Mr. Mashburn, I tried to find the thread where you talked about the 17 A. Bee. I bought some Starline 32-20 brass to make mine back some time ago. I thought I had encountered some hard brass to form but this Starline will test you. I take the brass down in roughly .020 steps and yet I still got folds in the shoulder along with splits. The couple hours I played with them I found taking the 32-20 down to 25-20 and then reducing the necks down 3 more small steps before running them into the 17 Ack Bee die. My die is a Redding that JLC converted to a bushing die. I ran the case into the die without a bushing to iron out the shoulder some. Then I used a .191 bushing to final neck size. I loaded 11.0 gr 4227, 20 gr VMax, 7 1/2 primer and got just over 3400fps with absolutely no pressure signs. I did lightly lubed the front half of the case. I ran a bent paper clip inside to check for any grooves and found none. I was surprised that my small group of cases were only .020 shorter than cases made from 218 Bee.. Back in late summer I was going to make a .200 or so short version of this case. I made up 10 without any issues. My friend doing the rechambering of a new 17 HMR Contender barrel had never cut a short chamber so I told him to cut it full length. Next time I try this I'll run them thru my Ken Light annealer a couple times before forming. My formed necks are running just over .009 so maybe there's an issue with factory annealing where the necks transition to the body??. I neck turn all my brass so when I finish up this winter I'll make a .009 clean up cut on the necks. My suggestion is if you can find W-W 218 brass use it. I've shot the 17 Killer Bee for years and never had an issue forming cases.. Mr mashburn hope this helps, any questions, just ask.
17 Ack Bee+
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- Last Post 27 November 2020
ray h
posted this
27 November 2020
I never really cared for the Hornady brass.. The primer pockets didn't hold up for me and I don't use hot loads. I'm sure others have had different results. I'm also a Hornady fan, even prairie dog hunted with a couple of their employees.
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delmarskid
posted this
27 November 2020
I believe Hornady offers 218 bee brass. I have no idea who makes their brass for them.
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