.222 Remington Magnum

K

kjack

New member
I traded into an older Remington 700. I knew ammo was going to be hard to find, but I was lucky and found some at a collector site and some custom loads where I didn't have to sell a body part.

I also discovered that the .204 case works for reforming, so here is the story:

I was given a nice pile (80+ rds) of once-fired .204 cases (Hornady), so cost was not a consideration.

I ran the .204 cases through a .222 Mag resizer with the decapper removed. I then returned the decapper and popped the old primers. The decapper also expanded the neck to .223

Like I always do, I cleaned the primer pocket and used a Lee tool to chamfer the case mouth (inside and out).

The cases look like what is called a false shoulder. That is, the case partly filled out up to the case neck.


I had the bright idea that I should run the cases through the 700 action. I found that most cases would NOT allow the action to close. Bummer. My thought is that the reforming had pushed the case taper forward a little so the cases were about a thousandth or two too long. Some judicious trimming permitted the action to close. I then had 40 primed cases.

Next thought was to use one of the recipes for pistol powder to fireform the cases. However, I ran across another discussion that just using regular loads did the fireforming and actually produced good accuracy. I put in a low end load [I’ve got a good supply of BL-C(2) with some old James Calhoon (Montana) 55gr RBT HPs].



I loaded up a few using a factory load to set overall length on the seating die, then ran them through the action CAREFULLY (the older 700 action only has 2 position safety – ‘Fire’ and ‘Safe/action locked’). The action closed with no drama.

So now I wait until the weather improves and I can go to the outdoor range. It may be a month before I post the results.
 
kjack:
You may not be interested in this because of the somewhat high price, but I can get you any number of boxes of Remington .222 mag brass that have been reloaded one or more times. A while back I sold $1000 worth of miscellaneous brass to an individual who then sells at gun shows. Included were 23 boxes of the above mentioned .222 mag brass that I had fired in my Rem 700 and reloaded a time or two. I thought I had also included some new primed brass but he says there aren't any like that. In the meantime I've been buying a variety of brass back from him, mostly belted mag cases, at a reasonable price. But he has the .222s priced at $25 per box of 20 that I think is way over priced. But if interested, depending perhaps on how your .204 conversions are turning out, I will buy back from him and pass along to you at the same price. Kindly let me know one way or the other. I'm a little disappointed at the $25 price tag and they will probably never sell. I was thinking more like $15 at the most since that is about what I've been buying back the mag cases for.

I just kept six boxes of new primed brass for my own use, which I still have, and they may be the only new cases remaining in captivity.
 
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Disregard the above. I just checked my most recent Midway catalog and it has Winchester .222 Rem mag brass listed for considerably less. I was thinking that the .222 mags would be hard to come by but I guess not. How are the .204 conversions working out? I may want to do that also since I have plenty of .204s.
 
.222 Rem Mag

Thanks for the discussion about brass.

I've got 140 rds of factory and a few more .204 cases to be formed. I really need better weather to shoot the 40 prepped rounds (I'm old and a cold-wimp).

One funny/ironic comment I heard: When I told a friend about this project he said that I might not want to do this because then the brass would only be good in the rifle it was fired in. I told him that that was the whole point, and asked HOW MANY OTHER 222 Rem Mags ARE OUT THERE?
 
You're exactly right, there can't be many .222 mags out there; perhaps we have the only two left. I was hoping to be helpful with the brass but obviously it is still readily available.
 
kjack:
The seller of the .222 mag brass called back advising that he was lowering the price to $10 per box which is reasonable. If you would be interested in a few boxes at that price, let me know. I would buy them from him and you would then pay me. I can attest that the brass is in good condition since I was the previous owner. The brass is sized and deprimed as I recall with the primer pockets cleaned.
 
