I know there is a diffrence in this brass and comercial brass. What is the diffrence and what extra steps have to be taken to reload it?

Thanks, Gavin.

usually but not always mil-spec brass is heavier, the primer pockets are crimped.
you will have to remove the crimp and REDUCE THE LOAD BY AT LEAST 10%, and work up.
Use plenty of lube inside neck and out at least on the first few and determine how much you need.
Dave

Thanks Dave.

How do you remove the crimp?

they make a primer pocket swedger for the job, RCBS is what I have.
You can champer the pocket removing most of the crimp and if you use a cci primer with the softer cups ccibr2's are what i use, they will seat with out deforming the primer,
I tried Remington 9 1/2's and the distorted pretty bad even with the pockets being swedged.
Dave

I've used a sharp knife, a pointy case chamfer tool and a primer pocket swager setup to take out the crimp. Spend a couple of dollars and get the swager much easier in the long run. No problems with using CCI primers after that.

ExMilitary brass will have been shot in several different weapons, I use a small base resizing die to bring it back to a standard size.

I've never really measured the capacity of 5.56 compared to .223 brass, I just work up a load that my rifle likes and use it.

That being said, I've had the best luck with Lake City brass for durabillity and accuracy for the shooting I do. But I only try for 3/4" groups at 100yds from my Frankengun AR-15, you may want better.

Mil Brass is thicker as stated with harder primers . So those rounds can be chambered in semi or fully auto weapons .Small Base dies are needed to size for semi and auto firing weapons .
Not necessary in Most Bolt guns though , but full length resizing will be on first reloading .

A De-Swaging tool is a Must if your going to do quantity's of them . Dillon , RCBS makes them .

Shoot Straight Know Your Target . ...

I agree with all the comments above. I bought 1000 cases of Lake City once fired brass before it was so hard to find .223 brass.

I find it to be great and am anticipating a long life from it. I did have to reduce some loads a little bit but that could also have been from the differences between rifles. My chronograph was helpful to me in working up these loads.

LC 308 brass is heavier than the commercial counterpart.
LC 223 brass is lighter.


What, you want me to walk down stairs and weigh the 30-06 brass?

No one cares about 30-06 brass

I fire my Lake City .223 brass in a Bushmaster Super-Varmint, and have never had to use a small base die. I don't even own a small base die. My friends here who are Master Class hi-power shooters don't need the small base dies in their competition rifles either, but some folks apparently do from what I have read elsewhere. Like so many other things, it depends on the specific, individual, rifle.

As to case crimps, there are two principal ways to remove primer pocket crimps...one is by swaging, the other is by cutting. Lots of folks make tools for each way. Among the swagers, I own a Lachmiller, an RCBS, and a Dillon. Of the three
in my possession, the RCBS works the poorest, the Lachmiller second best, and the Dillon is the best by a wide margin. But, as in everything else, it likely depends on the one(s) you receive more than the brand.

Primer pocket "cutters" are made by many of the people who make "lathe-type" neck trimming tools, such as Wilson, Redding, Sinclair, Lyman, etc.

I tend to recommend swagers rather than cutters because the swagers make them all to a consistent size, whereas with some of the cutters, particularly the old Lyman hand-held cutters, you can cut too much brass away and end up with loose primer pockets from the get-go.

Lastly, if you are talking about Lake City .308 brass rather than .223, the Lake City white-box 7.62 "Match" ammo does not have a crimp. I don't remember whether ALL their .223 ammo does or not.

AC ; It's funny you should mention this . I have # 2 Bushmasters 20" E2S Target they don't but my Colts do ?. I found out the wrong way as I loaded up some accurate rounds and was going to do a side X side Whoops wouldn't go into battery !.
So I have both Dies now .
I'm not sure as how others accurately go about measuring cases weight volume or both ?
I weigh after de priming and cleaning and separate in that manner normally .

I have K's of .308 as well as .223 LC cases ( 1991 -04 )of the ones I've weighed LC cases are heavier than any of my commercial lot of Remington Winchester or Federal . I how ever never weighed them against my Lapua so don't know about those .

I've also never bothered to check volume in .223 cases but have in .308 and Commercial are larger . That also varies some what from manufacturer . Least wise in my experience .

Shoot Straight Know Your Target . ...

quote:

Originally posted by Dr.K:
AC ; It's funny you should mention this . I have # 2 Bushmasters 20" E2S Target they don't but my Colts do ?. :

Dr. K - 'm not surprised, as I am sure your are not either. Amazing how much individual rifles and their chambers can vary, isn't it?

I only mentioned it because if a person has a rifle which will function reliably without using a small base die, then they may be better off not using a die which will reduce their case bases to a smaller diameter than they need. (The "Don't work brass excessively" theory.)

I tried the Dillon Swager on LC.223. It is fast and I used Rem 71/2 br primers no problem with deforming.
One of my friends uses the Dillon swager on pistol cases hes happy too