.223 Snafu

[twraska]

Bought a bunch of range brass. Cleaned, sized and trimmed it. Went to reload it and found out a bunch of the primer pockets are too shallow. They're measuring.090-100 instead of .115-.125. The primers won't go flush, much less a couple of thousands below. I've tried to clean them out but it's takes forever to cut that much brass out.

So my question is….. does someone make a shorter (shallower) primer? Is there another oddball or 'metric' primer out there that's shorter?
Thanks
Tim

 

[Greatgrandad]

What manufacture headstamp? Mil brass or civy?

 

[twraska]

What manufacture headstamp? Mil brass or civy?

I'm going to assume military or foreign because a lot of it doesn't have a recognized headstamp. Some is PMC and the next PMC will be just fine.

 

[Hugnot]

All of the mil type 5.56 brass that I have seen has crimped in primers but there might be exceptions. No mention of crimp removal.
All the small rifle primers that I have measured go between .119 - 112 inches.
Usually, 5.56 mil type Nato brass has a circle enclosing a cross stamped on base of brass. .223 & 5.56 brass is made everywhere on planet earth.
Range brass is a crap shoot.
I would toss the shallow pieces. Once Fired Brass (on line) has 250 piece lots of crimped in primer .223 Fed brass for $20/250, not including shipping, Good deal but requires swaging out primer pocket crimps.

 

[levers4life]

I use the RCBS case prep center. It makes swaging out the crimp easy. I just sit down with 2-300 pieces of NATO brass at a time and do all the primer pockets before tumbling and sizing.

 

[Mikecr]

Bought a bunch of range brass.

Now you can learn a lot from that. Things like loose pockets, cracking, poor extraction, big grouping, thrown shots, etc.
If it's how you learn, it might end a bargain

 

[twraska]

All of the mil type 5.56 brass that I have seen has crimped in primers but there might be exceptions. No mention of crimp removal.
All the small rifle primers that I have measured go between .119 - 112 inches.
Usually, 5.56 mil type Nato brass has a circle enclosing a cross stamped on base of brass. .223 & 5.56 brass is made everywhere on planet earth.
Range brass is a crap shoot.
I would toss the shallow pieces. Once Fired Brass (on line) has 250 piece lots of crimped in primer .223 Fed brass for $20/250, not including shipping, Good deal but requires swaging out primer pocket crimps.

This was purchased once fired that I got online. I said range brass as that is what I've called (maybe incorrectly?) once fired brass that was not shot by myself or 'my group'.

The brass was swagged on a CP2000 during the recapping, sizing and trimming process.

The few I worked on today was about 1/3 good and 2/3 shallow. I'm trying to figure out what primer was used at the factory that was shallow enough to fit the factory hole depth.

 

[twraska]

Now you can learn a lot from that. Things like loose pockets, cracking, poor extraction, big grouping, thrown shots, etc.
If it's how you learn, it might end a bargain

So might you, with your immense wisdom, tell me where to purchase used brass? I can (and do) swag during the prep process. I'm mostly just plinking with the rounds, I've got LC match brass for my 'good' ammo. I just need a primer that fits. After all, it was loaded at the factory with a primer that fit the hole.

 

[E270wsm]

I believe I would uniform the primer pockets. I wouldn't want to deal with this situation on an ongoing basis. Perhaps chucking the uniforming tool would speed things up for you.

 

[CoSniper66]

I have never ran into that and the small rifle primers I have used all measure the same within .002". 223 brass is easy to get, I would toss them and get a different head stamp or from a different source. Not worth the time and effort to machine the primer pockets that deep.

 

[MW204]

Simple answer from what I can find online is: NO, there is not a factory short version of a primer.
I think what you have is brass that should have been scrapped because the primer pocket was not set to the proper depth when it was made.
Just my opinion, but hey we all got one.

 

[lyle2231]

Bought a bunch of range brass. Cleaned, sized and trimmed it. Went to reload it and found out a bunch of the primer pockets are too shallow. They're measuring.090-100 instead of .115-.125. The primers won't go flush, much less a couple of thousands below. I've tried to clean them out but it's takes forever to cut that much brass out.

So my question is….. does someone make a shorter (shallower) primer? Is there another oddball or 'metric' primer out there that's shorter?
Thanks
Tim

Saami specs dictate the standard for dementions. Could be the pocket edges are crimped. See if you can find a crimp removal tool. Also a Dillon crimp removal tool would be ideal. A primer pocket depth uniform tool as well. HTH

 

[BigNate]

SRP are the same height as SPP. If they are made under contract for a specific primer I haven't seen them.
As MW204 mentioned, I'd not bother with them.

 

[lyle2231]

I have never ran into that and the small rifle primers I have used all measure the same within .002". 223 brass is easy to get, I would toss them and get a different head stamp or from a different source. Not worth the time and effort to machine the primer pockets that deep.

I've got a bucket with all my culls saved. Every so often I'll take them to the scrap man and sell 'em. Gets me enough to get a Pepsi and small Frito's. Relax and solve the problems.