What I learned today (225 5.56 brass)

[Steve H]

Too cold today to go outside and play so I went out to the shop and went through some old 223/556 brass I had in a coffee can. It was a mix of about 1/2 Privi and 1/2 PMC. Went through the whole process, sized & deprime, trim, remove crimps, clean and reprime. All went well until I started to prime ...... Learned two things new....
the Privi brass will not fit into a Lee hand primer shell holder #4 so I switched to my RCBS hand primer......Privi fit fine BUT the PMC was having a hard time lining up with the unseated primer.

All in all a good lesson about separating by headstamp

Here is a picture of the Privi brass and the Lee shell holder

 

[rcmodel]

I had to work over several of my Lee universal shell holder assortment with a needle file to smooth out the internal machining burs.

Might look real close for that.

rc

 

[Canuck-IL]

I've snapped 2 Lee universal decapping pins on PMC 223 - pretty common to see off-center flash holes.

/Bryan

 

[blarby]

Lee shellholders are great- but RC hit the nail on the head. Get a needle file, and some emery paper...they take "rough" to the extreme to get the quantity they need out to make the price low.

Now imagine how well that works when resizing, and seating depth wise ? Theres a reason I like my tight ECBS shellholders for the "mission critical" stuff. A good way to sort slop brass VS the good stuff is just to see which fits in what !

 

[Steve H]

I have never had a problem with any brand shell holder used in a press. The only problem is with the Lee hand primer shell holder. The Privi brass rim measures about 2 - 3 thousandths more than the drawings in my reloading manuals........

 

[45lcshooter]

I load all my 556 223 with Lee hand primer. You need to spin the case while its in the shell holder because of the crimp.some of the crimp could still be there, ream the pockets out. It goes in but its tricky but works. I don't swage my cases so that's why I have to spin them.

Never broke a decap pin because of not correctly lined up flash hole. You can't slam your press, that's when things break. Ease tension on it.

 

[SlowFuse]

The PPU brass may be your problem. I have had the same thing happen with PPU 25-06 brass. Usually if I spun it a half turn or so it would go in. Case heads, as Steve H said measured slightly larger on these.

 

[carbine85]

I have found the PPU brass to be on the thick side. It actually has less case capacity for powder. I lessen the powder charger when I use it. I don't care for the brass myself. It's also harder to work with.