Wolfie. I neck down .204 brass to .17 cal. I anneal the brass and neck it down in 2 steps.
Never crushed a case that I can remember.

Less brass moment less stress in the case is what I figure

So got called and told my boat is still in the ship yard and I don't have to leave out for a bit longer so since most every thing else is done figured I'd play with some loads again would go out an try and make a stand but I'm at like 15-0 so egh.
Anyhow after reading alot about 17-.223 most people got that data from .17 rem data. Wanted to try and use some kinda stick powder to hopefully get some better S-D's I don't like big velocity differences. So was trying to avoid .17 rem data since the cases are a bit different. Was able to find some 17-223 data on hodgdons webs site. They have a online reloading data base deal . They had some for 4895 which I just so happen to have picked up a can a few months back.


I went ahead and went a bit hight then starting just because those loads always run slower in a gas gun and these 17's don't seem to like goin slow.

Trying the 25's again because I now have 3 100rd boxes of them now that all my orders arrived. These are a it longs so figured I'd try doing some seating with them. Found the same point and backed off 0.004" they go in easy and no movement from being mag loaded.

I do need to get some new low capacity mags , these two 20rd I have are mostly plastic and are wearing out . Don't wanna hold the bold open on the last round out. My metal 30rd will but I hate walking around with those things in the gun .






Same set up as the last few days same brass ejection.
And the targets , bit better then the last bunch of 25gr loads. That 4895 going some good velocities but silk the group are a bit meh.






Think I. Going to try and get these up to 3900fps or till I see pressure signs. If I can keep the velocities the way these are I'll just work With seating depth.speakig of , no damaged brass, everything looks pretty decent.



So yeah, gonna go ahead and put her up for a rest be a while till I get to mess with it again

Gonna burn that barrel out son.
Better have a 1 piece Tipton rod to keep it clean!

Yeah thats one thing I always forget to buy , nice one piece cleaning rod... Need some more jags and brush's too.... But me and the gf decided where gonna try not to spend anything we don't need for the next two months, see how much we can save up. So no books, Starbucks,random what nots for her....and no new guns ,extra powder ,primers ,scopes ect for me. Think I can get a cleaning rod or two though

So the actual company who came up with this and made the barrel saw my videos and was kind enough to get some insight

So after a lot of peoples suggestions,tried another annealing test. Got a new nozzle for my torce sonits a much more precise flame. Making sure to just hit the necks and not over annel them with the help of some 750° tempaiq instead of flame change.
Now I put mine on the outside of the case because.....well I can actually see it, Neve really understood the whole deal with putting it on the inside of the caes because it's really hard to see . Anyhow 10 cass same bunch of brass. Took about 6sec in the drill



Due is still set the same as the last batches same lubing process just annealed the necks aannnnnd...



Got one successful case form ...so safe to say the KAK .17-5.56 works a bit different then traditional deals. And for something that's supposed to use 1x fired 5.56 brass .... I Mean the whole 39 pieces I've messed dup out of the 200 ood successful ones I've made up, I think that perfectly acceptable. I Mena the amount of brass I'd need to save to justify a busing die set up and what not....egh just not worth it imo. Now if I was trying to do this with brand new super fancy Lapua cases or something then yeah I reckon but again its ment for you to be able to go just pick up free 5.56 rang brass or buy dirt cheap once fired and run with it. But anyway I got plenty of brass from up for a while a box of rounds loaded up , time annoy the dog mess out my buddy and go to some spot we've scouted. He's supposed to be the big time predator hunter but according to him I'm bad juju so mabye well see a possum or something

Wolfie. Pure n simple, you are doing this necking down in to big of a jump at one time.

I neck down standard .204 cases to .17 in 2 steps using " button's " in my die. And I always anneal.
I can't even imagine going from .22 down to .17 in one step.

So made another 110 off piece's of brass should bring me up to 200 something now. Went and adjusted the die to only bump the shoulders back .003" between the new conversation and all the fired formed stuff I got I should be good for a good while.


Went back to messing with the 25gr Vmaxs since I have three boxes worth used .17 rem data and loaded them right at mag length


Took ridge runners advice and kept pushing them to try to get around 3900 and here you can see the progression


24.0 GR was giving me the best initial group ( 24.5 what staring to flatten the primers and showing ejector marks more ) so loaded more up just to verify and strange enough I shot better auto loaded them from the mag vs single loading

H4895 is showing to be a nice little powder.

And just about everything went well and fire formed beautifully... except for this deal , rim ripped off so it don't extract so the other one rammed it's self in. Easy fix few taps with the cleaning round and it came out




Also decided to see how dirty it was so sent a wet patch down and well.. egh


Bore isn't bad at all the star chamber is where all the gunk is but it's a quick clean. And ummm yeah gonna load a box and see what happens in the next few days.

