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Reloading 223 mixed brass..

A

AR.Bear15

Private
Minuteman
Aug 6, 2017
18
3
Just getting into reloading. I have got the rock chucker press with some hornady bushing dies. I am going through my brass, guesing around 1,000 ish pieces. My brass is mixed. I have the following:
Norma, LC, ADI, PMC, CBC, IMI, Winchester, Hornady.
My queation is do i try and sell the brass and get one consistent company brass or just run it all.
My main goal is to reload 75s or 77s out of my 223 for PRS matches.
I have been told that if i change from brass to brass even on the same bullet and powder charge, that my load data will be different and will need to be restarted witg each type of brass that i have.
 
For prs I'd go buy 200 cases from wherever. Just so it's consistent and you know the condition.


All the mixed brass is practice ammo. 500 and in, you won't see much difference until you get to smaller than moa plates.

Use the known condition brass to practice from 500-1000. This way you know the misses aren't ammo related given you're consistent in your practices.
 
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I would not use that mix of brass for competition. Different brass brands have different capacity. They will cause different MVs and different pressures so you'll need to be doing a lot of tweaking to get the mix to shoot consistently. I would use it just as random plinking ammo or get rid of it.
 
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From someone that just worked up a .223 load for my cmmg bull barrel upper, sort your brass. I had fed and wolf brass and the results with the same loads was incredible. To my surprise, the wolf shot much better for my barrel. 2 moa with fed and .5 moa with wolf. All 5 shot groups. Of course, every gun is different and I’m not pushing any brand of brass, but save mixed brass for .45 acp.
 
What has been said is good advice.

Ive seen extreme spreads of 120fps with mixed brass, and cut them down to 30fps with same headstamp brass.

Either sort your brass or buy new...its not like pistol reloading.

Shred
 
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with akl being said, does anyone have a favorite brass they like to work with for 223...im going to have a fair bit of ADI brass comming from Australian outback ammo. Was hoping that would be decent brass to work with. Probably have over 200 pieces of that
 
As far as brass preferences....anything without a crimped priper pocket.

As far as brands go, pmc has treated me well as has wolf.

Shred
 
Lol
I’ve played that game.
Vertical gets quite interesting at 500 yards.
There’s a pretty big variance in case volumes in 223.
 
AR.Bear15 said:
You talking single digit SD's?
Click to expand...
No, average sd was about 20, but im not building competition ammo, and i cant shoot better than the ammo i make....on par with factory stuff.

I only shoot 300 yards on average with my 223, but have stretched it to 550 and did well.

I load lc17 brass too and notice near identical performance to pmc...i trim short and run them til the necks split...no annealing...so mostly for economy.
They can still print under moa.

Shred
 
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spelunk said:
You don’t necessarily need to buy new brass, but I would recommend sorting by head stamp. I’ve used LC brass in 223 to win a couple club matches. It’s cheap and pretty durable.
Click to expand...
I has giving this brass by a family memebet and he helped me reload it. I had one piece that had a case head seperation...should i just dcrap the whole lot?
 
Depends on where it came from. The case head separation could be caused by being fired in a loose chamber (common in military fires brass) but it also could be caused by over sizing the brass during your reload process. Make sure to only bump the shoulder back .002-.003” during sizing
 
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I sort by headstamp and measure neck thickness. I’ve done the same thing you are and notice some big inconsistencies in accuracy and velocities. I do big batches of mixed for 300 AAC and still measure neck thickness but it’s just a plinker round so I don’t get as concerned.
 
You might try the Nammo brand brass. It is the Lapua military stuff. Really consistent and I’ve got great life out of mine. You can get it at Powder Vally for 13¢ each. Good stupid fir the price.
 
I've shot a lot of mixed brass in 223. My standard load will group around 5/8in in an accurate bolt gun. I can squeeze a 1/2 inch from the same gun and load using Lapua brass. But, I don't mix military and commercial brass. I Prairie Dog hunt and play around with mixed brass but if I'm shooting for group or score its all same headstamp stuff. If you're going to load mixed brass use a conservative powder charge.
 
When I go to the range I pick up 223/556 brass. Usually get a few hundred each time. Usually its whatever Academy had on sale. Hit it a few times and you can keep whatever you get the most of in one lot. Maybe trade with people local to you.
If you are shooting a 223 for precision you should have an AR for making brass. Then you get to shoot more too.
 
Slab74 said:
From someone that just worked up a .223 load for my cmmg bull barrel upper, sort your brass. I had fed and wolf brass and the results with the same loads was incredible. To my surprise, the wolf shot much better for my barrel. 2 moa with fed and .5 moa with wolf. All 5 shot groups. Of course, every gun is different and I’m not pushing any brand of brass, but save mixed brass for .45 acp.
Click to expand...
Same expereance, BUT only with the Wolf Gold. The other brass Wolf was inconsistent.
 
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