.223 reloading

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Hey guys. I have got the pistol thing down pretty good and am now going to try my hand at rifle. I am starting with .223 for an AR-15. I am using jacketed 55gr and BLC-2 powder. Any helpful tips on rifle reloading? I read through a couple of books and such. Thanks ahead of time.
 
You gotta trim the cases. Not necessarily every time but you need to check every time. I go .020 under the max length and they seem to work well out of an AR. If you are reloading for a bolt gun you might want to look at a bushing neck die.

Also make sure to polish the expander. Chuck it up on a drill and hit it with some progressively finer sand paper. Make sure to get some lube into the neck when you are lubing them. The smoother the expander is the less the cases seem to grow.

B
 
for the ar15, the important things are:

full length resizing with a good quality sizing die. in order to ensure reliability with feeding, you want the cases sized completely. it's helpful to know what chamber is in your particular rifle too. i bump the shoulders on my .223 cases back ~ .002" to ensure proper headspacing.

trimming! if you're using a dillon to load your ammo, you typically set the powder funnel so it's just barely clearing the cases when the handle is all the way down. if you set that height based on a case thats 1.74" (minimum length), then run a case thats, say, 1.78" (.002 over max), you can actually squish the case neck out a bit and ruin the neck tension you set with your sizing die. you dont want to leave the powder funnel high enough to let any case through, because powder can hang up between the funnel and the case, and when you bring the ram down, you will spill powder onto the shellplate. it is only a tiny bit at a time, but it adds up fast when you're loading a few hundred rounds, and that powder can gum things up.


loading for maximum accuracy? or just plinking ammo. for short range (under 300yds), loading them to mag length will be fine. for long range (5-600yds), you're better off with a heavier (IE longer) bullet, and seating depth becomes a big factor. I seat my long range ammo ~ .010" off the lands. the best (reliable) way to check that is with a bullet comparator (Hornady makes a nice one for ~ $45 or so for the whole setup that will accurately measure the length of the chamber to the rifling)

BLC-2 is a ball powder if i recall correctly, so repeatability through most any powder measure out there should be okay.
 
I load mine as follows:
Trim case to 1.750"
26.5 Grains BLC(2)
C.O.A.L 2.260"

I get the best accuracy with this load using a 55 Grain Spitzer SP bullet.
 
Hey guys, thanks for the input. I have a set of Lee dies that came with my press and are brand new. I am going to take it slow and check everyone initially so that nothing goes wrong.
 
Hey guys, thanks for the input. I have a set of Lee dies that came with my press and are brand new. I am going to take it slow and check everyone initially so that nothing goes wrong.

If you're loading for a gas gun, make sure your Lee sizing die is a full length die and not a neck sizer.
 
What EC said.

Your opening OP indicated this is for an AR platform, so full length resizing is a necessity.

I would also recommend trimming to length each and every time you reload the brass. That makes them all come out the same length, eliminating the variations that you would otherwise get if you only trimmed the ones that were over. Takes the same amount of time to check an sort vs just trim them all.

No need for crimping, as has been covered in the other thread.
 
Also military brass will have a primer crimp and need to be removed. I run a full length sizing die and a Dillon rapid trimmer on a progressive press with clean and lubed brass. It takes about 20min to trim about a 1k cases. then I tumble the lube off, remove the sizing die and trimmer, put on the powder drop and seating dies and load some rounds. sometimes I prime while trimming, sometimes after, and sometimes with a hand primer while watching a movie

I'm loading 25.3g H335 under a 55gr
 
Is this for military or for commercial brass? I'm concerned of the slightly smaller volume of military brass.
What COAL?

I'm not cincerned
I'm using both Nato and commercial. The max load is 25.3-26.0 depending on what book you use. I have no pressure signs and it is an accurate load out of my guns and it works the comp well
OAL is around 2.215
 
I load exactly the same for either mil brass or commercial brass.

It's doubtful that you would see any difference between the two.

The chemistry on the brass for the mil version is tighter to the spec (supposedly), and in my opinion, more reloadable (more times).

Otherwise, the dealing with the crimped primer pockets (on the mil version) is the only variation.
 
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I measured some cases before I get started. They all seem to be around 1.73-1.74" The Lyman book states the case length to be 1.75". Is this going to be ok? Should I uniform them to one or the other? Thanks guys.
 
I trim mine to .020 below the max case length. I don't bother with uniforming all to the same length. I can't see that it makes any difference.

B
 
Reloading .223 / any necked down cartridge VS straight walled cartridge

Hey guys. I have got the pistol thing down pretty good and am now going to try my hand at rifle. I am starting with .223 for an AR-15. I am using jacketed 55gr and BLC-2 powder. Any helpful tips on rifle reloading? I read through a couple of books and such. Thanks ahead of time.
I finished my first fifty .223 reloads just four days ago. [smile]
Maybe I am a bit slow, but I found the learning curve from straight wall stuff to necked rifle cartrideges a little steep. Mostly in the prep time a cycle. I figured it would not be a lot more than pistol reloads. I was very wrong. I wanted to load .223, for cost and accuracy. From the start I found myself back in the manuals and load data books like I had never loaded before. I have hand loaded for the last 25 years and you guys can laugh but it was a huge jump from shotshell / straight pistol, to the rifle stuff. It took me about 10 min to get my first "stuck cartridge" in the full lenght sizer-deprimer. (wrong case lube) changed to RCBS lube from Hornady One Shot. Then I had to reread the section on crimped military primer pocket prep.[angry] Long story just a bit longer...
read everything twice. then....read it again and keep the damn book next to the bench when you start. I love my LNL progressive press, but I don't think it is the right tool for necked cartridge rifle reloading. At least the sizing, primer pocket swagging, (trimming with cart trimmer) re -clean, then prime, charge cases, set bullet, re-clean, check / weigh / recheck [crying]. I got my single stage running the for the first few steps, then i used it to finish the first fifty due to having a run of 9mm in the LNL. Great satisfaction with final product quality and pride of accomplishment, but really not a cost saver, at least during the learning period for me anyways. Time consumption during prep was higher than I expected. Sorry to ramble so much but felt like giving my impression of this type of reloading while still freah in my mind
 
