Question about the quality of .223 brass

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jwrowland77

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I finally got through cleaning an sorting about 4k .223 cases. Had about 1,750 LC cases and 1,750 FC cases but had some cases I was wondering about the quality of them.

Cases in question about quality and if I should go ahead and use. Will be shooting in bolt .223.

PPU
PSD
PMC
S&B

Scrape or use???
 
Separate by head stamp & use them.
The only bad case for me have been:
Fiocchi had off center flash holes.
A german headstamp had under sized flash holes.
Luckily I had very few of them

I like PPU & SB. Feds have primers get loose sooner on some. If you have them use them until they are no good.

Some brass cased .223 will occasionally have berdan primers, so watch for that.
 
Dang!

4,000 cases and a bolt-action should last you quite a while!!

And then quite a bit longer then that!!

rc
 
4k brass will outlast your barrel, the only 223 brass I know to avoid if the bulk Federal which has a crimped primer, from what I understand it is a huge pain in the @$$ to remove those.
 
Kachok said:
4k brass will outlast your barrel, the only 223 brass I know to avoid if the bulk Federal which has a crimped primer, from what I understand it is a huge pain in the @$$ to remove those.
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Nah not really. I have a hand tool to remove the crimp. It actually comes out pretty easy.
 
All of those are good to use. Case life will depend on sizing and load pressure. Be glad you have it the way .223 brass availability/price is right now. :)
 
Be glad you have all that brass. My suggestion would be keeping. So many price gouging now. All that brass is very usable, especially in a bolt action.

Your will wear the barrel and action out before you shoot all 4k cases.

Enjoy
 
Yeah I have three daughters. So far only the oldest one shoots it and the middle one is 2 years away from shooting it I'm building an AR15 in 5.56/.223 and will be using the brass myself. Luckily, I bought all this brass awhile back, but just now getting around to cleaning and sorting it all. I was actually thinking about getting more. The only thing I need now, is a bunch of bullets. I only have about 300 on hand and with the way my oldest shoots, that'll only last maybe 10 visits...maybe...
 
I would expect good service from the LC, less from the FC, and I would prep the others and see how they work. They way things are today, I would not scrap anything. Sounds like a good opportunity to buy some good case prep tools!:) Lightman
 
I just swage those primer crimps with the RCBS swager die. I don't remove them. Very quick and easy.
PMC brass is as good as any. I"d take any commercial 223 brass over any LC or military brass.
 
Of those listed only the S&B brass might give you a slight problem. They have been reported to have tight primer pockets but I have never has that problem with them.
 
ArchAngelCD said:
Of those listed only the S&B brass might give you a slight problem. They have been reported to have tight primer pockets but I have never has that problem with them.
Click to expand...
I had that problem with some S&B 44 mag brass. I had to swage all the primer pockets before I could prime them.
 
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