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I've been using Remington 221 Fireball brass for years to make my 20cal Vartarg cases. And with Rem 221 brass being as rare as hens teeth, I thought about picking up some of the new Nosler 221 to form into 20VT. Before I shell out $86, I would like to know if the neck walls are the same thickness as the Rem brass? The Remington before forming is between .011-.012??
I got my last batch of .221fb a few months back 500 once fired lake city prepped cases, cleaned, sized and de-primed from a gentleman on the 300blkout site. They were $150 shipped. His machine shop is a novelty run entirely on solar. These are .221fb from .223 brass. He didn't advertise them, I emailed and asked. He runs mostly 300aac and said in slow times he will make bulk runs of other calibers.
There is another vendor on that site (a machinist in NC) that sells a case holding jig that screws onto a mini cut-off saw. Clamp it on and you can cut the VT/FB/300blk all from your .223 brass. Cost about $50. Several members here have them including myself. It is a very nice tool holder, you can spit out a bunch of cases one at a time but in succession without clamping. There is a slight dentent that secures the case inside a drill hole: insert one, cut and push a second in behind, cut and push...you can cut to size 100 in less than 10 minutes.
There is a youtube link that shows how to set it to length and cut .223 brass. I'm not paying that much for Nosler brass when I can make it with this tool holder for pennies.
I've never seen any problems with the Remington .221 Fireball brass. As fireball or VT. Only thing I noticed was that the fired, necked down to 20 comes out with different neck thickness than the "new" necked down. "New" seems to be more consistant.
Depends on the neck size on your chamber.
The new Nosler and maybe Laupa (pretty soon) may be better? Get whatever you can, while you can.
Making .221 Fireball or 20 VT out of .223 brass will be more work intensive but it's the fun of doing it. No shortage of brass that way.
I've got the "special jig" for cutting the .223 brass to length as well as the shoulder bump dies to make smaller brass. All work good.
As I mentioned, more work intensive but you get the feel of accomplishment when you've built your own.
Appleseed,
Do you have the e-mail address for this guy? Your over on PM's. Thanks very much!
Bob
I need to pay my dues here to get pm, but...go on 300blktalk site and look at for sale forum. Find grumpa, nice guy and take a look at his solar machine shop (near Prescott, AZ).
Appleseed,
Grumpa is also a vendor on the Castboolits forum. Thanks for the info, I'll be ordering some from him real soon! Bob
Appleseed,
Done! Ordered 500 pcs. .221FB from converted 5.56 from Matt (Grumpa). Thanks for the info!
I could not help myself, after receiving the first batch, I bought a second batch of 500 from Grumpa.
He's a clever fellow and great to do business with. You will like loading for that caliber. My barrel is a rechambered 8 twist, 35gr to 55gr, on a striker pistol it shoots like the .223 did with considerabley less noise and recoil.