My wife wanted me to try and shoot a few seal this summer when I am out on the Kuskokwim River here in Southwestern Alaska. I cannot do this according to the Marine Mammal Protection Act of 1972...but she can as she is 100% Yup'ik Eskimo. So for her upcoming birthday, I bought her a Winchester Model 70 in .223 WSSM.

I purchased 100 cases of Winnie brass, and Wilson arbor press style dies, Redding body and full-length dies and an assortment of projectiles from Russ Haydens Shooters Supply. I thought I would create the most consistent cartridges I could to see what the rifle is capable of.
I inspected the cases and seperated 18 because the primer flash holes are oblong. I trimmed the remaining cases and reamed the primer pockets and de-flashed the flash holes. I then ran all through the body die, which did nothing. Then I ran them into the full-length sizing die to squeeze the neck down, opened them back up with the K&M expander mandrel and began turning the necks (to say these cases are thick necked is an understatement; most of the neck-wall thickness are 0.021" without much variation). I found only 6 cases that fit tightly on the neck turning mandrel the rest were too loose, so squeezed them back down and put the expander mandrel in a drill press to remove some material. I measured the mandrel at 0.0245" exactly with my Starrett micrometer. I removed 0.00025" for a final 0.02425" diameter. I didn't think it would make much difference, but it is enough the cases are tight, and not wobbly on the turning mandrel.
I am removing 0.0015" of neck for a neck-wall thickness of 0.0195". So far I have 30 cases completely done, and have seperated 4 cases whose walls are too think on one side: they leave a low-spot on the necks. I'll use those for foulers.
Once I work through the rest of the cases, I'll have fun with my new K&M Primer Seater with dial indicator. Yes, I wanted to go all the way on this project.
So far it has been a bit a work, but I find it very relaxing after a day at the office. I only hope this rig shoots as well as the time I've invested in the cartridges.

Have you run any factory ammo through the gun? Trying a few different loads of factory stuff may give you an idea of whether the gun has the potential to shoot well enough to continue with the laborious path you have chosen.

Some guns just won't shoot no matter what you feed them. Others shoot pretty well no matter what you feed them.

LWD

For the 223 WSSM, my friends say the heaviest bullets work best. They were really frustrated until they started loading "cannon balls."

Good luck!

Boy that sounds like a lot of work. It is theraputic though. I don't go quite the distance you do. With a factory gun (i.e. factory cut chamber) you might see more significant results by changing powder and bullet combinations and varying COAL than turning necks and seating primers to +/-0.0001. Nothing like playing with a new toy though. Whats the twist on the barrel? I would go with the heaviest the twist would stabalize. More than likely its a 1 in 9, the 69gr match kings, 60gr partions, might even try some boolets in the high 70's for kicks you never know.

On another note. I spent 4 years woking on lake Iliamna (pedro bay) and did quite a bit of guiding up river of sleetmute(sp) on the Kuskokwim for pike, kings, and she-fish. Best job I ever had. I always wondered about those fresh water seals, how do they taste?

Thanks for the replies.

I haven't fired the rifle yet, the water in the river is too hard to drive a boat through, and too soft to drive a snowmachine or 4-wheeler on. A few more weeks yet.

I have 30 grain Berger's, some 50 grain Nosler's and a box of the 50 (?) grain Barnes banded copper bullets. They don't expand.
The ranges for this are going to be short, probably less than 125 yards. Every seal I saw last year was within that distance, and one close enough a .22 LR would have been the best bet. The target is an ovoid shape roughly 2" long by 3/4" high, so a flat shooting round was what I was looking for.
I was warned about the .223 WSSM being finicky, but the only stainless .22-250's I could find are Remington's with 26" barrels and bulky stocks. This Mod. 70 is the Classic, Camo, Ultimate Stainless with the scaled down, rubberized stock. Everything in this rifle is stainless, even the springs. I prepped the rifle itself by using 1/4" I.D. tubing to make a pillar for the rear guard screw and epoxying it in. The front screw is too short, being only in by three (3) threads! Later this summer I will send the guard to someone and have the screw-seat turned thinner so I'll have more threads engaged, then I can put in a pillar in the front. This plastic stock is a more rigid plastic than on my .300 Ultra Mag Stealth.

For this weekend I have planned to drill the primer hole on a case to make a COL gauge. Then I can get serious about loading some shells.

I forgot to add: we are roughly 90 miles from the Bering Sea, the seal follow the salmon and in late summer will come up to look around. They are plenty tasty.

Too bad it's a "wizzum"