My friend recently purchased 120lbs of once fired mostly Speer .223 Remington brass from a guy off of CL at a great price. Supposedly they didn't have primer crimps since they were .223 instead of 5.56x45, but I'm here to tell you that they have a crimp. We went ahead and purchased a bench mounted RCBS crimp remover since it would be a big pain in the neck to try to process this much brass with the press. Well after wet tumbling with the Thumblers Tumbler, drying, resizing, removing the primer crimp, cleaning the primer pockets, and micing the cases were finding that atleast 1/4 of our processed brass is coming way below trim length for the case. My Hornady manual says that max case length is 1.760" and trim length is 1.750" for the .223 Remington. I usually still use the cases as long as they don't fall below 0.010" from the trim length, but some of these cases are coming in down to even 1.732", way below the trim length. We bought 12 plastic shoe boxes from Wal-Mart and labeled them starting at 1.739" and below up to 1.750" and above and everything in between is labeled with its own number and sorting them according to length so we can get a proper crimp on the cases. My question for y'all is would y'all load the cases that fall below 1.740" or would you toss them? He gave the guy $200.00 for the 120lbs so at about $22.00 per K we could loose a few and no be too hurt on them.
Like the others the others said they will stretch so load em up and shoot em. 120 lb of brass for $200 ($1.67/lb) is a barn burner of a price. Around here scrap brass brings $2.35/lb.
1.732...that seems like it may end up leaving something like .164" to actually provide the neck friction for holding onto the bullet. I've been told to strive for the bullet diameter amount in the neck for semi-auto's. You have something about 74% of the diameter. If you are using cannelure bullets, that means less internal space. If you are using taper crimp, then you have less neck to use. You can't squeeze harder or you mess with the bullet. I'd think the powder vs bullet weight would broaden the response. Interesting question, I'd be asking the same thing. I have some cases that I have in my scrap bucket I may end up pulling out to re-use.
imho, roll from would be maddening on short non even length brass, he'd have to readjust for each cast, clear job for a collet crim till it grows and can all be trimmed uniform
Thanks for the responses so far guys, these will be loaded with 55gr FMJ bullets and CFE223 powder. I will also be crimping them with a Lee Factory Crimp Die.
I just spent an hour trying to find the page (without luck) that I read about case length being 1.730 - 1.760 and the trim length is 1.750 (Saami Spec).
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Related Threads
?
?
?
?
?
The Firearms Forum
2.2M posts
71K members
Since 2003
A forum community dedicated to all firearm owners and enthusiasts. Come join the discussion about optics, hunting, gunsmithing, styles, reviews, accessories, classifieds, and more!