Reloading .223

[swampratt]

I took 17 different head stamp cases in .223 and annealed the necks and sized them then trimmed all to the same length.
I then deburred the flash hole and necks and cleaned the crimp from primer pockets.

I then primed them and weighed each case to see how much difference there was.
Only 1 case had a hard to seat primer .. all others seated the same.

Those 17 cases weighed from 93.7 to 101.4 grains.

I loaded them all the same.. and will shoot each one at a dot of it's own on paper at 100 yards and see how close each come to the dot.

Neck ID was all the same except 2 cases .001" difference .. and neck OD was as much as .005" difference between cases.


I may find some cases that group well or close to aim point and the ones in left field will not be loaded again.

Should be an interesting test.

Or may prove nothing.
All cases except the 2 with .001" more neck ID had the same bullet seating force.

 

[IronMLS72]

What bullet did you load?
What and how much powder did you use?
Did you crimp?
What will you shoot them with?

 

[lkothe]

broke my .223 deprime pin today.

 

[dennishoddy]

broke my .223 deprime pin today.

Call the factory and whine. I called RCBS the other day when breaking a .243WSSM pin. Mine has a one piece with no flaring ball. WTF?, but its worked ok for many years.
When I called RCBS, they poo-poo'd my report until they got my pin that they asked for and sent a shipping label.

They sent me a new one with three replaceable pins at no charge. Never said anything about why mine wasn't right. Bought my dies when that round was totally new and first on the market, so who knows, but yes, call them and whine.

 

[swampratt]

I found the .223 round does not center up as easily as the larger rounds and a slower movement when resizing or doing anything into the dies really helps this little round.
I use a Lee universal depriming die for most of my cases.

What bullet did you load?---- The Hornady 60gr V-Max
What and how much powder did you use?----- 25.5 gr. Varget measured to the kernel.
Did you crimp?---NO
What will you shoot them with?----Savage Axis .223 with 22" barrel.. Trigger work is the only Mod I have done to this rifle.
Trigger is currently at 3.5 lbs and Zero creep. Modded the factory trigger.

 

[IronMLS72]

Impressive. Thanks Swampratt. I found a bunch of the answers myself once I got to reading through your other threads, which I should had done first. I appreciate you laying your research out like this it's great and helpful information that I enjoy reading.

Thanks. Mike

 

[Hobbes]

Thanks for the info.

 

[lkothe]

Checked with Jerry's, they said same thing and even called Hornady for me...pin on the way!

 

[swampratt]

I just got 2 more bullets to fling down range.
Will be working up loads for them also.
69gr Tipped Match King BC .375
75gr Hornady BTHP BC is .395 on that one.

We will see what happens.. as I want to shoot those farther than 200 yards Ultimate goal MOA at 500 yards.
High hopes.

 

[jc5420]

This test needs to be shot over a chronograph so you know the real difference. I have factory ammo that groups extremely well. Ran it over a chrono and it had a max spread upwards of 300fps. The ammo groups well out to about 400 before it becomes sparatic. Just something to think about.

ETA: I don't think there would be a huge spread, but it would be interesting to see what case volume does with everything else being the same. Did you or have you measured h2o case capacity?