Separating .223 brass questions

[DaveInFloweryBranchGA]

As I was going through my enormous pile of .223 brass, several questions occurred to me and I thought I would ask what others are doing.

Question 1. Do you segregate your .223 brass?

Question 2. If you segregate, do you separate military surplus from commercial brass?

Question 3. Do you go one step further with the military surplus brass and separate it according to manufacture?

Question 4. If you separate it by manufacture, do you go beyond that and separate it by year?

Finally, after answering the questions above, please post what you are using your brass to load for:

Low accuracy (Plinking, blasting), medium accuracy (up to 300 yards on the High Power firing line) or maximum accuracy rounds (varmint shooting or 600 yard line high power)?

I'm currently segregating everything down as much as possible myself, but I have several applications I'm using the brass for, from low to maximum accuracy.

[felix]

Your best bet would be to separate by weight before any other separations. EXACT weight piles. ... felix

[BruceB]

For MY PURPOSES with the .223, I don't worry much about precise weight.

[Understand, my uses are mostly plinking-style with some ground-squirrel shooting mixed in.

So....a couple years back, I weighed large samples of .223/5.56 brass with about a dozen different headstamps. When the dust settled, I found only minimal variation among the whole bunch of varieties, with both military and commercial cases included in the calculations.

Only a couple of grains separated the lightest from the heaviest types, and this is essentially unimportant to me. If I was using the brass for matches or serious varminting, I'd be a lot more exacting....but as it is the ammo works fine for me. In Mini-14s, AR15s and light bolt-action sporters, the performance is more than adequate.

I do separate the loaded rounds by headstamp, except that the military brass is loaded in batches with mixed dates but same manufacture. I DO NOT use federal (FC) brass in this caliber, having had serious problems with the stuff in the past.

[DaveInFloweryBranchGA]

Thanks Bruce and Felix, that's what I was figuring and I knew someone had already done the research. Since my first bulk of reloads will be plinker loads using collett pulled milsurp bullets, Lake City casings and milsurp WC846 powder, I figure I can now combine the various small quantities of Lake City brass I have into a bulk batch of plinker brass for that load, since it's basically a Winchester White box type of load.

If I want to shoot accuracy, I'll start weighing and use the large batches I have of a couple of different years, particularly 1991 and 2004. Be interesting to see how these "wartime" manufactured cartridges stand up in terms of variance when I do that.

Have to wade through all this cheapie milsurp bullets I have first though before I get to the better bullets I have.

And of course, those new group buy molds for the .223 look awful nice....

[mooman76]

I usually don't separate at all but in this case a separate the military brass from the regular commercial stuff. Because the military stuff is generally thicker and has less room inside and because of the crimp which I find on the commercial stuff too but that's how I sort it.

[W.R.Buchanan]

I separate military from commercial, mainly cuz the military stuff needs to have the primer pockets swaged or chamfered to remove the crimp.

After the first loading I don't even do that.

I use .223 in my Mini 14 so it's not like I'm going for one hole accuracy.

It is mainly fodder for targets, classes, and the upcoming Zombie Apocalypse.

I can pick up 200 rounds of of .223 brass on nearly every trip to my range, I just don't get that people don't save it themselves ,,,but,,, Mass fo me!

I'm working on getting 5000 rounds stockpiled for .223, 40S&W, .45 ACP as these are the rounds that are most likely to be one way trip reloads used in places where I can't retrieve them.

My big rifle stuff can all be picked up, and I sort it all by headstamp, and keep batches of 50 or 100 together as they are loaded and reloaded. I have front line brass that I am using on a monthly basis and that is kept in the cartridge boxes until it is used up. The rest in kept in Ziploc bags in 100rnd lots until they are brought into the loading cycle..

Also the stored brass has at least been cleaned and some has been processed to the point where it is ready to load. A "post it" note in the bag tells the quantity and status of every bag.

Randy

[zomby woof]

I shoot Highpower competition with my AR. I separate all my brass. I ran into a large amount of mixed year LC brass. I loaded them up an didn't see much difference. I use these no farther than 200.

[Rokkit Syinss]

Military from commercial then large headstamp Federal gets chucked in the scrap bucket. Commercial for 200 & 300 yard highpower loads, military weigh sorted for 600 yard loads.

