Forming .300 AAC from .223 / 5.56 brass

[NavyVet1959]

If you heartily dislike the conversion process, doesn't grumpa sell converted brass?

For a somewhat uncommon caliber, I was wanting to not be dependent upon third parties for the brass, so I bought the case trimmer and small circular saw blade that can go in my dremel tool.

Any brass that gets too short for .300 AAC, I save for use in making .22 TCM or 9x23 cases. I plan to eventually get one of the RIA .22 TCM / 9mm combo handguns. The max OAL of the .22TCM is 1.265" and the max OAL for the 9x23 is 1.300". The mags that RIA uses are .38 SUPER and the .38 SUPER has a max OAL of 1.280. I'm thinking that there *might* a chance that either there is enough room in the RIA mag for the the 9x23 or I could just load slightly shorter and use .38 SUPER load data.

[Jupiter7]

Another vote for Vonzep's case trim jig with the mini chop saw. Also, I trim to 1.358.

[GRUMPA]

The jig that Vonzep offers works just perfectly, and I must have cut well over 250K with them.

The thing I would like to mention is the case itself. There's more than a few out there that just don't play nice, meaning the brass is to thick and wont work especially in the neck area.

[coyotewacker]

I have a 6" slitter blade for my table saw to cut brass

[Elkins45]

I have a small tabletop band saw. I bought a metal cutting blade at Lowes for $9 and made a wood spacer that clamps to the sliding miter gauge. I can stack up two at a time and lop them off at the shoulder. Then I size, trim, debut and swage the primer pockets. I've made 1K myself, and I had already bought 500 from Grumpa.

[gpidaho]

Something I would like to pass along for all of you. When I went to change out the blade in my Harbor Freight mini saw for the first time the Phillips head on the *** screw they use to hold on the blade just stripped. As instructions simply say remove screw with no mention as to right or left hand threads, I called HF tech support. After 20 mins. of being assured I was like family to them I was told that as on most chop saws the blade is held on with left hand threads so as not to come loose when cutting. I cut sides on the screw with a dremel so I could get a monkey wrench on it and it is of course a right hand thread. Seems their tech support is every bit as valuable as their fine tools. Well, rant is over. The mini saw and a squirreldaddy jig do make short work of trimming cases. GP

[Bzcraig]

Same here but I do a quick deburr between rough cut and sizing. Takes about a second per case. I don't want rough cut brass in the dies.

A jig and a HF mini chop saw is the way to go if you're doing any sort of quantity. Same w/ a 3 way cutter for trimming. This conversion isn't as easy as making 358 Winchester from 308. But it's still an easy conversion and you can knock out a lot in short order.

This is exactly how I do it.

[CWME]

I use a Dillon RT-1500 and a form/trim die and modified shellplate from Brads Warehouse on my XL-650. I liked their tooheads because they have all five stations threaded instead of the one or two on the dillon head. I think it was $108 for both items from them so it was quite a bit cheaper than buying from dillon. They work great on the 650. I can crank out cases as fast as I can pull the handle. I put a decapping die on station one to pop the primers. Once they are cut and formed I swage the primer pockets, aneal the cases, and wet tumble in SS media. I dont need to debur etc, the SS media cleans that up for the most part.

[xman777]

I mounted mine inside a large plastic bin that is low profile. It catches the cases and the mess.

There is a member here that sells jigs. The username escapes me at the moment. I highly recommend it. It locks the case positively. And if you're not careful it will shoot the cut one across the room when inserting a new case.

[osteodoc08]

The jig that Vonzep offers works just perfectly, and I must have cut well over 250K with them.

The thing I would like to mention is the case itself. There's more than a few out there that just don't play nice, meaning the brass is to thick and wont work especially in the neck area.

Grumpa, could you give a little more insight as to which HS have been primary offenders?

[Jupiter7]

Grumpa, could you give a little more insight as to which HS have been primary offenders?

My main offenders have been foreign brass. I've converted RP, Winchester(including NATO and commercial), FC and LC and others. S&B has given me problems as have PMC.

[GRUMPA]

Neck thickness data:

Factory Blackout brass

Gemtech (factory 300 BLK) - 0.011"
PNW Arms - 0.011"
RP - 0.010"

Converted brass

Good:
ADI - 0.012"
Aguila - 0.012"
A USA - 0.012"
FC - 0.013/0.014" [Note 1]
GFL - 0.012"
HB - 0.013"
Hornady (223 headstamp) - 0.011"
Hornady (nickel 223) - 0.012"
IMI - 0.012" [Note 4]
IVI - 0.013"
IVI ('85) - 0.012" (runs great)
LC - 0.011"
LC (converted blank) - 0.012"
PERFECTA 223 rem. - 0.012"
PMC - modern "bronze" and "X-tac" are good, older PMC with small letters may have problems
PS - 0.011/0.012"
PSD - 0.011"
RA - 0.013"
RA ('69) - 0.012"
RP .223 - 0.011'
SSA - 0.012"
TAA - 0.013"
Tula - 0.0115"
TZZ - 0.012"
WCC - 0.010/0.011"
Winchester - 0.011"
WIN NT - 0.011"


Thick neck wall, bad without neck turning:

