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Help On Different Brands Of Brass For Reloads

J

Jonlow209

Private
Full Member
Minuteman
Feb 25, 2009
16
0
United States
#1
I just got into reloading and I had a few questions regarding the different brands of brass I have for reloading. Some of this stuff is old, some of this stuff is new. I have these headstamped brass:
T W O 7
FC 04
FC 06
Winchester 223 rem
Win NT 5.56mm
LC007 (or LC 07 I can't tell)
W-W Super 223 rem
80.08 PS 5.56 (Im not sure its PS, or FS, or DS)

Im guessing FC is some federal brass, and LC is Lake City. Im not sure what any of the rest even mean. I have seen FC brass having bad reviews and mixed reviews with W-W Super brass. Lake City is known to be good right? (If it is lake city)

These are all .223/5.56 shells but I dont know the difference between all of these. I am also not 100% sure that my descriptions are right because they are so hard to read sometimes. So can you help me out at least order them from best to worst quality of brass so I know which ones to reload with confidence because I have only a couple hundred good bullets and the rest of the bullets I have are Scharch bullets (no idea what the quality is on these). I have searched on these things but I am not familiar with the quality between all of them. Thank you very much!
 
#2
Re: Help On Different Brands Of Brass For Reloads

This is a fairly hard question to answer.
TW is most likely Twin Cities Army Ammunition Plant , Minneapolis

FC Federal Cartridge Anoka Minn.
LC Lake City Army Ammunition Plant Independance Mo.
W-W Western Cartridge Co., East Alton, Ill

In order of best brass well who knows how good your batch is?
A very rough guess would be :--
1 LC
2 FC
3 TW
4 W-W
 
#8
Re: Help On Different Brands Of Brass For Reloads

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: Lt. Arclight</div><div class="ubbcode-body">Do yourself a BIG favor. Go buy 250 or so NEW cases. The inconsistency of the stuff you have,at least IMO, not worth the trouble. </div></div>
I agree . Start with a new batch of good quality brass.
 
#9
Re: Help On Different Brands Of Brass For Reloads

I was going to organize my brass according to brands and reload the ones youguys recommend. Is this not a good idea? Like I was thinking since the majority is Winchester and Lake City brass, I will just load those but not mix then together, just use one up and then the other later. They are all once fired brass, so I wouldn't think that they would be that bad of shape, but I don't know much about reloading to begin with.
 
#11
Re: Help On Different Brands Of Brass For Reloads

Umm well I am trying to create a fairly accurate precision round but not top of the line. I just began to start shooting not long ago at all and not anywhere near skilled. I have an H&K SL8 and I wanted to be able to shoot sub MOA at the first couple hundred yards and so I guess im making a precision round but more like a budget precision round because that brass i named are all given to me from a local cop im friends with and so I am going to buy a few hundred Hornady 80gr A-MAX bullets to kind of start me off to a decent start.
 
#12
Re: Help On Different Brands Of Brass For Reloads

Trust me! I have wasted much need tigger time on brass prep! If you want precision rounds buy 200 pe of lapua brass! forget the rest. You might run into a bad lot every now and then, but even with a bad lot of lapua brass you will cut your brass prep time in half and spend much more time on the range. You will also get a lot more loadings out of lapua and in the long run you will save money!
 
#13
Re: Help On Different Brands Of Brass For Reloads

I have read that Lapua is THE BEST. I would love to buy some but I dont think the big man of the house can justify buying such expensive brass. Believe me, I cannot even buy ammunition due to the amount of random brass I have. Maybe if I can sell all of this stuff to buy Lapua, then maybe I can get some Lapua but in the mean time I will just have to settle on this stuff. I did read that Lake City is good brass so I will just stick with that for now. Again Im just trying to make budget precision rounds due to my lack of experience. Im just trying to use decent rounds to learn how to precision shoot for now.
 
#14
Re: Help On Different Brands Of Brass For Reloads

You got a lot of good advice on your brass.If you decide to load it,it would be a good idea to seperate it,and start low and work up.Don't forget that the mil-surp stuff will have a primer crimp that you will have to remove before repriming.I"ve shot lots of "junk" brass in the past because I could not afford something new or better.I have an ammo can full of odd brass that I loaded on my Dillon,for use in an AR-15,in places where the loss will be high.BL-C2 powder,a bulk RP bullet,odd Mil-surp cases,shoots 5/8--3/4 inch in my 700PSS.Lapua brass,carefully prepped only beats it by 1/8inch or so.Go figure, Pete
 
#15
Re: Help On Different Brands Of Brass For Reloads

I think I will start low with the bad brass first. How do you know how many grains of powder you put in each shell. You guys have said that different companies of brass will require different amounts of powder to compensate for the different pressures inside the brass. How do you know how much powder to put in each brands' brass? I have 55gr and going to order 80gr bullets, using Hodgdon H322 powder.
 
#16
Re: Help On Different Brands Of Brass For Reloads

You need to buy a good loading book,and read the entire how-to section.Then you get your starting load out of the load section.Most of us own several,I would suggest the Lyman to start with. Pete
 
#17
Re: Help On Different Brands Of Brass For Reloads

Thanks for the suggestion, I will have to look into getting one, I didnt know there was such a thing. After I get that down, then I will ask the questions that wont waste anyones time, thanks again!!
 
#18
Re: Help On Different Brands Of Brass For Reloads

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: MacBud</div><div class="ubbcode-body">I think I will start low with the bad brass first. How do you know how many grains of powder you put in each shell. You guys have said that different companies of brass will require different amounts of powder to compensate for the different pressures inside the brass. How do you know how much powder to put in each brands' brass? I have 55gr and going to order 80gr bullets, using Hodgdon H322 powder. </div></div>
It does not work like that . As long as you stay with safe working pressures the slight differrence in case capacity will not be a safety issue.
You geta loading manual or download data from the powder manufacturer on the net.
Then from that data on your cartridge , 223 you choose your powder load for a certain weight bullet.
 
#19
Re: Help On Different Brands Of Brass For Reloads

Oh ok, that's what I thought at first but then I was reading about case thickness and got me all confused, thanksgir clarifying that up for me, I guess I was just overthinking it more than I needed to!
 
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