doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion Classic & Custom Single Barreled Sporting Rifles @ doublegunshop.com What is a 22-219?

eightbore,
When a case is sized, the neck is sized more than necessary and when it is pulled back over the expander, it is expanded to .002"( or there about) less than bullet diameter( to create enough neck tension to hold the bullet). If you size a loaded cartridge, it will be difficult to run the neck( with bullet seated) through the neck portion of the die, and the rear of the bullet will be sized significantly smaller than groove diameter. If you attempt this with a monolithic bullet, you will experience great difficulty.
Mike

Thanks for that information. After smoking the cases, I find that the resistence is at the beginning of the shoulder and the lower part of the main case. I think the entire case needs to be sized. Wish me luck with Reed Cartridge.

"Beating" a live round into an unknown chamber and firing it ?

A really stupid thing to do.

I had done a chamber cast and confirmed that the chamber was identical to the round. The "round" entered the chamber and failed to easily fully seat only about a 1/16". I appreciate that forcibly seating a round is not a good thing to do.

I would be tempted to pull the bullet, dump the powder, and de-prime another of those Reed cartridges. Slather the neck, shoulder, heck, the whole case with a magic marker, and push that into the chamber. Where the interference is occurring will be readily apparent, no more guesswork.

I fired a cartridge, smoked the empty, and it would not go back in. I have smoked empties and fulls. What do I do next, short of purchasing a set of sizing dies. I guess I need to do that anyhow, if I want to shoot any quantity of ammo. Bill Furguson sent me empties, and they wouldn't fit either. I guess I will purchase a set of full length sizing dies for .219 Donaldson.

Eightbore,
Check the rim/rim recess fit. If the rim recess is too tight, that could cause the problem, even with correct cases and dies. See if a case rim will fit in, upside down. Note how any radius affects the fit.
Mike

That was the first thing I did when trying to identify the case, weeks ago. The rim recess is fine. The smoke test indicates interference at the shoulder and case body.

Since the rounds you have fired or tried to load were probably sized in .219 Donaldson dies what you may have to do is send the fired brass and one that shows the problem areas (and the chamber cast) to CH4D and get his opinion on dies. Back in the day everyone was making their own chamber reamers for the .219 Donaldson. If you think your chamber is close except for a couple of tight area the other alternative, and maybe the best, is to rent a .219 Donaldson chamber reamer and touch up the chamber to what is now the accepted standard that commercial dies are set to reload to.

Lots of variance in chambers of nonfactory cartridges back in the day depending on who did the work & who made the reamer.

What you need is to have a set of custom dies made for your chamber there are several people who will do this if you Google it. They usually will require you to send several cases that have been fired in your chamber for them to work with. Since you seem reasonably certain that you are working w/a .219 Donaldson if you can borrow a std .219 Donaldson FL die & buy a sacrificial shell holder. You can shorten the shell holder .001" at a time with a lathe or even a file until the case will enter the die far enough to size the case so it enters the chamber (you can also shorten the die & accomplish the same but at more expense)

Once you have 3 cases that will enter your chamber you can load them with a moderate charge & fire them to get your fireformed cases to
make your custom die set from.

You will be shortening the shell holder on the face or top & adjusting the die down about 1/4 turn after touches the shell holder with the ram on the press fully raised. Be sure to go slowly w/the process of shortening the shell holder as you want the case sized just enough for the case to chamber w/o creating any excess headspace & risking a case separation when you fire a loaded cartridge.

Unless your chamber is cut really far off from standard dimensions this will work & if it doesn't all you are out is the cost of the modified shellholder.

The above procedure is of no help if the rim depth is not cut deep enough but you have indicated that this is not the issue.

It's not all that difficult to do & worth the effort to get what sounds like a nice rifle shooting.