.223 vs 5.56 brass

oldglock · Dec 13, 2013

I have recently had the opportunity to load a bunch of .223 once fired brass (WW and FC} as well as a bunch of 5.56 (LC09, LC11 as well as some mystery headstamps)
With the sizing die set to heavily bump the shellholder, none of the commercial .223 brass exceeded the 1.76" max case length while with the 5.56 brass, approximately 75% was overlength, some markedly so.
Again, same die setting, all definitely once fired brass. Anyone care to speculate on why this may be?
Possibly loaded to higher pressures? Maybe, but this seems lame.
All speculation is welcome or perhaps you have noticed the same thing.
Jim

Scott Hearn · Dec 13, 2013

Are you lubing the inside of the necks? I've actually bumped them hard and pulled them back out with the expander ball. Thought I had bad dies because that's what I saw first. Then I found that others were just fine and sized correctly. Could be a bunch of things, pressure, brass thickness varying, shot in a SAW with a sloppy/worn chamber, etc. Different cases spring back varying amounts after sizing but I've never had to run different dies settings for certain headstamps once I got them set.

Corey · Dec 13, 2013

FC is always typically shorter than the trim length IMO. When loading for over 100 yds I sort by head stamp. I typically sort out FC, PMC & lake city for accurate loads, everything else I call card board killers.

hunter_dmw12 · Dec 13, 2013

Trim them a little shorter for next time you load. I load a lot of ammo and I always have to trim mil brass and black hills. Keep your die where it is at and keep going trim what needs trimmed.

drmitchgibson · Dec 13, 2013

I was having this issue before I got the RT1200 and its trim die. Some cases just wouldn't resize to length. I was going to save them up and get an extra shell plate to grind down slightly to allow more compression. Instead I ran them through the trim die, and got great results. All cases seem to be perfectly uniform with no issues, all seating to the same depth in my chamber checker.

hunter_dmw12 · Dec 13, 2013

I use rcbs small base dies and they have given me the best results.i also have trimmed a few cases before sizing them and that seems to help

oldglock · Dec 14, 2013

Actually, I lube with Imperial sizing die wax. Run a waxed finger tip over the case mouth before sizing and no expander ball drag.
Not to change the topic but I went back to Imperial after many spray on's and am glad I did. Slow but never a problem.
FC cases being shorter from the factory is a possibilty I had not thought of. Makes sense.
Currently I lube and size everything with a die setting that I know sizes adequately for all my .223 rifles. tumble, the measure the one X fired commercial but automatically trim all the 1X military/5.56 to 1.75". If I were to measure them first, I would find90% would measure 1.765 to 1.78.
Fired from a SAW? Thats another possibility. Got a 1000 rounds once fired a while back. About half had mangled case necks(twiste, ripped) or a deep crimp across the case body. Returned the unusable ones to Widener's and had replacement, true cherry LC 09's within a few days, no cost to me..
Sorry, getting off track.
Jim

hunter_dmw12 · Dec 14, 2013

that sounds like a saw. did you try hornady spray lube; i spray inside the case neck and everywhere let sit about 10 min so i dont get a hydraulic dent on the sholder size, trim and tumble for 12 hours. look great and functions even better. i found the wax stuff was sticking in my die and was hard to clean out.

Spiff · Dec 14, 2013

oldglock said:
Got a 1000 rounds once fired a while back. About half had mangled case necks(twiste, ripped) or a deep crimp across the case body. Returned the unusable ones to Widener's and had replacement, true cherry LC 09's within a few days, no cost to me..

I got some of that batch too. Was that SAW brass or did it get run over by a tank?

dennishoddy · Dec 15, 2013

hunter_dmw12 said:
. did you try hornady spray lube; i spray inside the case neck and everywhere let sit about 10 min so i dont get a hydraulic dent on the sholder size, trim and tumble for 12 hours. look great and functions even better. i found the wax stuff was sticking in my die and was hard to clean out.

I use the Hornady one shot at well with zero issues.
I continue to see forum reports of folks that report stuck cases, etc when using it. I'm thinking the applicator hasn't followed the directions? Don't know. Just my observations.

hunter_dmw12 · Dec 15, 2013

I agree dennis I think it is applicator error. And not spraying inside the case neck. I have not stuck a case since I started using it and have loaded thousands of round.

Corey · Dec 16, 2013

dennishoddy said:
I use the Hornady one shot at well with zero issues.
I continue to see forum reports of folks that report stuck cases, etc when using it. I'm thinking the applicator hasn't followed the directions? Don't know. Just my observations.

Hornady one shot worked great for 308
I had a bunch of problems with hornady one shot with 223, stuck several cases Austin T recommended Dillon spray lube I resized probably 800 more cases then I realized I had been using the 9mm shell plate.
I do not recommend using a 9mm shellplate to resize 223 but it worked with Dillon. The caliber is now wrote on top of the shell plates.
One shot has never failed me when using it correctly for the record.

oldglock · Dec 18, 2013

Actually, I have also used the Hornady one shot lube with no problems. At the time I was looking for lube Hornady was not available so I settled for Lyman spray lube. Not very good stuff. Lots of nastiness on shoulders that does not come off no matter how long tumbled, shoulder dents, occasional very close to stuck cases.
Anyway, went back to the old reliable Imperial wax. I'm in no hurry anyway as I reload to unwind.
Jim