My dad has a nice custom Ruger#3 he put together in the 222 mag. Should be able to buy factory 222 rem ammunition reasonably and fire form straight away from that. I just bought a few boxes last year I believe it was. Hornady I know still manufactures it
 
I have a Sako Mannlicher L461 in .222 Mag. Bought it several years ago for varmint hunting in the meadows hereabouts. Brass was and will always be a problem in this caliber. Yearly runs by Remington are about the only source I trust. I was able to get 200 rounds from Midway right after I bought the gun and have since used that as my go to brass when working up loads. I've not seen it since.

That said, I did some research on the .204 as a source of brass should Remington quit making their yearly runs. The case is long enough and the shoulder only needed to be set back and the neck expanded to get what I wanted.

I bought 100 pieces of Hornady .204 brass at something under 50 cents a piece then ran them through my RCBS .222 Magnum sizing die. It was no problem using Imperial Sizing Wax on the outside and graphite inside the necks. To get the right length for the new shoulder, I at first tried sizing them down till they just fit in the .222 Mag chamber. I smoked the case shoulders with a candle to help once I got close to the finished length.

My reformed .204 to .222 Mag brass shortens a bit in the process as it expands roughly 0.020 to .224 and the shoulder is set back..about 0.015" on average. I find the case mouths turn out fairly even, and then I true them up with a Wilson trimmer, just enough to get an even cut all the round the mouth.

This process has worked just fine and I have yet to lose a single case with the procedure. I've loaded from min to nearly max using several powders as well.

The first load in newly reformed brass is a mid range one, and this sets the shoulder for the rifle's chamber. A few months later, feeling this was a bit too slap dash, I bought a .222 Mag case gage from Wilson, the one that shows minimum and maximum lengths. I found that my previous method worked just fine and all my previously formed brass was well within limits. It will give you peace of mind when you're setting your sizing die.

For loads, powder and bullets, I have used both Sierra and Hornady, mostly the 52-55 gr Match bullets but cheaper Nosler and even Midway "Dogtown" bullets work nearly as well. For powders, BL-C2, as well as 3031, Win 748 and 4064 worked well. Accuracy has been outstanding with that old Sako. It's well below MOA, even with the full length stock, Schnabel type stock cap et. al.

I've found that the rifle is also very good (less than 1.5" @ 50 yds) with home cast bullets using the .204 brass reformed to .222 Mag and SR4759.

With all cast bullets, and some of the jacketed ones as well, I use Lyman's "M" die in .222 dia. with its two step case neck expansion plug to give me uniformity and to prevent resizing the lead alloy bullets. Conversely, I've not done any case neck wall reaming. As near as I can tell, accuracy hasn't suffered on iota.

I've also neck annealed the true R-P factory .222 Magnum brass to extend its useful life. To date, I've loaded some of those cases 12 times with no neck splits. I anneal every 4-5 reloads.

The photo below is of the gun and a 220 yd target shot off my back porch improvised bench rest. The scope is a 4x Leupold Alaskan which compliments the small size of the little Sako. A great carrying and shooting combination.

HTH"s Rod

 
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Thanks for your input; it was well received and appreciated. You are obviously doing great with the .222 mag loading and who would have thought that the .204s would be the .222 mag's best friend. Obviously you and kjack did since you are both doing it. I suppose that new mag brass is still available. My guess is that new brass can sometimes be obtained but on a very limited production basis. Over some 50 years of reloading, I have never annealed a single case, like you have done, of any caliber nor have I chronographed any rounds although I was the opportunity to do so with some .458 mags. I think my shoulder was aching too much by then to continue any further. So I just seem to accumulate more new brass rather than extending the life of the older ones. As posted the brass I sold to the individual for gun show resale did include 23 boxes of once and twice loaded .222 mag brass and I thought that would be a good buy for anyone needing some, but at $25 a box no way. Then when he lowered his price to $10, it turned out that he means for all 23 boxes at $10 each. So if you know anyone desperate for 23 boxes of previously loaded brass, it is available. But fortunately I still had some new boxes of brass that I gladly sold to kjack instead. I would like to view your photo but my Samsung tablet won't let me do that and it will not work with photobucket
 
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