22 BR Remington from 7mm BR Remington Brass

Sgt_Mike

Well-known member
Currently having just the brass (once fired, and actually quite a bit of it), no completed barreled action as of yet.
Although I do have two candidates within the safe, the Savage SA is probably easier, and more cost effective vs the Remington 722.
Which I "THINK" I might prefer the .246" neck (although .250" may be best) in the 22BR with a no faster than 1-12" twist.
Just need to settle on the barrel length.
I'm considering 22" to a 26" in a no heavier than a varmint contour. Weight is a modest concern as I age, but I do like a heavy contour such as a bull or heavy palma. Just can't them as easy anymore. I'll have to remember to double check the exact reamer that Northland is using in the offering of their pre-fit barrels in that caliber before ordering.

Finally broke down and ordered the dies, for 7mm BR Rem FL, 6mm and 22 BR Rem neck sizing dies to prep the brass.
My thought process is to use the 7mm FL die to work all of the fired brass before working the neck down.
neck down 200 into 6mm BR, then taking 100 of those 200 6mm BR cases down to 22BR.
Which will give me 100 of each caliber in 6mm BR and 22BR. The remaining will stay in 7mm until needed.

As the 6mm and the 22 BR dies are neck sizing only. Then the 7mm FL could do double duty work as a body die (expander button removed of course) after firing if need be.
Once the correct barrel is sourced and obtained then neck trimming can be accomplished. With reaming following first fire to reduce the doughnuts.

I am aware that NORMALLY one could use 6mm BR Norma brass easier in some respects. And maybe easier than factory 7mm BR Remington (but I have plenty so why not use them).
Lapua from my understanding will probably need to be small based sized prior to usage.
 
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Note this just a sidebar
I had posted about ordering the dies, truth is that I ordered 2, as the 22 BR Neck sizing I have on hand (Bonanza).
The two ordered was the 7mm FL (Forrester) and the 6mm NS (Bonanza), for the BR. I used fleabay as I glanced around on the classifieds didn't see anyone selling them.
This is the part that amuses me I'm able to track them. And honestly I don't know why but I just like to track the packages being shipped.

I know sound stupid, but it is entertainment, at least to me I guess. Did the same thing with the Leupold I sent in for repair, and when they sent it back. The thought occurred "how many of us when we get older develop the same habit.
Best Regards
Mike
 
Well today both the Forester 7mm BR die and the Bonanza 6mm Neck sizing die made it in.
Right now annealing and sizing all the brass to the 7mm BR, just took a break to post. I did lose some to split necks because dummy me didn't think to anneal duhh. And I know to do that, pffft what I get for rushing.
I'll work 100 to 6mm BR, then 50 of those to 22BR. (just in case I change my mind and go 6mm BR).
 
My question is why go through all that trouble when really good 6mmBR brass is available? A lot easier to make the 22 brass and you don’t end up with reformed 7mm brass for your 6mm brass. The 7mmBR brass always sells well so the 6mm brass wouldn’t cost hardly anything plus not having to buy the dies for the extra steps.

I like reloading as much as the next guy but if there’s a way to eliminate a couple of steps I’m all for it!
 
When it comes to barrels. A guy, UrbanRifleman, on Accurate Shooter site sells Wilson barrels and is getting rave reviews on accuracy. And they are a little cheaper than Northland. He's out of Tulsa Ok.
 
My question is why go through all that trouble when really good 6mmBR brass is available? A lot easier to make the 22 brass and you don’t end up with reformed 7mm brass for your 6mm brass. The 7mmBR brass always sells well so the 6mm brass wouldn’t cost hardly anything plus not having to buy the dies for the extra steps.

I like reloading as much as the next guy but if there’s a way to eliminate a couple of steps I’m all for it!
OK, WHY??? Normally I would agree with you.
The 7mm BR brass I have was free, and on hand, I did not buy it, it was given to me from a retiring 7mm BR xp-100 shooter decades ago.

6mm (norma lapula manufactured brass is approx @ $1.30ish ea not counting shipping and sales tax) so x that by 450 pieces of brass. would actually mean 4 boxes of 100 ea.
Source Grafs and midsouth shooter supply. ($520.00 for 4 boxes of 100 plus the shipping tax ratee for here is 10% cost+ shipping) this is calculated on the low side of 1.30 ea.

