New to reloading, help me not kill meself =)

[Jimmydaux]

Hey fellas,,, Its been a while for sure.

I finally started loading a few weeks back. Last year I started asking you guys about some reloading for .223, I just barely got around to actually starting to crank out some loads.

I have a few things that still make me alittle nervous. First is pressure signs on a bottlenecked rifle casing. Im shooting .223, with mixed brass. I worked up loads yesterday with 55 grain soft point bullets. Im shooting ramshot TAC powder and loaded up the 55 grain to spec with loads starting at 22 grains and working up in steps of .5 grains to 24.5 grains. 24.5 is less than TACs max load for the 55 grain bullet and I settled on 23.5 for the load with the best accuracy. What do I need to be careful of when working up loads like this? I guess the real question is,,, what are the main pressure signs to look for in a .223 casing? Will I ever have issues with over pressure if I stay under the Max loads? Ive heard of flattened primers, and incipent case head failure, and some of the others, but im not sure exactly what to look out for. I know I need to be careful of bulged casings and splits in the sides or mouth. Any direction would be much appreciated.

Second, how many reloading cycles can a normal .223 casing endure? Ive heard 3 or 4 from some people and 10+ from others... Its got me in a quandry.

Lastly, how careful to I have to be when loading 5.56 nato stuff? I know it has a smaller powder capacity and therefore higher pressures. If I am below the max loads by a fair amount, can the 5.56 be loaded at the same grains as the .223 stuff or should I separate them and work up two differant loads for each type of brass?

Sorry for the long, mostly confusing post. =)

[James C. Snodgrass]

[smilie=1:Mixing brass isn't some thing I would recommend. As far as military brass goes though I like it a lot in 223, I do back off max loads a bit and watch the chronograph as it is not up to interpretation. I've looked a lot of brass and primers and measured brass I suppose you can call it guesstamation . But velocity doesn't lie very much or often.

[Bigjohn]

Plus 1 for James' answer. With a lot of brass by the time primers start to show signs, it's been too late for a while.

Ex-mil brass is normally heavier, which equates to less room inside, which means less powder required to reach a certain pressure level.

If you are going to load for testing purposes; don't mix cases, load in steps and stop immediately if you have any sign of an adverse result, like excess pressure; PULL, do not fire any more of that or heavy load batches. If you are loading under what the manual for that powder says is max. charge in that cartridge there should not be any problems.

Case life depends on several things; chamber size (in which you fire the rounds, semi & auto guns normally have larger chambers to insure functioning), brass hardness, amount you 'work' the brass during reloading, case length and charge pressure levels. Moderate or reduce any of these will help increase life span of cases. 20+ requires some care on your part.

John.

[Junior1942]

+ another no no on the mixed cases. New or once fired 223 cases are too cheap to be fooling with mixed cases. Sooner or later you'll fire a round with all four components--case, bullet, powder charge, primer--on the high end of the tolerance stack. Plus, how can you know if a load is a good one when one of the four components changes?

I buy new brass from Sinclair Intl in quantities of 200 to 500, and it not only is all from the same manufacturer it's all from the same lot #.

[pumpguy]

I just neck size for the .223s I load in my bolt gun. No need to resize the whole case for ammo that is going back into the same chamber. I have a Mini 14, too, and I never mix the brass for these two guns.

[Three44s]

+1 for sorting your brass for headstamp!

Another thing is to measure your bullet jump.

Some rifles will like a different "jump" ....... but as it varies pressure .... note the seating depth of your loads. IF you change bullet jump .... treat is as another load and back off some and work up.

Three 44s

[Heavy lead]

You don't mention if you have a chronograph. If you don't get one as soon as possible, IMO it is the best way to keep yourself out of trouble, keep all your fingers and eyes. For what they cost I think everyone should have one these days, I never work up a new load without one. Good luck and have fun.

[Depreacher]

My .223 is an AR-15 so I full length resize. Don't need the small base type die. I use an RCBS X-die, and I LOVE it. You trim all cases to a little less than minimum then use the X-die from then on. My cases will grow to almost max length (supports the boolit better), but never reach max. For an AR man I recommend it.
My neighbor gave me 1000 rounds of mixed NATO brass, decrimped and polished. Beautiful stuff. I hated to see it just sit there so I loaded it 10% less than max with AA2200. The primers are still well rounded on the edge when fired so I feel OK. It has enough umph to cycle the action, but doesn't throw the emptys as far as my regular 2200 loads in rem or win brass.
Being you are just starting, I would use commercial brass (I use Remington mostly) and start at STARTING loads as listed in the manuals, and CAREFULLY work up under the eye of an experienced (did I say EXPERIENCED) reloader. I did and After 47 years of reloading I have never even blown a primer (THANK you LORD). One reason is I don't like "HOT" loads, and I don't shoot reloads from strangers. I once stuck a boolit in the bbl of my .41 Mag, (no powder), and have YET to live it down with the local shooters (35 years ago, yet). Half was in the cyl, and half in the bbl. HA! Moral; find yourself an experienced reloader, even if you have to pay him. NEVER guess on a load, or loading procedure. You'll live a longer happier life. De Preacher ps: and welcome to the forum!!!

