22 Nosler Brass

[roostercogburn98]

Looked but can’t find any real current thread on this. Has anyone tried the Dogtown 22 Nosler brass? I guess it is supposed to be made by Nosler and why not just get Nosler brass,but my first experience with Nosler is that it was so soft. Not a ton of options out there for reloading this and want to play with it some more before I decide to rebarrel.

 

[culater]

You should think about moving over to the 224 Val. The guy I knew had a 22 Nosler and had a bunch of brass issues. I'm very impressed by the 224 Val and the accuracy and the 88 ELD at distance. The key is the 6.5 twist barrel. Very fun to shoot and load for.

 

[roostercogburn98]

My bother in law has one(224 Valkyrie) and I shoot it quite often. We have a shoot off between the two when we have them together. I can see the brass issue piece for sure. I am still tuning mine to play nice but it is rough. New caliber might be soon if I can’t tame the gas issue.

 

[culater]

My bother in law has one(224 Valkyrie) and I shoot it quite often. We have a shoot off between the two when we have them together. I can see the brass issue piece for sure. I am still tuning mine to play nice but it is rough. New caliber might be soon if I can’t tame the gas issue.

The only things to tame the gas are a h3 buffer, a Tubbs flatwire buffer spring and a adjustable gas block.

 

[roostercogburn98]

Adjustable gas block, heavy buffer are in place. Extra power spring will be here this week if MidwayUSA delivers like normal. Got some 77 grain SMKs with 27g of RL15 to see how that helps. Had this rifle since the caliber came out just been slow in messing with it. Never even shot factory loaded ammo from it. Rifle shoots good as is, just hard as hell on brass. Been to the 500 yard line with it a few times and it does ok. Honestly if I rebarrel, I think I will go with a good 18” Douglas or White Oak match 223 barrel and squeeze what I ca out of that caliber.

 

[Rocketvapor]

I have a few 22 Nosler uppers in different lengths.
My 600 yard upper is a 28" heavy barrel X-Caliber with NO gas port.
Nosler brass has made about 5 reloads with minimal marks.
I obviously don't see the gas related issues that you do but have some extraction stickage after 20 to 30 shots. A quick brush to the chamber through the ejection port and I can finish a 60 round match without too much trouble.

Bought some Dogtown brass and the stickage is pretty much gone.
The only external difference I can find is the neck thickness is less than the Nosler brass.
Nosler brass loaded neck diameter is 0.253",
Dogtown loaded neck diameter is about 0.251".

 

[roostercogburn98]

I have a few 22 Nosler uppers in different lengths.
My 600 yard upper is a 28" heavy barrel X-Caliber with NO gas port.
Nosler brass has made about 5 reloads with minimal marks.
I obviously don't see the gas related issues that you do but have some extraction stickage after 20 to 30 shots. A quick brush to the chamber through the ejection port and I can finish a 60 round match without too much trouble.

Bought some Dogtown brass and the stickage is pretty much gone.
The only external difference I can find is the neck thickness is less than the Nosler brass.
Nosler brass loaded neck diameter is 0.253",
Dogtown loaded neck diameter is about 0.251".

Ordered 100 Dogtown yesterday to see how it works. My Nosler branded stuff is pretty much trash at this point. It has been my load development and gun setup brass. I have solved the over gas issue but the rims paid the price. I have not had sticky extraction yet. Gun seems to be doing much better with adj gas block, heavy buffer, and heavy spring. 27g or RL 15 started to crater the primer so will stick with my 26.5g load with the new brass and see what results I get. Been eyeballing a 20 inch WOA barrel lately to get a couple more inches and maybe 50-75 FPS faster, may go 22 inch but not sure.

 

[Blutroop]

Following. I’ve been thinking about necking 22nosler down to 17 once brass is no longer a issue.

 

[roostercogburn98]

Dogtown brass showed up today. Sorted through it and it is very similar to Nosler. Ordered 100 rounds had one not useable. Box was 100 rounds to the dot. Small differences in brass. Picked 10 and weighed, etc...
Nosler
113.2-114.1g case weight
34 g case capacity (avg of 3 cases)
They were all short when new( well below trim length)
Dogtown
108.1-109g case weight
34.43g cause capacity(assuming lighter case weights mean less material so more capacity) will see how this relates to brass longevity and softness.
They were all well below trim length as well. Overall quality was just short of Nosler but pretty close as far as appearance right out of box. All mouths looked round and smooth. Will load them up and see how they shoot. Attached is the one bad round. It was messed up pretty bad.

 

[TACC]

Definitely keep us posted please.

I have not started reloading as of yet just saving brass...

62 grain VARMAGEDDON has been lights out for me suppressed at 100 yards.

Looking forward to stretching it out

 

[Rocketvapor]

Did your 62gr cases have sharp base edges like these?

 

[TACC]

Never paid attention I'll have to look

If I were to guess I would say yes

Is there something in particular you're looking for or at?

 

[roostercogburn98]

Definitely keep us posted please.

I have not started reloading as of yet just saving brass...

62 grain VARMAGEDDON has been lights out for me suppressed at 100 yards.

Looking forward to stretching it out

All I have shot through my gun is reloads so far. About 600 ish of 77g SMKs with 26.5g of RL15. Was getting mid 2700fps range with that load.
I have shot it out to 500 but was hard to ID hits since I was shooting by myself. Just changed glass and mounts as well as trued the receiver face and bedded the barrel extension to see if that changed anything. It was shooting great prior to that so hopefully it only got better. I have been tempted to get some factory ammo to see how it shoots but just haven’t done it yet

 

[Rocketvapor]

@TACC
The sharp edges seem to be early production. I've found them in Nosler 100 bags, the early 77gr, and box after box of the 62gr.

The sharp edge vs a bevel, creates shaving when the extractor snaps over during chambering.
Flakes of brass when the case moves in the bolt head.

I mean like real flakes and chunks of brass.

I hand bevel the sharp edges. NO MORE BRASS.

 

[TACC]

Now I see what you are referring to.

How were you beveling the edges, knowing not to take off to much?

Sandpaper, Dremel, wheel or stone?

I'll have to watch the next time I take it out to shoot.

Thanks for taking the time to explain.

 

[Rocketvapor]

Battery drill.
Lightly chuck, spin, strips of 240 grit on a finger tip.
Tried to duplicate the bevel of other cartridges.
While this reduces the surface area of the case head, the rim edge doesn't give much to case support when fired.

I also smoothed up the edges in the bolt face. Brass damage pretty much went away.

 

[roostercogburn98]

Loaded up the dogtown brass and fired it off one good time to get some looks at the aftermath. It seemed to hold up pretty good compared to first firing of Nosler brass. To be fair the gun has had a lot of tweaking done to help mitigate brass destruction though. Will set down and trim them all to length ( they are all way under trim length still) and see how they do for accuracy.