Help finding .222 Rem Mag Brass

[Whitesheep]

It is getting really hard to find brass to feed my .222 Rem Mag AI. Midway says Remington is no longer making this brass and a search of the internet has not located anything.

Since Nosler makes .222 Rem Mag ammunition how can I go about getting brass from Nosler for this cartridge? Sure I can buy the loaded ammunition and go right to fire forming, but at $85 for 50 plus shipping this is expensive. .222 Rem brass is $85 per 100 pieces. Still not cheap, but a better alternative.

Thanks in advance for your help.

 

[Polaris]

http://www.24hourcampfire.com/ubbthread ... 22_mag_bra

Looks like a relatively easy conversion from .204 ruger

 

[Whitesheep]

Thank you Polaris. I am going to give this a try. It looks like I need to set it back 0.138" and that shouldn't be a big deal. In fact using my RCBS AI dies I might be able to skip the initial fire forming step.

I would still like to hear from the Nosler staff moderators what would be involved with getting virgin .222 Rem Mag brass from them.

 

[OU812]

It is getting really hard to find brass to feed my .222 Rem Mag AI. Midway says Remington is no longer making this brass and a search of the internet has not located anything.

Since Nosler makes .222 Rem Mag ammunition how can I go about getting brass from Nosler for this cartridge? Sure I can buy the loaded ammunition and go right to fire forming, but at $85 for 50 plus shipping this is expensive. .222 Rem brass is $85 per 100 pieces. Still not cheap, but a better alternative.

Thanks in advance for your help.

No help here on the 222 brass but midway sent me an email saying remington 300 rum brass was discontinued, at midway anyway. First it was powder, then primers and now brass. I don't get it. I wish Lapua would make all calibers of brass because Nosler brass isn't worth the money unless there are no other choices.

 

[OU812]

I found Hornady 222 rem brass for 26.09 per 50 count and Lapua 100 count for 62.99 if that helps?

 

[Whitesheep]

I agree OU. Regrettably I need 222 Rem MAG brass to turn into AI, not standard 222. Nosler brass is great in that you can load it right out of the box, but given what I am paid it is cheaper for me to just process less expensive brass anyway. For my .280 Rem AI I do use Nosler Brass because that is all that is available unless you fire form your own.

Gunbroker provided about 100 rounds of once fired RP brass for about $0.75 are round so this gives me a total of 300 pieces which should set me up for life. However, it is nice to know about the .204 Ruger solution.

 

[jimbires]

here you go .


http://www.grafs.com/retail/catalog/pro ... ctId/72473

 

[Whitesheep]

Bless you jimbires. I didn't think to look to Grafs and a Google search didn't locate this offer. I have a couple 100 rounds on order now at a good price. Interesting that this brass is not prepped like the stuff straight from Nosler. It doesn't appear to be once fired either.

Thank you again.

 

[jimbires]

your welcome , glad I could help .

 

[Whitesheep]

I am concerned about the Nosler brass I received from Graf's. I fire formed the .222 Rem Mag into AI shape using a 55 gr Hornady FBSP over 26.0 gr of IMR-4064. The max load for a .222 Rem Mag is 26.2, but with 3% larger case of the AI this should have been a safe load in the .222 Ram Mag AI chamber. Here is what I pulled out of the T/C ProHunter MGM barrel:

There is clearly a pressure issue here. On closer inspection the splits in the cases were along a score mark on the brass. Thinking I might have dirt in my dies I checked them and cleaned them. I have fire formed or reloaded about 100 Remington .222 Rem Mag brass and they don't show these scratches. Inspecting the unprocessed Nosler cases from Graf's revealed scratches on all of them. A few have what look like stretch marks on the brass. Regrettably pictures don't show this well, but in the left most piece you can see a line extending towards the mouth from the split. The other splits also line up with score marks. You can feel the score marks with a finger nail on "fresh" brass.

I shoved the Hornady bullets to the canular 0.090" off the lands and exactly the same thing happened. My next test is to pull apart the remaining loads and reduce the charge by 0.5 gr and see if the cases survive.

In the meantime I picked up some .204 Ruger Nosler brass and and going to fire form them using the same bullet over 25.0 gr of IMR-4064, which is actually 0.2 below minimum.

Honestly I think I got bad Nosler Brass from Graf's, but wanted to check in with the experts on this forum before contacting either them or Nosler. What am I possibly missing or doing wrong?

Note I have successfully fire formed and developed loads with Remington .222 Rem Mag Brass for this rifle. I have also been reloading for several years for several much more powerful rifles (.340 Wby comes to mind) and have never seen split cases like this.

Thank you in advance for your help.