New To Reloading Please Help!

[epoletna]

Wet vs. dry tumbling: I've tried 'em both. Wet gives you cases that look like they just came from the store, dry gives you cases that are clean and sometimes bright, but not as sparkling. For your purposes I think dry is probably the ticket. Dump them in, turn it on, perhaps with a very little diamond polishing compound, and forget 'em for an hour. You'll probably want a separator to separate the media from the cases, and you'll find horself using some kind of pick to pick the media out of the flashhole and sometimes the case itself, but other than that you're done. You won't find yourself spending as much time picking media (SS pins) out of flashholes with wet tumbling, but you'll have to dry the cases and make sure to shake the pins out of the case. I like the look of wet, but the convenience of dry. If you have a friend who could walk you through both processes, that would help you make the decision. Whatever you do, unless you're made of money, don't buy both. Like I did. Too much equipment, too much expense.

 

[xsn10s]

I will probably get that tool just for the handle and I think the steeper angle will work better for knocking the burr of anyway. Thanks.

The whole design is made specifically for VLD type bullets. The angle of the cut is better suited for the VLD bases so they slide in easier with no shaving of the bases.

 

[GBA1776]

Welcome to reloading! It is a bit like the song Hotel California!


Hand cleaning can work, but I'd be afraid Brake Cleaner might be hard on brass. I don't know this. I do know a corn cob tumbler should be under $100 to get going.


you might try putting them in an open box and spraying down at 45 deg to the neck. Then mix up and let dry for like 10 min.


This is usually neck tension, need for neck lube or bullet fit to seating plug. It sounds like you are struggling with not enough lube in neck or maybe neck tension.

Last, we are all enablers. Try to collect data from your targets and your process. If you notice an issue, try shooting some good ones vs some bad ones. Use that to drive your decision

I think I got my seating issue figured out it was a combination of improper deburring and a lack of lubricant in the case neck I made some adjustments to my process and loaded a few rounds and things were smoother/easier when I was sizing/depriming and seating bullets. And I have seen zero evidence of shaved bullet jackets.

My case necks coming out of sizing are .001-0015" smaller than loaded rounds so I am pretty sure tension is spot on.

I guess I will just ask this question here.

Anyone have experience with American Eagle .223 brass?

I have a couple hundred once fired cases I have collected over the years they are all from AE .223 55gr FMJBT and I have resized and de-primed 50 of them and almost all of the cases are below the stated trim size of 1.750. Most of the cases are 1.745-1.749" a few have been like 1.752-1.753". I know some of them were fired out of a .223 chamber but many were shot from .223 wylde or 5.56 chambers in AR's.

Another thing I ran into was some of them had cracked case necks, the crack propagated right where the case neck meets the shoulder of the case. I found 3 of them while cleaning/inspecting 50 rounds.

This seems to me to be a pretty high failure rate on factory new ammunition that has been fired just once. It makes me a little hesitant to use the cases, The last thing I want is to have a case failure flame cut a surface irregularity in the chamber of my rifle. What do you all think about that?

 

[Koda_]

I think I got my seating issue figured out it was a combination of improper deburring and a lack of lubricant in the case neck I made some adjustments to my process and loaded a few rounds and things were smoother/easier when I was sizing/depriming and seating bullets. And I have seen zero evidence of shaved bullet jackets.

My case necks coming out of sizing are .001-0015" smaller than loaded rounds so I am pretty sure tension is spot on.

I guess I will just ask this question here.

Anyone have experience with American Eagle .223 brass?

I have a couple hundred once fired cases I have collected over the years they are all from AE .223 55gr FMJBT and I have resized and de-primed 50 of them and almost all of the cases are below the stated trim size of 1.750. Most of the cases are 1.745-1.749" a few have been like 1.752-1.753". I know some of them were fired out of a .223 chamber but many were shot from .223 wylde or 5.56 chambers in AR's.

Another thing I ran into was some of them had cracked case necks, the crack propagated right where the case neck meets the shoulder of the case. I found 3 of them while cleaning/inspecting 50 rounds.

This seems to me to be a pretty high failure rate on factory new ammunition that has been fired just once. It makes me a little hesitant to use the cases, The last thing I want is to have a case failure flame cut a surface irregularity in the chamber of my rifle. What do you all think about that?