ATI - 0.015" [Note 3]
CBC - 0.014/0.015"
CJ6 - 0.015"
DNL - 0.016"
FNM - 0.016" [Note 3]
GECO - 0.015/0.016"
Hot Shot - 0.014" [Note 3]
HRTRS ( Herters?) - 0.017"
IK03 - 0.015"
IMI - 0.015" [Note 4]
KFA .223 REM - 0.015"-0.019"
MKE13 - Anecdotally reported as troublesome
MPA - 0.015"
NPA - [Note 3]
PMC (old headstamp) - 0.015"
PMP - 0.015"
PPU - 0.014/0.015" [Note 3]
RORG - 0.015"
RWS - 0.014-0.015"
S&B - 0.015/0.017"
Wolf Brass .223 - 0.014"

Note 1:
"FC" brass includes several types of brass that don't seem to come from the same factory. Most of them are good to go, but the "thin web" FC that turned up a few years back tends to have thicker walls and will cause neck thickness problems. Some FC that runs thicker is the newer stuff. Has beautiful annealing marks on it. Has FC @ 12:00, numbers @ 3:00 and/or 9:00 (May have both, could just have one), and the year @ 6:00


Note 2:
NPA is very low quality brass, with a super small flash hole, and is likely to cause broken or stuck decapping pins, or other problems.

Note 3:
The brass marked with this note may require extra sizing force, and machine flex may cause them to headspace too large if the machine is not set up specifically to do this "harder sizing" brass. This is due to thicker brass, alloy variations, or variations in factory anneal. This isn't always universal within a headstamp, for example, some older PPU had the problem and others did not.

Note 4:
This brass is included in both the good and the bad list based on differing user reports. It is important to keep in mind that sometimes a single headstamp can be made at multiple factories on multiple differing manufacturing processes. Other times a manufacturer that has their own brass factory might bring in brass from another manufacturer during times of high demand or to fulfill a large contract.

[osteodoc08]

This is awesome data. Thank you for taking the time to post this.

Have you ran across any PSD headstamped stuff? I've got a bunch laying around.

[GRUMPA]

PSD is garbage, best to use it for reloading the 223/5.56 stuff. The reason I say that is the brass is harder to form than the other "Domestic" brass. It can be used but those have to be done in batches, if you mix and match brass as they're being formed the gauge dimension changes and gives iffy results.

I have indicators and gauges, when I form stuff it's real easy to see how much different things react. That's why I only do all of a given head stamp all at the same time, I have to make adjustments according to the head stamp.

With all the better head stamps out there.....I would work with them and would reserve the other head stamps for leaner times when things just aren't as plentiful.

[osteodoc08]

Thanks for the insight. I had a bunch of PSD brass given to me and loaded over 1k 5.56 plinker rounds with it. The flash holes were on center and it didn't seem to react to my usual process any different than say, LC brass. I was under the impression it was in the same tier as PMC......which to me means serviceable Korean brass.

[Boolseye]

THanks for the benefit of your research on case neck thickness, Grumpa.

I have an alternative case-forming method–my drill press has a base with a small movable vise–I can set the height where I want it, chuck a cutting wheel in the drill and stand 2 or 3 .223 cases in the vise, with wood blocks to prevent brass damage. I can get pretty close to where I want them, then lube, trim and de-burr.

[vonzep]

For a somewhat uncommon caliber, I was wanting to not be dependent upon third parties for the brass, so I bought the case trimmer and small circular saw blade that can go in my dremel tool.

Any brass that gets too short for .300 AAC, I save for use in making .22 TCM or 9x23 cases. I plan to eventually get one of the RIA .22 TCM / 9mm combo handguns. The max OAL of the .22TCM is 1.265" and the max OAL for the 9x23 is 1.300". The mags that RIA uses are .38 SUPER and the .38 SUPER has a max OAL of 1.280. I'm thinking that there *might* a chance that either there is enough room in the RIA mag for the the 9x23 or I could just load slightly shorter and use .38 SUPER load data.

When you are ready for TCM I have a jig for that too.
ALWAYS TIGHTEN THE HF PULLEY SET SCREWS BEFORE USING.

Thanks for the great comments guys.

[vonzep]

Also, if you have a shop vac put it just to the right of the blade with the opening facing you. It suck the shavings and necks right up and your cut brass can pop right into whatever container you are using.

[sparky45]

Just another A+ for vonzep and more specifically his jig to hold the brass for cutting. Super good product and a great guy to deal with.
S45

[blueeyephil]

Ok, guys, I'm taking a bit of a different approach. 1st, I'm making my first batch of 100 cases out of LC 556. I don't have a small chop saw and don't want to invest in one and buy a jig. I decided to just use a tubing cutter. Not as fast but easy to chuck a case in the drill and using a small tubing cutter goes ok.

Even though the cases are curled in some, they resize ok. Then on to my new Trim-it II. My cases are pretty long as I cut pretty far forward. I was having trouble holding the cases even with rubber gloves. I finally tried using some channel locks to hold the case and that worked well. Didn't have to hold hard enough to mess the case rim up.

So I'm about ready to load some rounds.

Works for small batches, but I wouldn't want to need to do 100's at a time that way.