.223/5.56 ?

[Jbondmonroe]

I am fairly new to the AR and reloading world. A good friend of mine does all the reloading for us but he does all pistol reloads. I have recently built a High Standard AR chambered in 5.56. When I buy the die set (when I can find one for a good price) what do I need to do different for the 5.56 casings vs. the .223.

 

[xring62]

nothing. I havent in 20 years,no problems

 

[sloughfoot]

nothing. I havent in 20 years,no problems

Short, sweet, and correct.

There is no difference between military and commercial brass. They both have the same range of internal volume.

 

[ZbornacSVT]

Remove the crimp on the military primers

 

[warthog]

Small Base .223 dies will work the best with military brass though.

That is just a bit of trivia, any dies will work though a primer swager might be helpful if you are going to be pushing out military primers all the time. They can break pins since they are crimped in, also pick up the primer pocket cleaning and fixing tools to make things nice in there after removing the crimped primers.

Or just do what these gentlemen tell you. Truth is, though I use military brass all the time, I load for a bolt action and extreme range shooting accuracy so it's a different ballgame than mass production of 55 grain or 62 grain ammo.

 

[atkinson3069]

i would have to agree with the other guys and yes make sure you do ream the crimp out of the primer pocket before you try putting new primers in or you will damage the primers

 

[cook4army]

Ok, I have a silly question then......what does this crimp look like? I purchased 2K worth of military brass, and have been processing them for reloading. I also have a bunch of federal and pmc brass that I've shot and plan on reloading, and looking at each of these pieces of brass, I see no difference in them. I'm using a powered case trimming unit, and I clean the primer pockets until they are shiny brass. Am I getting this crimp then?