.223 Reloading Newbie!!! Help...

[nursindude]

Just starting out in reloading in general and figured ya'll could help out.

Bought some once fired Lake City Brass (.223) and some 55gr fmj bt's with cannelure (reported military m 193's Copper jacket lead core bullets). Some of my reading online states that reloading and shooting this setup is not recommended in the commercial rifles secondary to increased pressures.. I just figured I'd go with a starting load from Lyman on Hornady 55gr fmj bt and work the load up from there. It seems that the H335 has a strong following so I figured that is a good starting point, and then I purchased some CCI #41 primers. I Will be reloading with RCBS 223 dies. I also read somewhere that the brass will need "decrimped", won't the sizer square this away... I will be firing these through a RRA 16" stainless barrel. Appreciate you reading this and hope for some input..

 

[jeepmor]

Decrimped refers to the primer pockets. You will see a little ridge on them and this ridge makes seating primers a frustrating process. It is not referring to any neck crimp.

I have had some federal cases that were crimped. And they were set aside after I crushed, mangled or otherwise destroyed primers while trying to reprime them. Dillon makes a neat tool or you can chamfer them out with a deburring tool. I don't have a Dillon tool so I chamfered some out by hand. Not much fun, but good stuff to do in front of the TV. However, chamfer too much and well, the primers won't have the same amount of contact to hold them in. This could be an issue and reduce the brass's life cycle to fewer loadings.

There are also hand swaging tools, but I've simply tried to make a point not to buy crimped brass if I can. I don't want the extra steps and tooling at this time, but I'll be there eventually I'm sure.

 

[RustyFN]

LC brass is good brass. Don't worry about extra pressure in 223. Start at the starting load data and work up and you shouldn't have any problems. You couldn't have picked a better powder to start with, H335 is excellent powder. The crimp you are talking about is a primer crimp and the sizing die won't remove it. It's not a big deal, I did 1,000 cases by hand and it wasn't that bad. A chamfer debur tool works real good, about two or three twists. I use a dull drill bit in a cordless drill. With a very light pressure as soon as the crimp is gone the drill bit stops. It only takes a couple of seconds per case. If you try this just be careful, make sure it is a dull bit. You can also buy a swage tool from Dillon for about $80 that I hear works very well. I use all BT bullets because they are a lot easier to get started into the case when seating the bullet. Let us know how these turned out when you shoot them. Good luck and load safe.
Rusty

 

[Steve in PA]

Have you read any reloading books? All of them mention about crimped primer pockets and what needs to be done with them in order to reload.

 

[Dave R]

You're doing the right things. H335 is my favorite .223 powder. Lake City is my favorite brass.

You can de-crimp primer pockets with a chamfer/deburr tool, which you need, anyway. That's how I do it.

 

[nursindude]

Thanks guys! Will have components here tomorrow so hope to reload some test loads this weekend.. When working up loads do you usually always go in increments of .5 grains (referring to these .223 loads that is?) Thanks again. Steve, I have done some reading and do have the Lyman Reloading Manual; however, pretty bad about reading it closely... Will make a better effort though...Seems it is a "Bible of Reloading" per further reading on existing sdiscussion boards.

 

[fourrobert13]

To save yourself some wrist and hand pain, all of you guys that decrimp by hand should get the Lyman power chamfer tool. I used to do it by hand until I discovered this little simple tool. It reams and cleans the primer pockets. Removes the crimp and also chamfers and deburs. Kit comes with every thing. I picked one up for $50, and it saves time and frustration and hand and wrist pain. Just mt .02 cents.

 

[ace1001]

Could you run a drill bit backwards so not to cut too fast? Ace