The extra dies I spent about $30.00 ea. to get. so yes it was considerably cheaper to do that route. The plus side now that they are done I could re-sell the dies.
While the R-P 7mm BR brass will sell I highly doubt it would make enough to go case for case with Lapula dollar wise or even close.
Now for replacement brass yeah I'll go the 6mm (norma) brass route as the R-P brass needs replacement.
so spend $60.00ish dollars verses $520.00 plus yeah I do the extra steps this time, which I would have needed a body die at some point as the .22 BR die I have is NS only.
This time it seemed to be the most cost effective for me.

When it comes to barrels. A guy, UrbanRifleman, on Accurate Shooter site sells
Tulsa is not far at all from Little Rock Area. cheaper that north land is good,
Thank you for the tip Bill (hopefully you don't mind me saying Bill) I'll scour Accurate shooter for contact info to him. (The action is a Savage cheap axis on a small shank, I'm thinking of).

Later
Found him thankfully he had his website in his avatar. I don't have a account on the accurate shooter website. If nothing else I can contact him via his website, which does list the barrels.
I also before your posting to this thread I had sent a e-mail to james at Northland asking him about the FreeBore length of his reamer. Looking for no more than 0.040" or less preferably none, with a no turn neck, I may have to settle for longer but I don't want to if I can get around it.
On the UrbanRifleman site, I seen he had the 0.070" FB listed but nothing shorter, except in the .22 BR Ackley (0.050" FB) and that is close and is interesting. I have no interest than a bullet longer than the 55gr lead based, hence the short to no FB.
I'll settle on the vendor once I contact both and see what is up basically whom has the shortest FB reamer.
 
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LOL, my friends all call me Bill, my family calls me Billy and the girls all call me Sweet William. LOL!! Bills just fine. As for the Urbanrifleman, give him a call. He may have just what your looking for. Accurate Shooter is a great website to. Lots of good information and friendly folks willing to help.
 
Something you might want to think about is a shilen barrel from NSS you can pick free bore and neck diameter. .it sounds like you'll need to do some.neck turning taking them down that far..

I just put a .250 neck 12 twist .200 throat shilen on my varmint/target Savage.

A Remage barrel for Rem 700 will fit a 600, 660, 721, 722 and 783(?). I put a 20P Remage on n a.700 and did a 722.to.22-250AI .
 
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Thank You @AWS
NSS was the first call on the list of two suppliers.
James was very helpful, and advised that they would fit the throat / neck (no turn) to the dummy round. Plus they had the Head Space gauges for the BR series. @ $35.00. ea . On the reamers they depending on barrel source had the Remington and the Norma based reamers. The Norma is a little bit larger in dia. vs the Rem at the 0.200" datum line from bolt face.
Which is why some folks using the 6mm Norma brass usually need to run some through a Small base die before fireforming. It's just enough to cause some hard feeding and extraction if not done in a Remington based reamer.
I did do a few loaded dummy rounds measurement worked out to .248", so .250" to .254" the latter would work for a no turn, even when I switch to the newer 6mm BR Norma to resize to 22 BR brass which I "think" will be thicker in the neck. And from what I have read a bit longer primer pocket life when hammering the loads than the R-P brass.

While the old 722 in .244 Rem (aka 6mm Rem when they went to a faster twist than the original 1-12") is long in the tooth, probably due for a new barrel (many shots since 195?)
I pretty much have made up my mind on the Savage Axis action (short cartridge action about 2015 era) will be the project.

I've pretty much settled on a 22" barrel, muzzle threaded 5/8-24tpi, Light Varmint/Heavy sporter profile. 1-12" twist rate as I really have no interest in shooting longer projectiles than a lead based 55gr BT. I'm just seeking Minute of PD out to 400 yards (terrain limitations where I usually go). Current thoughts are the MDT Field stock chassis system to replace the factory polymer stock. (now that I drifted into a thread I intended post in a different area..ooops sorry my fault)

Now to get back to the actual topic reloading 22 BR, I did several calculations, via JBM ballistics based on estimated velocity with differing load data sources.
Which was promising, using the Speer 50gr TNT, as well as the Sierra 40gr to name a few.
Promising powder seem to be IMR 8208XBR, RE-15 (almost unobtainable anymore), H4895 to name a few, and not in that order.
Which unfortunately I'll be limited to a 200 yard range for testing vs a 400yard locally. Better than being limited to 100 yd range.
Here is where advice / guidance will be sought, as powder is some what expense @DAA to name a few. Really don't want to have to buy every powder listed.
I do like that Nosler highlights their data with most accurate powder used. Sierra has been extremely close annotating accurate loads when using their bullets
 
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