making 17 Remington brass from 204 Ruger

[Kocher]

When I picked up a Shilen ar15 barrel that was chambered in a 17 Remington, I was disappointed to find there was no brass that was reasonably priced.

Paying $1.10 per case was not what I wanted to do… if his Lapua or Atlas brass or Peterson brass in 17rem then I would pay.. but not for Nosler brass… that is essentially 204 Ruger necked down…

I started by converting 556 or 223 range brass into 17 Remington. It worked .. and as I perfected, it worked quite well and I could if I quickly and anealed between running the brass through the 17 Remington die could stretch the neck out almost to the regular length… but thinning the neck too much? I don’t think it was something that was good to do… the flipside I was turning the neck when they were short…

worrying about developing carbon.. and the fact that 204 Ruger brass actually became available once again and quite reasonable…

I had picked up a 204 Ruger shilen barrel for the ar15… ran out for a bit because I got tired of messing around with brass for the 17 Remington…

I decided on a whim to throw the 204 Ruger brass into the 17 Remington die to see what happens…

New brass didn’t work well not sure if it was too soft down the body, but after the brass was fired, it seemed to work better and didn’t crush… and didn’t develop the dimples around the neck or creases, depending on how bad it was this made some of them unusable because it extended too far up into the neck..

I had initially annealed the new cases prior to loading/firing… quite possibly the newer cases were too hard and crushed, and the other ones that were annealed, although fired, were still soft and allowed the brass to move inward without buckling.

Finally figured it out I used fired 204 Ruger brass once I got the neck down to 17 Remington and before pushing the shoulder back, I anealed the angled part of the case and the neck… I have a induction a dealer self-made so it can be real quick..

So when I do the final, push the shove the shoulder back no more dimples I’m ecstatic!!

The cases look great

I was going do a progression picture from when I first tried it to what they’re doing now, but I did not do it… behind the nice cases.. are the first few ones of the bad ones

After I get more done, I’ll set up my trim and trim them all at once… as right now they’re a bit too long and hit the lands

Unfortunately, my borescope does not go down a 17 caliber. You have to buy that really expensive one forgot the name of it.

 

[Kocher]

Here are some pictures of the cases that were new cases, and you can see the massive dimple creases … yes without any anealing… not good at all…

If I didn’t buy the 17 Remington barrel, I would’ve picked up the 17 556 or something similar where you don’t have to go through all this trouble to make them…

 

[Mike Casselton]

If you run the 204 into a 223 die first, you can get the shoulder angle correct without dimples or crushing.

Next, run it into your 17 Rem seating die. It helps if you polish the die with Flitz before doing this step.
The seater die will take the neck down to 18 caliber.

Lastly, run it through your 17 Rem FL die and you're all set.

3 steps and no crushed brass.

You might need to trim.

 

[Mike Casselton]

If you also make 17 Hornet, the seater die is your first step.

 

[Kocher]

Thanks for that info. I had thought about doing a body die from Reading for like the 17 or the 20 or something to get that shoulder down … that’s great info. I’ll give it a shot,,, as, although it works the way I’m doing it. It is still Puttsy..

 

[Kocher]

17 hornet from 22 hornet is brutal not going be trying that anymore… I think you still have to fire form to get the shoulder on the hornet?? be interested to see pics of how they turned out for you??

I’m happy being able to just buy the 17 hornet Hornady made brass for now, not sure if Starline makes 22 hornet I’ll have to look… if you could get it to go that would be a great way to save some money. Not sure if they make them or not.

It seems as that most manufacturers don’t give love to any of the centerfire 17 caliber anymore..

Something about how the smaller caliber is more difficult or you need special to tooling to create good rifle lands in the barrel?? Seems like it doesn’t matter what caliber it is you need specialized tooling for the caliber!! but what do I know.. i’ll say it’s unfortunate that the 17 WSM didn’t have better brass.. something about being able to shoot a rifle spit the brass out and not have to give a crap about where it goes or picking it up to reload it…” freeing” really… apparently I’m one of those guys that picks up every brass he sees on the ground

It would be interesting to have a caliber like the 17 or 20cal ARC. You have to have a different set of bullets for the 17s as they’re really aren’t that many made anymore unless you do solids.? I’m sure someone out there is giving that itch a scratch..

 

[Kocher]

if there’s one thing I would like to see come about would be a 17 caliber RCS match master bullet seater..how nice would it be to be able to take one of those drop your little 17 caliber bullet in and seat! no more sideways thumbing or any goofy set up like you normally have now to seat a 17 caliber bullet

 

[Mike Casselton]

if there’s one thing I would like to see come about would be a 17 caliber RCS match master bullet seater..how nice would it be to be able to take one of those drop your little 17 caliber bullet in and seat! no more sideways thumbing or any goofy set up like you normally have now to seat a 17 caliber bullet

Vickerman still makes the original die that RCBS patterned theirs from.
I doubt it'll work on a case shorter than the 223 because of how they are set up.

 

[Mike Casselton]

17 hornet from 22 hornet is brutal not going be trying that anymore… I think you still have to fire form to get the shoulder on the hornet?? be interested to see pics of how they turned out for you??

I’m happy being able to just buy the 17 hornet Hornady made brass for now, not sure if Starline makes 22 hornet I’ll have to look… if you could get it to go that would be a great way to save some money. Not sure if they make them or not.

It seems as that most manufacturers don’t give love to any of the centerfire 17 caliber anymore..

Something about how the smaller caliber is more difficult or you need special to tooling to create good rifle lands in the barrel?? Seems like it doesn’t matter what caliber it is you need specialized tooling for the caliber!! but what do I know.. i’ll say it’s unfortunate that the 17 WSM didn’t have better brass.. something about being able to shoot a rifle spit the brass out and not have to give a crap about where it goes or picking it up to reload it…” freeing” really… apparently I’m one of those guys that picks up every brass he sees on the ground

It would be interesting to have a caliber like the 17 or 20cal ARC. You have to have a different set of bullets for the 17s as they’re really aren’t that many made anymore unless you do solids.? I’m sure someone out there is giving that itch a scratch..

17 from 22 Hornet is easy if you follow the steps I laid out.
Remington brass is thin, so go slow.
I used Win brass when I made them for a friend.
They come out looking like a skinny, fucked up weatherby cartridge until you fireform them.

We just zeroed his rifle and went to kill prairie dogs with the fireform loads. Didn't lose a single piece of brass.

I have a CZ 527 in 17 Hornady Hornet, so I don't have to make brass for it. If I did, I'd do exactly what I wrote, with the exception of the seater die. My dies are Hornady and you can't case form with their style of seater.