223/5.56 brass inspection

[KYregular]

How often in your reloading cycle do you inspect your 223 or 5.56 brass? I have gotten to the point that I inspect once cleaned then after loaded. Also gotten to the point that I just scrap Hornady brass if I find it, I have seen case head cracks before neck split on once fired brass.

 

[Blue68f100]

Every time I prep brass. I anneal every time so I don’t have to worry about necks splitting.

 

[FLIGHT762]

I inspect my brass during the resizing process when the brass is handled. I can feel when the expander ball is pulled through the neck if the neck is cracked. Those cases are scrapped. After tumbling the cases, I inspect the flash holes for any stuck media and remove any remaining walnut. When seating primers, I feel the primer seating and any loose primer pockets are marked with a red sharpie stripe to be fired and scrapped after the firing.

I have no case head separations since I control the shoulder bumping to be minimal. Nearly all of my scrapped brass is due to cracked necks and loose primer pockets. So, my point is the brass gets inspected every time I pick the case up to Resize, look for clogged flash holes, trimming, priming and during bullet seating.

 

[Walkalong]

Every time I prep brass.

Yep. Inside and out.

 

[Demi-human]

Mine are inspected many times during the rifle loading process, First at the depriming step, again after the wet tumble, the necks especially during the anneal ( I find split necks from the flare in the torch), inside inspection during the sizing step ( with my super precise, very expensive number two paper clip), the pockets are gauged by feel during priming, and finally one more visual after seating too.

While I am sure the cases are lasting longer and I know they size much more consistently, I thought I would lose less to split necks by annealing them. I just threw out four last night. Two more from holes burned through the shoulder, I thought the rifle feed ramp would have smoothed out by now. I may need to stone a burr down.

They are in cycle six, one hundred fifty nine left out of two hundred. At the first snag of the "inspection tool" they will all be renewed, into plumbing or a gas valves perhaps.

 

[bbqreloader]

Yep. Inside and out.

View attachment 774889

Ok, so I'm using a bent paperclip to feel for the ring, where did you get the feelers or picks that you have pictured? Would like to have something a little more studier.

 

[bbqreloader]

OP, to answer your question, after I clean and size. Run the inside of the case for possible separation signs.

 

[hdwhit]

kyregular asked:
How often in your reloading cycle do you inspect your 223 or 5.56 brass?

• Any "new to me" brass is visually inspected externally and internally (with an otoscope, but only looking for berdan cases) before it enters the reloading stream.
• All brass is visually and mechanically inspected after it is decapped, acid washed and cleaned. This inspection will, depending on the caliber, also involve a check for thinning case walls on bottleneck cartridges with a probe similar to a dental pick (see post #4) as well as an otoscope along with measurement of certain critical external case dimensions with a micrometer. Note that this is done because I do not use a case gauge; preferring to cull out-of-specification cases prior to the resizing operation.
  
• All brass is visually inspected at the time it lubricated to be resized.
• All brass is again visually inspected when the primer is seated.
• All assembled rounds are visually inspected and check-weighed before being boxed up for storage.

So, the answer to your question is, at least three times and often five times.

 

[Demi-human]

Ok, so I'm using a bent paperclip to feel for the ring, where did you get the feelers or picks that you have pictured? Would like to have something a little more studier.

https://www.harborfreight.com/6-piece-pick-set-93514.html

These are more a dental set, I would think Amazon has more "inspection probes", but these are inexpensive.

 

[lightman]

I don't really inspect it but I pay close attention to it during every step of the process.