Thread: Hunting and fishing .223 ammo

Originally Posted by planenutz

@Stocky - this is a bit of a revelation to me. I've been reloading ADI cases for the last 18 months or so and now that some of them are getting into their 4th or 5th cycle I've started to get fatigue failures. I was wondering what I was doing wrong but it sounds like this is a well-known "thing". I had a couple of early case failures on my AR too... not that I blamed the AR for that... but thinking more about it I can understand how the AR was a little harsh when compared to the bolt action.

This photo shows the various degrees of failures, from just the faintest of line on the case to complete separation:

Attachment 131584

As you can imagine I've become a lot more fussy with rejections and after reading your comment on this thread I think I might retire the ADI brass after 3 cycles.

Aside from that the Belmont loads shoot very well. I've been emulating the Belmont factory ammo by reloading these with the Belmont 747 Action Rifle Powder (26.6 gr) and the Hornady 55gr SP pills to a COL of 2.230" and getting excellent results in all rifles.

In all fairness I gave my brass away with a warning. I blamed the AR but after a bolt action had a separation I called it. Only takes that one time it manages to close up with the front half of the last bit of brass still in the chamber and your "savings" go out the window.

To be completely fair it shot well in both and although I only shot a few goats and a fallow it performed fine.