S&B Case Problems

[TooTaxed]

Just resized/deprimed a batch of varied .223 cases picked up at a Fort Benning range...had no problem decapping except with cases headstamped "S B M C 83". Am I correct in assuming these are Sellier & Beloit cases? These are boxer primed, but the flash holes are too small for my Lee decapping pin. Has anyone had problems in general with Sellier & Beloit cases in any caliber, or did I just happen upon a bad year?

 

[TooTaxed]

Interesting...the mystery deepens. I see that, besides Sellier & Beloit, cases headstamped "S B" were also made by Arms Corp of the Philippines (formerly Squires Bingham Co), Empresa Nacional Santa Barberade Industrias Militares (Toledo, Spain), and Israeli Military Industries (Tel Aviv, Israel). Can't determine what the "M C" stands for...does anyone know?

 

[HSMITH]

I don't know the answer to your question, sorry.

Throw them out, everything with S&B on it. 223/5.56 brass is way too cheap to deal with junk brass.

I sort the S&B out of my brass no matter what, even handgun brass.

 

[JDGray]

I allways know if im priming s&b brass, because the pockets are to tight. I also can tell when running it through my factory crimp die,slips in and out with very little force, now I just pitch it.

 

[TooTaxed]

I sorted out the "S B M C 83" cases (no other year found) and resized the rest, well over a thousand from more than a dozen makers, (including Lake City, Radway, South Africa, Malaysia, Israel, S & B) without a single problem or having to reset the Lee decapping pin, which will slide rather than break if over-stressed. I've come to a couple of realizations:

My problem with these cases is that the primers are VERY heavily crimped...far more so than any of the others. My collet-mounted Lee decapper simply couldn't handle them. (If I'd used RCBS dies, I'd have broken the pins.)

Also, I don't think the culls were made by Sellier and Bellot, as I decapped "S & B" head-stamped and Olympic Arms (cases made by S & B) both older and newer than 1983 without a single problem.