Is this as easy as running a 357 maxi case into a 222 remington sizer or whats the real story. Would a 221 sizer be better. I'm looking for a rimmed 22 for a contender carbine. Thanks in advance, Papalote

Papalote, here is what I did playing around a while back.
First off I annealed the 357 Max brass about 3/4-1" from the mouth down. I did not do this on the first couple, after I annealed I did not lose any.
I then ran the 357 max up in to a 256 Win mag die, short though.
After that I ran it up in to a 221 Fireball die, short on this one also.
If you are going to a 22, I believe you could size the web area with a full length 357 mag carbide die, with the expander removed of course, or the 223 FL die. Also for a tight chamber the 223 small base type die could be used. To neck size and bump the shoulder the 221 die could be used.


That was all there was to it. I did not check to see where the neck wall thickness ended up.

I talked to a couple of guys after this and they said to use a 30 mauser die for the first step. It probably wouldn't hurt, but I don't have one. They tried to convice me they did not have to anneal to get to 256. If so they surely lost a lot of brass and did not end up with a very good piece of brass. The ones that I did not anneal looked well, like crap. The brass on the shoulder area and neck had stretch marks, this was with the non-annealed brass. The annealed brass looked as good as any factory brass.


If you play with this, I would suggest using 357 mag brass just to see what you have to go through as far as what your sizing dies will do, and annealing etc.

Jeff

I would buy alot of 357 maxi cases if I was going to do it.Remington quit making 357 maxium ammo years ago.They could quit the brass just as easy.

If you are afraid of the 357 Max brass, no problem. You can always go back to 223 brass. Just change the extractor, this is with the TC's of course. I am pretty sure this will work with out looking...........

I believe Mike Bellm did this type of work on several different calibers.

Jeff



BTW, I think Starline is making 357 Maximum brass also