I,m getting a .204, however, it looks like brass is gonna be a problem here, however, one of my dealers has a quantity of .222magnum cases, could anyone explain to me exactly, how to fireform these, as i have never done it, thank you.The factory ammo is no problem, but at[i,m guessing] around 28 to 30 dollars for 20 rounds, it aint the cheapest way to get brass.
fire forming brass
- Thread starter baldie
- Start date
Bayou City Boy
New member
baldie:
Silverfox has posted info with pictures on 222 RM to 204 Ruger. You might do a search for "Silverfox" (without the quotes) and you should be able to find it.
The main issue is to only neck size the 222 RM brass down to 204 to the point that you can chamber the brass with a slight crush fit on bolt closing. This maintains good headspace to fire form with.
I fire formed 100 222 RM rounds in early 2004 when the 204 Ruger rifles first hit the market and have reloaded 40 of them 6 times and they are still in very good condition and give good accuracy.
Silverfox has posted info with pictures on 222 RM to 204 Ruger. You might do a search for "Silverfox" (without the quotes) and you should be able to find it.
The main issue is to only neck size the 222 RM brass down to 204 to the point that you can chamber the brass with a slight crush fit on bolt closing. This maintains good headspace to fire form with.
I fire formed 100 222 RM rounds in early 2004 when the 204 Ruger rifles first hit the market and have reloaded 40 of them 6 times and they are still in very good condition and give good accuracy.
baldie-- Here is a link to an article I wrote for the .204RugerHunting.com Board. Moderators, I apologize if I have broken the rules and will not take offense if this post is removed and I am banned from the board for life. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/confused.gif
Fire forming Remington .222 Mag brass to fit your .204 Ruger firearm
By the way, you should be able to purchase factory ammo for your .204 Ruger for around $12 to $15, depending on your supplier. That is certainly not "cheap," but it is nowhere near the $28 to $30 you were guesstimating. If your merchant is charging $28 to $30, FIND ANOTHER PLACE TO BUY THE AMMO!!!!
Fire forming Remington .222 Mag brass to fit your .204 Ruger firearm
By the way, you should be able to purchase factory ammo for your .204 Ruger for around $12 to $15, depending on your supplier. That is certainly not "cheap," but it is nowhere near the $28 to $30 you were guesstimating. If your merchant is charging $28 to $30, FIND ANOTHER PLACE TO BUY THE AMMO!!!!
Very interesting stuff silver fox, thanks. I may be able to get some brass from my supplier, as he is the hornady importer for the uk, failing that, i know he has a load of .222 mag cases, and he cant sell many of them in the uk. I,m guessing the dies he will be supplying , will be hornady, any good? and do i need anything special to fireform with?
baldie--Fire forming the .222 Mag brass is a wee bit time consuming, but if you find a load that has decent accuracy, then you can use it in the field instead just wasting the powder, primers, and bullets trying to fire form the brass. I did find a fire forming load that I would take out prairie dog shooting if necessary.
My cache of .204 Ruger brass is fairly large now. I have 600 WW casings and 320 Hornady casings. I did fire form about 50 of the .222 Mag casings and have another 40 ready to be primed, loaded with powder and bullet seated, but will hold off on those until winter I think.
I think you can get by quite nicely with the Hornady dies. That was the only company that had .204 Ruger dies available when I first started reloading for that rifle early last year. I bought the full length sizer, neck sizer, and seating die from Hornady. Later, when Redding started making dies for the .204 Ruger, I picked up the Redding Type S bushing neck die, and when Forster made their Ultra Micrometer seating die for the .204 Ruger, I purchased one of those. I still use the Hornady neck sizing die to partially neck size my .222 Mag casings so they crush fit into the chamber.