Also if anyone was looking for low cap mags got reccomended these 5red roller mags and there pretty nice.

O boy o boy sooo I've been doing some more videos on testing various deals when it comes stop forming brass for this aaannnnnnd found a method that doesn't require anything fancy or expensive and so far has given me 100% conversion with 0 crushes ! One of the guys on accurate mentioned it when I was asking about bushing dies saying how it would probably work and be a lot more cost effective. What is it you ask ?...... running them through a gutted .22/5.56 resizing die first the though the kak in this case ive used a lee that scuba sent me a while back. Set it to where it bumps the shoulders back to where the .17 die only need to move them another .002" to set it where we want and I have had a crush yet ! Got a few videos I need to edit up but I've tried it with the regular brass , annealed, really really annealed.. everything except new brass and a neck/ shoulder joint anneal. Last batch from today 90% are just once fired non annealed, no problems easy peasy


Also gave it it's first kinda deep clean in a out 180rd the other day annnnnd not seeing the massive powder fouling issues it was supposed to have like other .17's. now all I did was give it a scrub with a nylon bore brush and some JB Bore paste . Not super aggressive or anything just doing what the bench rest guys advised short strokes all the way out to the muzzle . Then patches that out . Took about ten dray patches on a jag. Then used there wet pats with synthetic Hoppes let it sit for a bit then patches it out . Could have gotten it cleaner but this looks pretty good for me.

All patches sare in order from left to right up down




Finished with a few alcohol patches then dry patches to neutralize the Hoppes

Any further updates on the KAK .17-5.56 ??
How's the accuracy after breaking in the barrel and load development??
thanks!

Sorry kept trying to find pictures of my recent updates buuut don't think I actually took any lol.

So as far as updates . I have probably at least 350-400rd out of this lil sucker all loads are running 3600fos average.

Now accuracy has increased but I did add a ACU wedge ( $1 piece of plastic that take sup slack betwen the upper and lower) and a new scope and it's a 1" gun all day easy. Could probably get it down more with more load tuning but I have other projects and this things works well so .

Now I do clean it pretty often. Every 50rd or so which for me with my set up isn't much at all. I do this with all my gun really because honestly I just find it easier to do it like this vs letting all that carbon build up then taking hours vs minutes to clean.Usually 10min with abrasive ( Iosso or JB bore paste) a regular solvent and some alcohol wipes. I know a lot of people complain about .17cals needing frequent cleaning but I'm sorry a cleaning every 50-100rd isn't bad . I mean I guess if you laying out PDog tows that one thing but 50rd lasts me a good long time with what I do.

Now will also say j did kind a figure out a large part of the problems I had with my brass rims ripping waso100% because of the gun. Used that same brass in my .223's and had a few do the same. Just the hight pressure didn't help.

As far as brass forming...could have sworn I posted my advanced a bit and now it's stupid easy to make brass without much extra cost added
The short of it is to use a gutted ( no expander ball ect ) lee .223 full length sizing die to knock the case down a bit then running it into the KAK die.... Really that's it lol.

Just some pictures

From left to right we have a once fired , gutted lee due then the KAK die





And I've gotten basically 100% conversions with no crushes doing this method.

Now I had also been getting told you have to anneal , you have to anneal , I could never even consider doing this with annealing ect..... Well we saw what happens with our last annealing test , what was it ? 90% failure rate ?

Well with the el cheapo step down still basically @ 100% conversions with 0 crushes ! And they flow though like silk !

Now I will say I'm pretty sure I over annealed these a bit but


Then just send them through the gutted lee die

Then the KAK die


And honestly I made probably a good 120-150 pieces like this just dinking around with both annealed and non annealed brass and as long as I use that step , no real problems

How every I was kinda a idiot and I didnt keep everything properly segregated...so now I have a bunch of annealed non annealed stepped on stepped ect all loaded

Moly all your 17 bullets and try some AA2700. You might be in for a surprise and you won't have to worry about cleaning your barrel.

if your pushing those pills to 3800fps are you cleaning the copper ?

Yeppers. Same as I do everything else . Not 100% if I get all of it out because my bore scope is too big. That a long with the fact honestly I dont trust patch color anymore.

You know molly is one thing I've never messed with ! Think I might have to play with hit now though

I would suggest trying hBN coating rather that moly.
There are a LOT of articles on how to do this.
Take a look at David Tubb's video : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5DsYhPLSUD8
There's a TON of info here. https://www.longrangeonly.com/forum/threads/hbn-bore-treatment.1796/
Applying the coating is a bit time consuming step.
The good thing is that you can do the coating in bulk.
As you will learn, if you read about this, be careful of the size of the hBN which you use, AND don't breathe the dust.

(hBN = hex boron nitride)