Thread: Reloading Range Brass

Hi, Fairly new to reloading & have a need to load quite a few 223 rounds. Have Winchester, G.F.L, F.C, PPU, ADI, R.P & COO. The G.F.L cases seem to take the primers easily but some others don't, particularly the COO ones. Should I keep some & ditch some or chamfer the primer pocket of the difficult ones? Any advice appreciated.

Id keep it if you dont really need to get rid of it. I've always found federal brass gets loose primer pockets without to many reloads and I dont load hot either

The main issue is batching them. Don't reload mixed brands and expect great results. The internal volume differences will produce varying pressures and you're at risk of dangerous pressures in cases with lower internal volume.

Use a Lee decapper. Uniform the pockets with a Sinclair. You might need to swage some pockets if there has been a crimp. Makes a difference when priming. Anneal. Then size. Suggest a vast percentage of most brass has only been once fired. Reloading is not a task many hunters aspire to or want to. In process of doing over 2k of Federal brass. Annealing and SSM cleaning would probably fool most hunters.

you may well find some of the primers were crimped in place...a quick whirl around the lip of primer pocket once old primer removed will add a champher where the crimp was,dont over do it 1mm at very most...just enough to remove the crimp ding and ensure smooth entry of new primer....IF you are using mild/middle of road loads and not stretching barrel...mixed brass wont bite you on the bum....it cant. none of the loads will be over or under loaded,forsure it might be only 1" group capable not 1/2" but for 99% of my sub 250yard hunting..who cares,the animals sure dont notice.

Originally Posted by 6x47

The main issue is batching them. Don't reload mixed brands and expect great results. The internal volume differences will produce varying pressures and you're at risk of dangerous pressures in cases with lower internal volume.

unless your load is mild /middle of road so will be fine in smallest capacity case and slightly milder in largest.
my loads for 223 have been in milspec brass for last 25 years so switching to other brass just makes them tiny bit milder..cannot notice difference and can pick random loads from all that I have and rifle still pokes them into under an inch..always has done so cannot see any issue MYSELF.

Greetings @Cookie8008,
There are some substantial differences in case capacity in .223 brass. From my weighing Federal is some of the lightest. Some of the continental brass is very heavy so I suggest that you batch by head stamp and then according to average weight. Mostly the heavier cases will have less capacity and produce more velocity and pressure. I also have a decent supply of ex range .223 brass and am using some in 300 yard F Class shooting with good (for me) results. Mixing brass may result in vertical stringing at longer range.
There are some test loads in the blocks waiting for chronographing to determine how much difference in velocity case capacity makes which I will get to but Ken Waters found a difference of 190 fps between Winchester and Federal .222 cases. His measurements showed a difference in capacity of 1 grain of powder between the two. This is in line with my weighing of .223 brass with Winchester about 9 grains heavier than Federal (works out to about 1 grain of powder capacity). Sako, Lapua and S&B are around 9 grains heavier than Winchester.
Regards Grandpamac.

so 1 grn of powder = ABOUT a 4% difference...if you using a 25grn load for ease of calculation.....
also for ease of calculation 3000fps velocity x 4% =120fps
which under 250ish yards wont matter a hoot lol.
and if we keep with the 4% figure for arguements sake..as long as we arent hot rodding our loads up past a 95% till too hot in smallest case.... all is good in the hood.

Originally Posted by Micky Duck

so 1 grn of powder = ABOUT a 4% difference...if you using a 25grn load for ease of calculation.....
also for ease of calculation 3000fps velocity x 4% =120fps
which under 250ish yards wont matter a hoot lol.
and if we keep with the 4% figure for arguements sake..as long as we arent hot rodding our loads up past a 95% till too hot in smallest case.... all is good in the hood.

Greetings, @Micky Duck,
I grain of powder was the difference between Federal and Winchester with an additional grain for the Continental brass. Will do some chronographing over the next week or two and report.
Regards Grandpamac.

I mix my brass with the same load, but it sounds like thats a bit naughty. I actually find .223 brass very forgiving. My primer pocket cleaning tool seems to get rid of the crimp from ADI brass but I mostly avoid it. I like the GFL brass.

When Im sighting in I try to use all of the same brand of brass, but when hunting its just big handfuls of mixed brass loads into my pocket and Im away.

If your wanting benchrest accuracy you'd want the same brass batch weighed. Hunting it would be more than the brass at fault if you weren't managing to hit stuff within 200-250m with mixed..

Hi Blip, Happy to keep it but I have wrecked a few primers on the COO brass. Just loaded all the G.F.L brass which accepted the primer beautifully. Thanks.

Thanks 6x47. I'm loading (& keeping separate) the different makes of brass but was thinking that was just to check the difference in accuracy. I'm running 25 gr of ADI 2205H with 55 Gr Hornady SXXP projectiles which gave awesome results at 100m.
Top 3 in group before adjusting scope with gave me the answer I was looking for.

If it's crimped then you'll need to remove the crimp unless you want to munt primers.

If it's not crimped then you shouldn't need to touch the primer pocket. If some are easier than others to seat primers into then that's because they've loosened up from firing (i.e. they probably have less life left in them than the ones that are still tight).

Hi TeRei, Thanks. I'm not sure what a Sinclair is. I use a primer pocket tool to uniform the bottom of the primer pocket so will this reem the sizes? I do chamfer the edges if I see any crimps but have never annealled any brass. Do you need to do this if its only once fired? Was surprised the other day to to try factory ammo vs. handloads. Outside 2 were factory loads at 100m, then went to the recipe noted above which came up with the goods!
Crickey, 2000 will keep you busy!