In my experience you dont want any lube in the neck ID when your seating a bullet for 223 in an AR platform. Tiny bullets and little neck area to grab them for the feeding they go thru... just my experience. I run a second clean op after sizing.


as for brass quality, this comes down to what you are reloading for? Precision, hunting, plinking?
223 brass is cheap, and often you can find all you need with used brass. If your careful and just need plinking loads you can work a recipe for most brass. If you want precision or hunting loads buy some quality brass thats new and just use that for that recipe.
I think Federal makes American Eagle brand, I use Federal brass with good results so far.

 

[GBA1776]

In my experience you dont want any lube in the neck ID when your seating a bullet for 223 in an AR platform. Tiny bullets and little neck area to grab them for the feeding they go thru... just my experience. I run a second clean op after sizing.


as for brass quality, this comes down to what you are reloading for? Precision, hunting, plinking?
223 brass is cheap, and often you can find all you need with used brass. If your careful and just need plinking loads you can work a recipe for most brass. If you want precision or hunting loads buy some quality brass thats new and just use that for that recipe.
I think Federal makes American Eagle brand, I use Federal brass with good results so far.

I should have been more clear, it was a lack of lubrication in case necks when sizing/depriming that was causing some to take noticibly more force than others.
When seating I had not been deburring cases well enough so I was occasionally getting some jacket shavings at the case mouth. I dont lube prior to seating.

I'm using One Shot that came with my reloading kit so I have just a light film when sizing and by the time I get to loading projectiles (usually the next day) I can barely feel any of it on the cases exterior and they get much more lube than the inside of the case necks.

With the .223 cases I was planning to load them for plinking I got 500 55gr BTSP w/cannelure bullets from Hornady through a promotional deal and figured I might as well use them in .223 cases.

I am going to load some and see what happens if I get split cases I will anneal them and try again, if I still have problems well...

Anyone want to buy some .223 brass!? Real cheap!

 

[Koda_]

With the .223 cases I was planning to load them for plinking I got 500 55gr BTSP w/cannelure bullets from Hornady through a promotional deal and figured I might as well use them in .223 cases.

I am going to load some and see what happens if I get split cases I will anneal them and try again, if I still have problems well...

Anyone want to buy some .223 brass!? Real cheap!

for plinking use any brass you can find. If your careful you can build your recipe to the brass with the least case volume so you could probably use any brass in your inventory without adjusting charge weight to the case volume. If you get any split cases discard them as they come. dont bother with defective 223 brass its too cheap to bother.

You probably wont get any buyers, 223 brass can be picked up at ranges.

Take a look at Bobs Bullets for the cheapest plinking bullets, a good bullet too.

.223 Bulk Bullets Made in U.S.A.

Match Grade 55-Grain FMJ .223 Bulk Bullets & Lead Cast Pistol Bullets Target Ammo Reloading Supplies. Made in the USA. Buy Direct and Save!

223bulkbullets.com

 

[Coyote Shadow Tracker]

We have not read all the previous posts.
Best thing is to possibly get a "Mentor" that has been reloading for many years and have them help you. Along what you can pick up from forums like LRH.
Don't believe everything that you hear or read.
It will be a long learning process of trial and error. Hopefully not that much error.
Buy Once Cry Once as far as equipment so plan od spending a lot of $$$$$
This is a Sport that you either love or not.
If you get hooked and bitten by the Reloading Spider - you will need a lot of help and then you will start purchasing new firearms to get in step with your reloading skills. Hopefully you have a Spouse that loves shooting as well. That way you can always say that you are buying reloading components or firearms for them!
Good luck
This is a great hobby/sport

 

[Capt Nag]

Sounds like you are well on your way. In time you will streamline your process. If you don't already have one, get a loading tray.
I use a Hornady powder measure and set it to drop just short of my desired weight. Then I trickle out the remainder and pour it in the case. When all 50, (That's what the tray holds), cases are done, I inspect the entire tray. This is where you will immediately know if you screwed one up. They should all look the same, powder level wise.
I've use the Lee case trimers for over 35 years. They always cut .10 short of the recommended length. Sounds like yours is a bad one. Get another. And chamfer a bit more. Lube on the inside of the neck will help seat the bullet, but do not use much!

 

[GBA1776]

for plinking use any brass you can find. If your careful you can build your recipe to the brass with the least case volume so you could probably use any brass in your inventory without adjusting charge weight to the case volume. If you get any split cases discard them as they come. dont bother with defective 223 brass its too cheap to bother.