[Ben Dover]

If you can get one, read the applicable portions of the Accurate Arms load manual. They address many factors that affect pressures and performance. You can also call them prior to loading. Well, you could; I think they have been bought but you might try. Ben

[rainyday]

on your question for case life,it will depend on if you neck size or full lenght size. for me neck sizing makes by brass last longer due to not working the brass as much as full lenght sizing plus with neck sizing you dont get as much case stretch and wont trim as often( a big plus to me).
all new brass can be neck sized and the loaded. if you have brass that you havent fired through ytour gun,then you need to full lenght size. for plinking loads i use any brass but i choose a minumum to medium load from a reliable loading guide. i find nosler and accurate arms to be the most accurate to me. nosler uses a system similiar to water filing the case and all my loads from it have been right on for velocity out of my guns.
i like the sujestion from some of the others here to get some one experianced that is close buy. it helps alot

[Freightman]

i have a young man who wants to learn to reload and ask if he could come over and watch? so when he came over we talked a little showed him my set-up and handed him a hornady loading Manuel and said when you read that i have another, he said he didn't like to read instructions i said buy your ammo as it is cheaper than guns and doctor bills.
the point is you need to read as many good books as possible they are written by some pretty wise people and will keep you out of trouble. get lymans cast bullet book it is very informative if you are going to cast.
excuse the no caps as i had surgery on my arm yesterday and not supposed to move it so i am one armed for six weeks.

[Jack Stanley]

Watching for pressure signs on batches of mixed headstamp cases will eventually bore you to tears or scare ya to death . Even though it's true that the cases are cheap and you should keep them separate I've seen mixed headstamps used extensively . The load was kept closer to the bottom than the top , the rifles were Remington 788 and 700 only and the accuracy standard was the army "L" target . The load was used for offhand practice and qualification at only a hundred yards and factory ammo was used for duty .
The ammo was loaded by the bucket full by only one man whose job it was to keep all of our fingers in place . He used tons of only one type of bullet , hundreds of thousands of only one type primer and truckloads of the same type of powder ( canister grade ) .
When I load .223's , I do keep the cases separate even though I don't load at max . I do that because I demand the most accuracy from that rifle . If I didn't have that demand I might load a plinking load using mixed cases ...... if I was so broke I couldn't pay attention . Should you decide to use only one type of case and stay well under the maximum load , I doubt you will have overpressure . With one type of case it is easier to watch for though .

Case life in a bolt action for me has alway been very good ten or more loads is easy . Some might think it odd but in my AR type rifle I can get around ten as well . I attribute that to the fact that I have a set of dies for each rifle and the dies are adjusted to each particular rifle .


Loading NATO brass isn't all that hard , you would be wise to keep your commercial brass separate from military if it's minute of angle accuracy you want . I have noticed that some military brass "feels" different when running them into the dies . I haven't got the time to section or weigh cases so I just keep them separate .


Let me tell you a reloading story unrelated to the .223 so please don't think that you can easily swap this into the rifle idea . The last time a loaded .45 ACP ammo , I ran about twelve thousand of them through my Dillon 550 . This is the third time ine my loading career I've loaded such batches of ammo . The cases are everthing from once fired to range pickups and my only requirments of them are ; not cracked and no berdan primed or steel cases .
What I expect when loaded is ; the all feed , fire and not lead the barrel of my 1911 Springfield . The only bullet I use for this mass loading is a 230 gr flat point that my H&G mold makes .
What the load gives me is ; accuracy is about five inches or less at twenty-five yards with an un-accurized pistol . It always feeds , it always fires and it never leads ( partly because the powder charge is so low ) . Mind you , there are about fifty different headstamps in the pile [smilie=1:
My requirements for a pistol or revolver are greatly different than a rifle . Since I no longer compete with a handgun this "practice load " I've used may last me the rest of my days . When accuracy was needed I would load with cases I kept close record of and the performance was much greater .
One thing I tell the budding rifle reloaders around here is to always remember you are holding that pipe bomb only five inches from your face . Some listen some don't just think before you do my friend .

Duzzat hep yew eny ?

Jack