.223 Rem. We're reloading range pickups. Sorting by headstamp (brand/year) and full sizing. Then fire forming and trimming.

Does anyone weigh their brass? Or is this just too anal? We're trying to get the bullets to make one interconnected hole at about 100 - 200 metres.

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PowderBurns Black Powder / Muzzle Loading Forum:

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Hello,
The benchrest guys do stuff like this. I sort brass by number of firings and manufacturer, and I can make the type of hole you describe at 100 yards. One "interconnected" hole might cost you a match in the benchrest arena, these guys like to put five rounds in ONE hole.

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Load Hot, Shoot Straight
JoeM

Yes, sorting by weight is worthwhile -- especially if you are working with "range pickups". However, uniforming primer pockets, de-burring flash holes and maybe turning just enough off the necks to make them concentric is probably more fruitfull.

Keep in mind, one hole groups at 200 meters ain't all that easy to achieve even if you are shooting a custom made rifle with a match grade barrel.

Actually, with .223, it kinda depends on the rifle that you are using, and also the pains that you take with the ammunition. I have shot scoped AR15's that easily did that--one fairly large hole--with garden variety/run through the progressive/Lee Factory Crimped ammo, loaded with bulk 55 grain FMJ, and Data Powder 2200. I have, conversely, seen custom bolt actions that have tight chambers, and still have what I call the "oh, poop!!" flier that ruins a perfect group. It is my opinion that .223 is one of the most forgiving calibers to load for.

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Happiness is a 200 yard bughole.

Well, ten grains of brass equates to about one grain of powder volume wise, then there is the additional problem of extra weight equals less volume which causes a higher pressure for a given powder charge. I'd say if you got your cases sorted 3 grain increments that out to be ok. Sort after trimming to uniform length and any other prep work you might be doing.

Generally, .223 is stone simple to load for, 22 gr IMR 4198, a moly coated 40 gr Nosler BT, a Winchester primer, max OAL and viola, one hole groups in a factory Remington. 3300 fps with decent ES in velocity. H335 works pretty good to.

For example I load for 223 220 swift and 243.I sort all of my brass to with in 1%. In the 243 with the same powder charge on the same day there is up to 70 fps diff from the lightest to heavyest brass from one lot let alone from pick ups. However I do agree that there are more important steps for accuracy, it just depends on the intended use of the rifle and how fussy you want to be.

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Growler

.223 brass can vary in weight by over 20 grains. Quite a lot for such a small case. Inconsistencies mean fliers. In a lot of 500 of Winchester brass, my experience is the spread will be about 10 grains. The lightest I've seen was around 84 grains, the heaviest, a piece of military brass, was 106 grains. Most of the Winchester will be around 91.5 to 96 grains. Use the stuff on the extremes for fouling shots. It is best to start out with a 500 lot (or more) of new brass. Weigh and start sorting. Most of the brass will fall into a group, you will get some way light or way heavy, foulers.
With small brass it is a rule of thumb to sort groups into ranges of +or-.5%, which for .223 I call +or-.5 grain. Someone who really wants to split hairs would go a little less. If you want to do this it is time consumming. If you do not have a digital scale, forget it.

[This message has been edited by David M (edited 04-10-2001).]

One more note: Since you are using "range pickups" you have no idea, unless you watch the shooters use factory ammo, how many times the brass has been fired or, how hot the loads were. As the brass gets used and reused the elasticity of the brass changes. This introduces more inconsistency. Most noticable will be a variance in neck tension. This will affect accuracy, more than brass weight. You could anneal the necks, a bigger pain in the but than sorting by weight or you could use a Lee Factory Crimp Die. I will not use range pickups, unless I did watch the shooter shooting factory ammo. Even then, the brass must be inspected closely. The Good Samaritan's headspace problem could spell out your disaster!

[This message has been edited by David M (edited 04-10-2001).]

Well . . .

The ranges I shoot at (gravel pits) if the brass is on the ground, it's been fired one time. Otherwise it gets recycled by the reloader.

We're fire forming and neck trimming to 1.758" -- 0.002" short of max length. Sorting by headstamp, year, weight. Annealing necks.

Shooting in a factory Rem. 700 Police. "One hole" means one big, ragged one with all the little holes connected.

Going to buy 500 Win. Match brass or Lapua match brass. Use the rest for trading stock.

Thanks!

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PowderBurns Black Powder / Muzzle Loading Forum:

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Sprang for a digital scale and some new Winchester brass. Gave all my range pickups to my friend for his AR.

Shooting a Rem. 700 Police (like the Ultra) and want to get gnat's ass accurate. Weighing and sorting brass. Weighing and sorting bullets.

The Sinclair OAL gauge is proving problematic, but we'll keep at it. It makes sense how it works, but I keep getting different answers -- and they all seem about 0.10" long. I have a hard time believing that 2.365" is a working OAL for 55 gr. Win. BT FMJ.

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PowderBurns Black Powder / Muzzle Loading Forum:

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All the measurements on the OAL length guage are relative. The actual OAL will change with the bullet used.

All you really need to know is "what length works", then be able to repeat it.

Don

I have an extremly heavy barrel AR15 from Armalite that I've used to "vaporize" Starlings at over 70 yards. While this does not "one hole make," it is a small target at that range. I've used military brass that I've sorted for year, maker, and weight. I've carefully prepared my rounds to insure uniformity and had excellent results. Shooting at paper, I've made one ragged hole at 100 yards using the same loads. I'm prone to believe that it is a matter of just finding out what works for your "platform."

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Surely we must all hang togather, for seprately we will surely all hang.