I picked up a Bullberry barrel in .17 ackley bee. It came with 100 something brass pre-fireformed. After firing these brass for a little over two years now. I am starting to split necks. Time to retire the brass.
I've purchased some new .218 bee brass (new) I tried to size slowley with the FL die. I know it would be best if I had the 2 forming dies to make the brass form correctly. BUT, with lack of funds at current time. I am wondering. I'll get back to the wondering in a moment.
I've sized brass down from 30.06 to 25.06 in one fell swoop, no problems - no annealing. Lubed and go. Those worked great.
I tried to size from .218 to .17 in one swoop. NOPE! crushed them. tried lubed, stll crushed them, annealed them -still crushed them.
This is where the wondering is coming in. With the lack of funds to purchase the 2 forming dies, (almost $200). I've got to looking at getting a set of dies for a 20 vartarg (under $40)- .204 (under $35), something in the .20 caliber area.
I would have to cut the die to accommodate the lenght of the .218 bee case. Then I would be able to take the current FL die for 17 ackley bee and size it to where I need it.
I have not done all my research on this for neck angle and so forth. I don't want to have excessive headspace that would perhaps give me troubles with the fireforming.
penny for your thoughts.
