Thoughts on reloading range brass, particularly 223/5.56

[Mts]

I came across about 1000 .223 and 5.56 brass mixed with various head stamps and some was 223 but most is 5.56. Is there any sense in hand sorting all the different head stamps to reload them in separate lots? I have an ar15 with a 5.56 chamber and was more interested in a medium pressure load for plinking not going for the hottest safe load. Any thoughts?

 

[76Too]

only bother to separate if you're looking at making match ammo. if it's just for plinking, don't waste your time.

 

[Mts]

Thanks, that will make my life a little easier. Nothing like squinting for a couple hours.

 

[turnerdye1]

I hand sort all my range pick up brass especially in 223/556. The reason isn't specifically for the case itself but more for crimped primer pockets. Lake City (LC) and some Federal (FC) have crimped in primers and are a pain in the ass to reprime unless you sort them and cut out or swage the primer pockets. Time sorting saves a lot of headache and wasted smashed primers.

 

[NKBJ]

Mts,
I've seen some plumb amazin' (to me ) percentage differences in case volumes, from one piece of brass to another. But how much does it matter? Seems to be a matter of the chosen powder, bullet, seating depth, which gun... round up the usual suspects!

So any how, on .223 / 5.56 loads I put each piece of brass through the whole prep sequence, primer pockets, flash holes, length, internal deburring, everything. Has it made a difference since I started doing things that way? Eh, beats me but I know what I got and winter on the corn tundra is a long, long time. As for sorting, some I does and some I don't, but I know what's what.

 

[Mts]

Whats your thoughts on swagging vs reaming? I've always been of the mindset its better to swage than ream because for one your not removing brass which never seems like the ideal option and second not sure how easy it is to consistently ream the same depth/diameter. I just have a lee turret press and was looking into buying a dillion super stage 600. What do you use for snagging?

I'm new to primer pocket crimps haha

 

[Mts]

NKBJ,
I've been reloading 6.5 Creedmoor for several years and while trying to make match grade I have found that to be very true also. I've heard from a couple experienced reloaders they believe 5.56 brass has thicker sidewalls than 223 but I haven't done anything with those calibers yet.

 

[turnerdye1]

Whats your thoughts on swagging vs reaming? I've always been of the mindset its better to swage than ream because for one your not removing brass which never seems like the ideal option and second not sure how easy it is to consistently ream the same depth/diameter. I just have a lee turret press and was looking into buying a dillion super stage 600. What do you use for snagging?

I'm new to primer pocket crimps haha

When I was broke I used to use a lee deburring tool to cut primer pockets. The length of the deburr tool kept me from going too deep and keep it uniform. This worked really well for me but took time.

I then switched to a RCBS primer pocket reamer. This was better because it had a handle on it which saved my wrist the pain. This also worked really well and had a built in stop on it that would prevent you from taking off too much brass. This also took time.

I then upgraded to a Dillon super swage that I found on here used. This thing works wonders once its setup and is fairly quick, much quicker then the hand cutters. With this I also sorted brass by headstamp because different brands have varying crimps on them. For most people the super swage would be the way to go if you have some extra money for one. They are pricey but it's Dillon so it works.

I have now upgraded to a press mounted swager for my XL650. This was also 100 bucks and voids the dillon warranty from what I've heard buy I've ran 3k cases of LC and FC on it so far and its running like a champ. By far the fasted and most efficient way to remove crimps but the initial cost is expensive considering the Dillon press.

If you have a single stage press or can remove the auto indexing on your lee turret I believe LEE and RCBS make a press mounted swager. These run one case at a time but from what I've heard it can be quicker then the super swage and its about half the cost.

NKBJ,
I've been reloading 6.5 Creedmoor for several years and while trying to make match grade I have found that to be very true also. I've heard from a couple experienced reloaders they believe 5.56 brass has thicker sidewalls than 223 but I haven't done anything with those calibers yet.

As far as sidewalls go I've never really worried about the case thickness or any of that. I also dont shoot match loads out of my AR's. I run 26.0gr of CFE223 on a 55gr bullet and it always sits nicely in the cases no matter what brand and it doesn't compress either way.

 

[NKBJ]

I swage the pockets.

NKBJ,
I've been reloading 6.5 Creedmoor for several years and while trying to make match grade I have found that to be very true also. I've heard from a couple experienced reloaders they believe 5.56 brass has thicker sidewalls than 223 but I haven't done anything with those calibers yet.

I've seen military head stamped brass with walls thicker than most commercial manufacturers' stamps and there's been some that's just as thin. Forgive me but I'm getting into some "it's all relative" territory there by using those terms.
From what I've seen with commercial manufacturers there's enough difference so that when loading with a compressed charge, the powder level may be at the base of the neck or half way up the neck. I'd weighed prepped cases before to check on consistency, saw the variations and pondered what difference does it make, but seeing the changes in powder levels in the cases gave me one of those Scooby-Doo "Huh?" moments.

So, what gives? Nobody is going to waste material as a standard business model, or at least I wouldn't want to. Have some outfits been filling batch contracts to thicker wall gubmint specs? I don't know. We've been at war now for almost twenty years so reckon most anything might be floating around out there.

 

[traderjoe]

I prefer to hand sort 223/5.56 range brass by manufacturer. Part of it is OCD and some of the brass I might upgrade to my bolt rifles. It's strictly winter project

 

[DadSmith]

only bother to separate if you're looking at making match ammo. if it's just for plinking, don't waste your time.

Thats what I do. No reason to worry about a round you don't take time to trickle weigh, and trim or use match grade bullets.

 

[bigedp51]

Save $$ By Using Lake City 5.56x45mm Once-Fired GI Brass « Daily Bulletin

Accuracy Potential of Mil-Surp 5.56×45 Brass

So, how accurate can previously-fired GI surplus brass be in a good National Match AR-15? Well, here’s a data point from many years ago that might be of interest. A High Power shooter who wrote for the late Precision Shooting magazine took a Bill Wylde-built AR match rifle to a registered Benchrest match. His first 5-round group ever fired in a BR match was officially measured at 0.231″ at 200 hundred yards. This was fired in front of witnesses, while using a moving target backer that confirmed all five rounds were fired.He recounted that his ammo was loaded progressively with factory 52gr match bullets and a spherical powder using mixed years of LC brass with no special preparation whatsoever. Obviously, this was “exceptional”. However, he had no difficulty obtaining consistent 0.5-0.6 MOA accuracy at 200 yards using LC brass and a generic “practice” load that was not tuned to his rifle.

 

[Fullmag]

One thing I noticed about FC brass while checking case OAL on mixed brass and trim to 1.760 they had a tendency to go under size by .020 tp .030. While PMC, LC or others very consistent at 1.1760

 

[bstewrat3]

My only recommendation is to definitely use a small base die, because you don't know what it was previously fired in.

 

[NKBJ]

One thing I noticed about FC brass while checking case OAL on mixed brass and trim to 1.760 they had a tendency to go under size by .020 tp .030. While PMC, LC or others very consistent at 1.1760

Yep, me too. Lots of short FC's. Adjusted the Lee "factory crimp" die to compensate for the FC's. That's with Sierra factory seconds (some even have the crimp groove displaced) that still go bang and hit what I shoot at.