Just discovered this on instagram and i had a wild thought - is it possible that you could get more speed using 350 Legend brass instead of standard 5.56?
So just wondering, have you guys considered getting some step dies made that will take it from .223 down to 20cal before .17 ? I've been showing mine off a lot and there's a crazy amount of people who are saying they don't want to mess with it without being able to do a gradual step down process. Most seem to want to use new brass or hate the idea of having any crushed cases whatsoever. I've formed about 250 pieces so far and have only about 60 crushes which I think is fine with once fired brass being so cheap / free but a lot of folks see it as completely un acceptable
We process thousands of pieces of 1x brass at a time and don't crush any cases, this is all 100% military brass which is fully work hardened, crushed cases occur when the case is not fully work hardened. The dies we have are meant to reload the converted brass that we sell. It can be tough for a consumer to find brass that is consistently work hardened so it may be beneficial to use a 20 cal sizing die to step form in this instance.
So this set up is a great set up. The reason why I say that is you don’t have to try and get that long neck to stretch out on a 223556 case like you do on a 17 Remington. It can be done, but you have to do fall length sizer-multiple times then and rinse and repeat probably about six times to get the neck length long enough What is talking about as far as crushing when trying to size down is a 17 coming from a 22 size put a lot of pressure on that case shoulder and if it’s soft, it will crush it down 204 full length sizing is too tall to even touch the neck on a 556 case so not sure if it’ll work. You can after you do neck down and be prior to setting the shoulder because at that point, you’ve necked it down and then all you’re gonna do is set the shoulder and that’s OK if that’s soft in fact that’s a great thing . I will also say that because you don’t have to thin out the neck on a once fired case you don’t have to deal with the dreaded snake bite that’s caused by most barrel logs unless you’ve gone in and filed off the sharp edges develop a hole in the side of the case after you attempt to try thin it out just to get the length on a 17 Remington. KAK/556 you don’t have to try and stretch that neck out like you do on a 17 so all those problems go away I would be very confident that I would be able to do 800-1000 cases and never crushed the shoulder
So no annealing then now? When I first got the barrel and dies I thought that was something that needed done. I have only ran the brass I purchased from you and ran through the die real quick.
I don't know what the KAK opinion will be but in my experience as a 40 year reloader you will want to anneal the brass once it's been formed to 17-556 and before seating bullets to avoid neck splits. There are many opinions on annealing and how often it should be done. However, I've gone to annealing brass every time it's been fired or resized. By doing this I avoid having to keep track of how many times the brass has been sized before annealing.
Nice explanation of the process. Are you planning to do any load development using AR Comp and the 25 grain V-Max?
Just discovered this on instagram and i had a wild thought - is it possible that you could get more speed using 350 Legend brass instead of standard 5.56?
Likely wouldn't make a difference
@MorrisOutdoors98 it's does have higher case capacity though, the difference between 5.56 and 6 Max show how much more powder can be squeezed in
So just wondering, have you guys considered getting some step dies made that will take it from .223 down to 20cal before .17 ? I've been showing mine off a lot and there's a crazy amount of people who are saying they don't want to mess with it without being able to do a gradual step down process. Most seem to want to use new brass or hate the idea of having any crushed cases whatsoever. I've formed about 250 pieces so far and have only about 60 crushes which I think is fine with once fired brass being so cheap / free but a lot of folks see it as completely un acceptable
We process thousands of pieces of 1x brass at a time and don't crush any cases, this is all 100% military brass which is fully work hardened, crushed cases occur when the case is not fully work hardened. The dies we have are meant to reload the converted brass that we sell. It can be tough for a consumer to find brass that is consistently work hardened so it may be beneficial to use a 20 cal sizing die to step form in this instance.
@@kak_industry ok what would you recommend getting ? Would something like a .204 Ruger die work or would you have to go to a bushing die type deal ?
@@TheBlackTrapper Not 100% positive since we haven't tried that method, redding would know which would work best, 204 or 20 practical probably
What is the trim length of the brass? What tool do you use to trim the case?
1.750", 17 cal case trimmers work
So this set up is a great set up. The reason why I say that is you don’t have to try and get that long neck to stretch out on a 223556 case like you do on a 17 Remington.
It can be done, but you have to do fall length sizer-multiple times then and rinse and repeat probably about six times to get the neck length long enough
What is talking about as far as crushing when trying to size down is a 17 coming from a 22 size put a lot of pressure on that case shoulder and if it’s soft, it will crush it down 204 full length sizing is too tall to even touch the neck on a 556 case so not sure if it’ll work. You can after you do neck down and be prior to setting the shoulder because at that point, you’ve necked it down and then all you’re gonna do is set the shoulder and that’s OK if that’s soft in fact that’s a great thing
. I will also say that because you don’t have to thin out the neck on a once fired case you don’t have to deal with the dreaded snake bite that’s caused by most barrel logs unless you’ve gone in and filed off the sharp edges develop a hole in the side of the case after you attempt to try thin it out just to get the length on a 17 Remington. KAK/556 you don’t have to try and stretch that neck out like you do on a 17 so all those problems go away I would be very confident that I would be able to do 800-1000 cases and never crushed the shoulder
do you go from 22 caliber direct to the 17 caliber die?
So no annealing then now? When I first got the barrel and dies I thought that was something that needed done. I have only ran the brass I purchased from you and ran through the die real quick.
I don't know what the KAK opinion will be but in my experience as a 40 year reloader you will want to anneal the brass once it's been formed to 17-556 and before seating bullets to avoid neck splits. There are many opinions on annealing and how often it should be done. However, I've gone to annealing brass every time it's been fired or resized. By doing this I avoid having to keep track of how many times the brass has been sized before annealing.