[tomme boy]

Military and FC gets sold or traded for other brass, lead, or whatever. I like to keep Remington brass as that is what most around here shoot if it is not military. The FC brass is crimped as well as the military so I treat it the same. I have picked up about 50K rounds this year alone. An just be cause it is military, it does not mean leass case capacity. LC has shown time and again to have the most case capacity in 5.56 or 223. 308 and 3006 do have less. PMP is the worst 223 for capacity. It seems all of their brass has less. I poped primers in a 243 using their brass. I did a volume test and they held 10gr less than the Win I used.

[Recluse]

I still don't take .223/5.56mm as a serious caliber, so I never separate my cases, and only do the absolutely bare necessary prep work when re-loading them. I only re-load for it to stay in practice as I have bags and bags of military surplus and LE issue left over from years ago.

:coffee:

[mroliver77]

For plinking and blasting I dont separate. For varminting I do. I love the LC brass!

I was at a garage sale some years ago. The fellow had a good sized box of 5.56 once fired for a good price. I was tickled to get it cheap as it was beautiful brass and cleaned up great. When I went to size it I found it was berdan primed! I had never seen or heard of 5.56 with berdan primers. I almost pitched it but did not. Now I find it makes good bullet jackets!

[sargenv]

I've found that Hornady brass is the heaviest.. with Mil coming in second and then the other commercial stuff lightest..

[felix]

Consider this when obtaining brass for an accurate gun:

http://www.reloadersnest.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=2620

... felix

[JonB_in_Glencoe]

I separate Com from Mil.
then I separate the com by Manufacturer
I separate the LC from all other Mil.
and BTW...federal isn't all crimped.
the FC with a date is mil and crimped.
and the FC w/o a date is commercial...no crimp primer.
lots of people don't like re-using FC, so I just avoid it too,
but I have no idea if that is a legitimate reason ?/?

I load for myself using only R+P for my TC Contender 223AI,
all others get traded or stockpiled for later usage ?
Jon

PS, more than once I have bought used 2x fired Mil brass cases
in the 50 rd reman. boxes at gunshows from non-reloaders.
I like that...primer pocket processing already done by a professional :)

[Rolling Stone]

It seems strange MrOliver77 and I are the only ones to have a bad experience with Berdan primers. This in its self was enough to convince me I wanted to separate by comm/mil and then by mfg. I then use a Lee universal decapper before cleaning. You don't have to take my word for it, but eventually you will learn what works for you.
Rolling Stone

[beagle]

Having been blessed over the years with a plentiful supply of .223 brass, I use only commercial and usually let some other less fortunate worry with the military crimps.

I seperate the commercial by headstamp and prep from there.

.223 commercial brass is interesting. WW, FC and IMI is pretty consistent thickness wise as I neck turn with WW being the most consistent. R-P is ****, IMO, with widely varying degrees of thickness.

Yeah, I neck turn as it's a half day's work once in a lifetime but it seems to be worth the trouble./beagle

[bobthenailer]

Yes to questions 1,2 & 3
no to question 4

[Salmon-boy]

Having picked up 2K from DukInMaine, I'm about 2/3rds through decapping and first cleaning. This is a great thread to come across.. It led me to find http://www.accurateshooter.com/cartridge-guides/223rem/ which contains much good information. Most notably, information for different uses - plinking through wildcatting, and even powder and bullet selection. Definitely a lot of information for a new venture for me.. Thanks all and Merry Christmas (or Happy Holidays for the PC non WASPs out there!)

[GabbyM]

Case neck tension is another reason to separate brass.

Even if you anneal all your brass it's not going to react to the annealing the same.

[Rokkit Syinss]

and BTW...federal isn't all crimped.
the FC with a date is mil and crimped.
and the FC w/o a date is commercial...no crimp primer.
lots of people don't like re-using FC, so I just avoid it too,
but I have no idea if that is a legitimate reason ?/?

Military contract Federal is crimped, some LE Federal is also crimped, small headstamp uncrimped is also LE, large headstamp is commercial. The commercial Federal is ****, soft brass, maximum primer pockets and it tends to not like being reloaded, you can often blow a primer out of the case just by blowing into the case.

[tomme boy]

The berdan primered brass is South African. I used to love that ammo when it was available. You have to watch out for some of the Remington is also crimped. A few years ago LC could not keep up with the amount of ammo that was needed and they were buying cases from every ammo maker. I did not save any of the Winchester, but I think I have some of the Remington cases that are crimped. I only keep Remington cases as that seems to be what everyone in this area shoots.