You probably wont get any buyers, 223 brass can be picked up at ranges.

Take a look at Bobs Bullets for the cheapest plinking bullets, a good bullet too.

.223 Bulk Bullets Made in U.S.A.

Match Grade 55-Grain FMJ .223 Bulk Bullets & Lead Cast Pistol Bullets Target Ammo Reloading Supplies. Made in the USA. Buy Direct and Save!

223bulkbullets.com

Thanks for the link. I was joking about selling the brass I wouldn't sell it if I thought it was bad.

 

[Koda_]

Thanks for the link. I was joking about selling the brass I wouldn't sell it if I thought it was bad.

oops, that went over my head I see it now.

 

[GUNNNN]

Hi everyone.

I am new to reloading I got a setup about two weeks ago and have loaded 150rds and don't have any real "issues" I get pretty darn consistent velocity and am not seeing any loss in accuracy compared with most match grade loads so I know I am doing it "right" but I also know I can do better. I got a 2 hour "crash course" in reloading from the guy at the store, he helped me set up my dies and we loaded ammo in the store as he tried to cram as much knowledge into my head as possible in that short amount of time.

I do have a few questions/concerns and hope that you more experienced guys can help me out and maybe give me tips on improving my setup/technique so bear with me as I walk through my process.

I have a Hornady Lock and Load press kit with RCBS dies a Full Length sizing die and a seating/crimping die I'm using a Hornady digital scale and Hornady's powder measure with Lee case trimmer tools. I am loading for .223/5.56 and I have cases segregated and different loads for each case type.

I am hand cleaning my used brass, brake clean for the outside and a good wipe down which is slow but it works and I will invest in a media tumbler later, a primer pocket cleaner and and old bore brush for the inside of the case, I am not going crazy I am just knocking some of the fouling out of the inside, cleaning the primer pocket and making sure the outside is clean and free of any debris that will scratch my dies. I make sure the cases are totally dry before I do anything else.

I then lay cases out on a blue shop towel usually 10 at a time and spray them down with Hornady case lube that came with the kit, I roll them to distribute the lube and remove any excess, the cases have a thin oily film on them, they are slippery but not dripping lube, I inspect the cases before they go into the sizing die. The sizing and de-priming process goes smooth the press goes "over center" and the top of the ram and the die are making light contact. Coming back out I have no issues although some of the case necks are tighter than others and require a bit more force to get beyond the expander ball.

Here is my first question/concern. My book says trim 5.56 to 1.250 but my Lee case trimmer stops cutting at 1.256" I cant screw the dang thing down any more/tighter and a lot of my cases are at 1.255". The guy in the store said as long as they were all the same length between 1.250-1.260 its fine and less trimming means longer case life. Do you all agree? Should I buy a different case trimmer that will actually get down to 1.250? This ammo is mostly going back in the same gun but I also don't want any issues if I do want to load into a different rifle.

I trim to 1.256" on the 50-60% of cases that will actually need it as stated, I debur inside and out and remove primer crimping since most of my brass is Lake City 5.56.

I then install primers using the tool I got with the Hornady kit no issues here. I never touch the primers they go straight from the box to the tool. The remaining primers go into a sealed container with a couple of silica gel packets.

I have CFE223 powder mainly because it was available in 1lb bottles but am happy with my results so far so I bought 2lbs more and I think I will just stick with it I did lose some because I was an idiot and didn't clean/degrease my powder measure before pouring some into it but I realized it as soon as I did it and I didn't load any contaminated powder and I didn't try to save any of the powder that went into the oily powder measure.

I think I have a very good process for metering out powder (And CFE223 meters extremely well) I keep the hopper topped up to about the same level the whole time to keep steady pressure in the powder column.
I have marked the drum and the frame of the measure so I can run the lever, pouring powder into my pan, then I lift it up about 1/3rd of the way and drop the handle from the same height each time.
I found when I was racking/knocking the drum by the handle after each load was measured to knock out any powder stuck in the exit funnel I was getting a lot of .2-3 gr variation and with the "drop method" from the mark I made I get the same amount within the tolerance of my scale which is 1/10th grain about 80% of the time. If its over I knock a tiny amount of powder back into the hopper if its under I just pour the whole thing back in and try again.

Ive been measuring every charge before I load it into a case. I know its time consuming but I am looking for extreme precision and I don't mind taking my time.