I'm a newbie to this reloading stuff. I've started to put together a setup to learn how to reload .223 for my S&W M&P15.

for the ar15, the important things are:
full length resizing with a good quality sizing die. in order to ensure reliability with feeding, you want the cases sized completely...

I want to get some Lee Rifle Dies. I'm wondering if I should get the regular Lee Pacesetter .223 dies or the Deluxe Rifle Die Set. The deluxe set sounds like the way to go as it supposedly provides:
* No case lubrication required
* Reduced or eliminated case trimming
* A ten times increased case life
* Speed and convenience
* Minimum bullet runout
* Uniform neck tension
I'd appreciate it if anyone can offer any opinions or comments
 
I'm a newbie to this reloading stuff. I've started to put together a setup to learn how to reload .223 for my S&W M&P15.



I want to get some Lee Rifle Dies. I'm wondering if I should get the regular Lee Pacesetter .223 dies or the Deluxe Rifle Die Set. The deluxe set sounds like the way to go as it supposedly provides:
* No case lubrication required
* Reduced or eliminated case trimming
* A ten times increased case life
* Speed and convenience
* Minimum bullet runout
* Uniform neck tension
I'd appreciate it if anyone can offer any opinions or comments

I run LEE dies. none of that is true
 
Semi autos like the AR need full length resizing for fired brass. Full length resizing means you must lube the case or it will stick in the resizing die.
 
The Deluxe Rifle Die Set includes:
Full Length Resizing Die, Neck Only Sizing Die, and Bullet Seating die.

The features that you list are for the neck sizing only die, which you won't be able to use for an AR15 platform. You can only use that die when sizing for a bolt action rifle, and only for ammo fired from that bolt action rifle.

My suggestion is to go with the regular Lee die set, which typically includes their factory crimp die (which is also not very useful, since crimping jacketed bullets in a rifle cartridge is not all that helpful, and somewhat unnecessary. )
 
My suggestion is to go with the regular Lee die set, which typically includes their factory crimp die (which is also not very useful, since crimping jacketed bullets in a rifle cartridge is not all that helpful, and somewhat unnecessary. )

+1. I'm using the regular full-size Lee sets. No issues.

55_grain
 
Well, it's not really HYPE, per se......

They just don't tell you, until you dig deeper, that the neck sizing only die can't be used for auto or semi-auto guns.

So, if you had a bolt action, and brass fired from that, then what they said about the longer life of the brass, etc is OK.

Everyone:

Thanks for the info. Don't you just love marketing hype?

Foggy65
 
Yes, but you only havwe to do it the one time for that piece of brass. If you keep track of what brass you have already processed, it will make that next reloading go faster. And, only military brass has a mil crimp. Commercial brass doesn't. Look for the small ring around the outside of the primer, in the base of the case. That small embossed ring is that mil crimp (if it exists)

Do you really have to remove the military crimp?
 
Hey guys. Finally got around to loading this stuff. Here are a few things I noticed. The overall length listed was 2.26" I measured a factory round and it was shorter than that. 2.20" I loaded the same grain 55gr fmj. I measured all the cases and did not have to resize. I only loaded 40 rounds for testing purposes. I loaded mine to the groove around the bullet so the groove is lined up with the case mouth.Length was 2.20". If I went with the 2.26" is was sticking way to far out. Also another thing I noticed was the swing of powder drop recomendations. Lyman max drop was 26.5, hodgdon and speer book were up at 27 and 27.5. I am using BL-C2 powder. I loaded 20 at 24gr and 20 at 25gr to see what works better. I also weighed the case and matched them up with one another. Testing these out on Monday with a friend. Also the shell plate which is a Dillon, noticeably more wobble than a short pistol round. More attention to detail needed. Any input?
 
tighten the shellplate down. i have the same issue on my 650. it needs to be tight to the point where a 1/10th of a turn more will bind the whole machine up.

ignore OAL of factory ammo. thats the factories problem. the cannelure is completely unnecessary on .223. in a heavy recoiling rifle, that cannelure helps prevent bullet setback due to recoil (it's also used as a crimp-groove for rifle cartridges, but once again, crimping a .223 is pointless). there isnt enough recoil in a .223 to even bother.

i load my mag-length ammo to 2.245". 2.26" is the max (IE, barely fits in a mag). for reliability-sake, i stuff em a little deeper so i never have to worry about a round hanging up.

shoot these. seated that deep they arent going to spontaneously explode, but next time around, stick to the recommended OAL's in the book, ESPECIALLY if you're new to this.
 
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