[azfred]

I must have got lucky, I ran 20 rounds through just as a test and didnt loose any, they all came out with .305 necks. my die does have a long expander and not the ball type, I am told this is easier on the necks.

also, what would be a good starting powder just to get going, Im going to load some 200 smk sub sonic and some 150 smk super sonic.
Fred