For loads I stopped at 24.5 (.4 under book max) for .223 and 26gr (.5 under book max) for 5.56. I am getting an average of 2638fps and 2784fps out of .223 and 5.56 respectively with Hornady 73gr ELD's in 35-40 degree weather. No excessive pressure signs from each load and accuracy on par with most factory match ammo. Gold Medal Match is still better but I will eventually dethrone that load.

When it comes to seating and crimping I am running into an issue where I get rings from the seating rod around the tips of my bullets they aren't deep but I assume that cant be good for consistency and it seems like I am really having to push on the load lever pretty hard, some cases it takes more effort to seat the bullet than it did to size them. I have also seen a few extremely thin copper shavings appear around the case mouth that I am certain are coming from the bullet jacket. I do my best to set the bullet in the case perfectly plumb vertically before seating.

Am I doing something wrong when seating my rounds? Or anywhere else in my re loading procedure? Is there anything I can do about the ring being left on my rounds during seating? And should I even worry about that?

Sorry for writing a "How I learned to reload on my summer vacation" short story but I figured the more detail I gave the better the help I would receive.

Thanks in advance for any advice you can give.

Redding sizing wax is the best sizing lube you can buy IMHO. and if the trimmer is in the limitations as far as length goes I'd leave it alone.

 

[epoletna]

GBA 1776:

Now that I have a little free time, I wanted to say a little about neck wall thickness and crimping.

You will recognize that if you run a case into a full length sizing die then pull it back over a sizing button to set the inside diameter, your bullet will have the same resistance to starting to leave the case if the brass is consistently flexible (which is why people anneal). Some things can influence the resistance to starting down the barrel: different wall thickness (which is why bench rest shooters turn the outside of the neck after sizing the inside uniformly. I do that on my bench rest cases; you don't want to do it on your .223s unless you shoot bench rest. Or are enormously compulsive..

Then there's the amount of crimp. As someone has said above, you probably don't need to crimp a .223 unless you have bullets creeping out of the case on recoil. But if you do decide to crimp, remember that case length and nect thickness will affect crimp resistance, because the further the case goes into a crimping die, the stronger the crimp. So if your cases are not the same length, or with the same neck thickness, you'll have different release pressure.

About now you're beginning to see why we call this a rabbit hole you're entering.

And then there's the distance the bullet has to "jump" before it hits the rifling. And uniforming your flash holes. And of course uniformity of lot numbers of powder, primers and bullets. And are your bullets turned out by a large company (I know you just got a bunch of Hornady bullets) or a boutique bullet maker who turns out bullets made from unicorn horn. And so on and so on.

So I repeat what I said previously: good luck!

 

[bluedog69]

I should have been more clear, it was a lack of lubrication in case necks when sizing/depriming that was causing some to take noticibly more force than others.
When seating I had not been deburring cases well enough so I was occasionally getting some jacket shavings at the case mouth. I dont lube prior to seating.

I'm using One Shot that came with my reloading kit so I have just a light film when sizing and by the time I get to loading projectiles (usually the next day) I can barely feel any of it on the cases exterior and they get much more lube than the inside of the case necks.

With the .223 cases I was planning to load them for plinking I got 500 55gr BTSP w/cannelure bullets from Hornady through a promotional deal and figured I might as well use them in .223 cases.

I am going to load some and see what happens if I get split cases I will anneal them and try again, if I still have problems well...

Anyone want to buy some .223 brass!? Real cheap!

Maybe this has been said but I will throw this out there. If your cases are mixed some
may be longer than others.
1) read your die instructions. Many will crimp and seat the bullet. I would recommend separate seating and crimping steps. Many seating dies need to be backed off of the ram at least one full turn when the ram is all the way up.
2) some brass if used already may need trimmed. Some new brass might even need it. Never know these days.
3) read some basic steps from printed manuals. It can be pretty daunting until you have done it many times and get comfortable with it.

 

[Tulsa Reiner]

I have no problems with one shot. Make sure you spray in the case neck. This is why your feeling the expander tight in some. Not enough lube.

Get a hornady head space gauge and bullet comparator.

I DO have a problem with One Shot: It leaves a mess on the reloading bench surface and the case tray.
The first can be avoided by doing the spraying outdoors, but the spray will still be on the case tray, and doesn't come off in a dishwasher. So I switched to Imperial Wax outside the cases, and Imperial dry lube (graphite) inside the necks for seating.