Take your time and make sure you have the little .224 portion of the neck out far enough so you have to use some force to push the bolt forward and downward to chamber the casings you are going to fire form. As to the powder charge to use, I can't really say what will work in your rifle. Initially, I used 27.0 gr. of H4895 and the 40 gr. V-Max bullet with the bullets seated approximately .007" into the lands. It IS NOT NECESSARY to seat the bullet into the lands because the little .224 part of the casing neck is going to push the back of the casing against the bolt face and prevent a headspace problem. Those casings formed nicely. I got an average of 3,701 fps at 12' 9" from the muzzle, but the accuracy wasn't super good.
I increased the load to 28.0 gr. for the next fire forming bunch and that was TOO MUCH powder. The primers showed signs of flattening. My average velocity for 25 rounds fired with this load was 3,867 at 12' 6" from the muzzle. That, IMHO, was whizzing those bullets out there pretty fast. The groups were more like a shotgun pattern. The smallest 5-shot group measured 1.223" and the largest measured 1.704".
I was running out of 40 gr. bullets so for my next fire forming stint I used 28.0 gr. of H4895 with the 32 gr. V-Max bullet. As stated in that link I gave you, those groups were fairly decent for a fire forming load and can be used in the field if the distances aren't too great. The velocity was acceptable too.
I hope you have good luck with the fire forming, if you have to go that route. Take your time and maybe you'll come up with a fire forming load you can use in the field like I did.
My cache of .204 Ruger brass is fairly large now. I have 600 WW casings and 320 Hornady casings. I did fire form about 50 of the .222 Mag casings and have another 40 ready to be primed, loaded with powder and bullet seated, but will hold off on those until winter I think.
I think you can get by quite nicely with the Hornady dies. That was the only company that had .204 Ruger dies available when I first started reloading for that rifle early last year. I bought the full length sizer, neck sizer, and seating die from Hornady. Later, when Redding started making dies for the .204 Ruger, I picked up the Redding Type S bushing neck die, and when Forster made their Ultra Micrometer seating die for the .204 Ruger, I purchased one of those. I still use the Hornady neck sizing die to partially neck size my .222 Mag casings so they crush fit into the chamber.
Take your time and make sure you have the little .224 portion of the neck out far enough so you have to use some force to push the bolt forward and downward to chamber the casings you are going to fire form. As to the powder charge to use, I can't really say what will work in your rifle. Initially, I used 27.0 gr. of H4895 and the 40 gr. V-Max bullet with the bullets seated approximately .007" into the lands. It IS NOT NECESSARY to seat the bullet into the lands because the little .224 part of the casing neck is going to push the back of the casing against the bolt face and prevent a headspace problem. Those casings formed nicely. I got an average of 3,701 fps at 12' 9" from the muzzle, but the accuracy wasn't super good.
I increased the load to 28.0 gr. for the next fire forming bunch and that was TOO MUCH powder. The primers showed signs of flattening. My average velocity for 25 rounds fired with this load was 3,867 at 12' 6" from the muzzle. That, IMHO, was whizzing those bullets out there pretty fast. The groups were more like a shotgun pattern. The smallest 5-shot group measured 1.223" and the largest measured 1.704".
I was running out of 40 gr. bullets so for my next fire forming stint I used 28.0 gr. of H4895 with the 32 gr. V-Max bullet. As stated in that link I gave you, those groups were fairly decent for a fire forming load and can be used in the field if the distances aren't too great. The velocity was acceptable too.
I hope you have good luck with the fire forming, if you have to go that route. Take your time and maybe you'll come up with a fire forming load you can use in the field like I did.
Bayou City Boy
New member
baldie:
Looks like Silverfox has you pretty well fixed up.
The Hornady dies should work well for you. I purchased the Redding dies as they were actually on the market early in 2004 before Hornady got their dies out, but either should work great for you.
How is the supply of bullets in the UK? Do you have a choice or is it pretty limited at this time? - BCB
Looks like Silverfox has you pretty well fixed up.
The Hornady dies should work well for you. I purchased the Redding dies as they were actually on the market early in 2004 before Hornady got their dies out, but either should work great for you.
How is the supply of bullets in the UK? Do you have a choice or is it pretty limited at this time? - BCB