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kansashunter
Posts: 1,917 Senior Member
Reloading 223 ?
kansashunter
Posts: 1,917 Senior Member
I have been trying to load 223 for a while now but I keep having trouble, so I give it up for a while. My loaded ammo won't fit in a chamber gauge and it also gives trouble in a rifle. It is not a length problem I don't believe as some of them if you push them they will go in, I think that is why most of them chamber in a rifle. I bought used brass that was supposed to be ready to load but it is not as it won't go into a gauge either. I tried resizing and that didn't fix it so I read about rcbs small base die so I bought one of them. It is better but still not right. The only idea I have left is trying in my single stage press and see if a shell holder is thinner than a shell plate. I hope I can figure something out as I hate to throw all this brass away.
Replies
If you've done full length through a small-base die, my first thought is to check the length of your brass. I've seen brass from mil-spec 5.56 be past the "Trim me!" point on the very first firing, so trust nothing until you confirm.
Also check the diameter of your case neck on the loaded rounds to make sure you're not bulged. Might need a die adjustment.
If you're still overly flared after seating a bullet, some gentle case neck crimp may be the answer.
"Nothing is safe from stupid." - Zee
i was reloading some 223, didnt have a gun for it but wanted to see how my loads worked out. my friend had a kimber BA in 223 and they would not chamber.
other friends rifles, they would, but not the kimber. It turned out the kimber had a chamber that was just a bit smaller.
Some small base dies fixed it, but its up to you how far you want to go with it.
as far as the...... kansashunter said: i wouldn't trust what other people say or have advertised. I would ALWAYS CHECK/VERIFY. - PERIOD.
it will be a matter of time before you figure out you will need to check/verify or make alot of bad loads to pull.
You can also do the caliper approach if you want. what i would do is to mark the cases in some way so you know where you are measure and not just some random place on each case. Compare apples to apples here, not apples to oranges.
also, if you have any friends with 223s check if the brass fits their chamber.
the buying factory ammo and shooting it is another way to check since they will fire formed to your gun.
good luck
- Don Burt
@ilove22s went into much more detail.
let us know how it works out
I bought an Ishapore 2A1 Lee Enfield in 7.62 NATO that passed a headspace gauge (length)check I did before I bought it, but what I had no way of knowing until I shot it was that the chamber is grossly large in diameter. Fired cases from it won't even enter into a Mo's gauge that is used for checking the headspace stretch experienced by shooting.
The amount of re-sizing required would make short life for the cases, and when I experimented with neck sizing only, I found the case bodies were too blown out to feed from the magazine. Basically, what I ended up with isn't suitable for reloading at all.
Entirely possibly your brass came out of something like this.
"Nothing is safe from stupid." - Zee
reloading will wait, your field wont.
fwiw, i had a friend with a 300 WM with a chamber that was tight... it was "with in spec" whatever that means and my dies were "with in spec" again ,whatever that means. I had the die mfg check the dimensions.
i used Factory fired cases along with virgin brass..ect.....but if you get 2 tools that are on the opposite ends of the "with in spec" spectrum, you may have issues. On paper it should work, but you may find that what happens on paper and what happens in the real world are 2 different things.
But on the 300 WM, i had to get some base swaging type dies to do a final size to get them to fit. If you readup on the 300 WM some people had the same issue.
if you are or get lucky, you wont have any issues with reloading, but if you do, chances are you will find out you are not alone.
its just a matter of figuring out/trouble shooting on what you can or cant do.
and, depending on the type of sizing die you use, remove the decapper/flare if it has one, just focus on the sizing aspect. Once you get that fixed, then add the decapper/flare if it has one.
good luck
- Don Burt
I say this because I've had a similar problem with 223 cases before. If the inside of the case mouths aren't lubed and the expanding ball is grabbing too hard, it can pull the case neck up when extracting the case from the die, pulling the shoulder slightly out. I once loaded 100 rounds like this without realizing there was a problem. The rounds wouldn't chamber in any of my ARs. Luckily, I had a single shot Handi Rifle that ate them up without a problem.
While it won't work if you're loading brass previously fired in a different gun, I've gotten into the habit of measuring new brass or factory loaded ammo prior to firing using my Hornady headspace gauges, the measure after firing and record both numbers and the difference between them. I then figure out how far back to bump the shoulder and what spec they should be at after sizing. In the case of loading for several guns, like my 5.56 and 308 guns, I measure this on all the rifles I'm loading for, then pic the minimum setback I need for them to chamber and function in all the guns using that load. I've been fortunate to have ammo like this perform pretty good out of all my guns and, in fact, I only use one 308 Win load using 168 grain A-max bullets and H4895 that works very will in all my 308 rifles. Makes my job easier...
"The Un-Tactical"
Did you ever figure this one out?