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Posted: 1/22/2011 1:51:22 PM EDT
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Pretty new to reloading, doing my first batch of .223 on a Lyman press. Lake City brass, resized, trimmed, cleaned, primed with Remington 7 1/2 small rifle bench rest primers.
I have a bunch of 75 grain Hornady A-Max boat tail bullets (#22792) I got cheap and want to use those. Varget powder. For this bullet, the Rem 7 1/2 primers, and Varget powder, the Lyman reloading manual says to start with 23.0 grains of powder (max 25.6) but they specify Remington cases. Am I safe using the 23.0 - 25.6 range of powder in Lake City brass? Helpful friend #1 says it's fine. Helpful friend #2 says mil brass has thicker walls and a smaller case volume. Helpful friend #1 retorts that's a myth. I'd just to leave the range with my gun, fingers, and eyeballs intact after shooting my reloads. Thanks. |
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Remington (at least the ones I used in the past) cases have a case capacity of 30.0gr to 30.5gr of H2O.
The LC brass I have measured (02, 04, and 07) have had a case capacity of 30.2gr to 30.8gr of H2O. It is a wash. 23.0gr of Varget should get you ~2,500fps, with a 20" barrel. Are you going to load them to magazine length, or ~0.020" off the throat? |
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Quoted:
Amax are long, hope this is a bolt gun, cause they won't fit in an AR mag. Wait, what ... *goes and loads an empty unprimed case with an A-Max to 2.390" and tries to put it in a magazine* Aw goddamnit. I guess this is part of the learning curve. Well I guess now I have a reason to go buy a bolt gun. Oh well. I have a box of 77 gr Sierra matchkings, guess I'll try those. (2.260" ought to be OK, right?  )
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Quoted:
Are you going to load them to magazine length, or ~0.020" off the throat? I was going to load them to the 2.390" the book says. Just for grins I seated one deep enough to fit in the magazine, but it doesn't look right (it's seated so far back there's a gap between the neck of the case and the bullet) and I figure a noob like me shouldn't be straying from what the book says anyway. |
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Quoted:
Quoted:
Amax are long, hope this is a bolt gun, cause they won't fit in an AR mag. Wait, what ... *goes and loads an empty unprimed case with an A-Max to 2.390" and tries to put it in a magazine* Aw goddamnit. I guess this is part of the learning curve. Well I guess now I have a reason to go buy a bolt gun. Oh well. I have a box of 77 gr Sierra matchkings, guess I'll try those. (2.260" ought to be OK, right? )Right! At 2.26" the 77 SMKs are dimensionally very close to Mk262 Mod 0 military round spec. They should magazine feed without difficulty. Go over to AR-15 / Ammunition forum and read up on the heavies (75-77 grains). Molon (famous poster there) has done a great job on his thread (s) on the subject with test firings, chrono data, measurements, photo's, comparisons, etc. http://www.ar15.com/forums/topic.html?b=3&f=16&t=283506 |
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Are you going to load them to magazine length, or ~0.020" off the throat? I was going to load them to the 2.390" the book says. Just for grins I seated one deep enough to fit in the magazine, but it doesn't look right (it's seated so far back there's a gap between the neck of the case and the bullet) and I figure a noob like me shouldn't be straying from what the book says anyway. Good. I was wondering what you were going to do with the A-Max. |
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Quoted: Quoted: Amax are long, hope this is a bolt gun, cause they won't fit in an AR mag. Wait, what ... *goes and loads an empty unprimed case with an A-Max to 2.390" and tries to put it in a magazine* Aw goddamnit. I guess this is part of the learning curve. Well I guess now I have a reason to go buy a bolt gun. Oh well. I have a box of 77 gr Sierra matchkings, guess I'll try those. (2.260" ought to be OK, right? )No big deal, lots of us have made this mistake. I went ahead and loaded them up anyway (even though I don't have a bolt gun). I just single load them in the rifle and shoot them that way. I bought a box of 100 way back when, I think I still have 50 or so left. I'll eventually shoot them.  |
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Friend #2 is wrong. Fill an LC and Winchester, Remington, or other case with water. Weigh the water to prove to #2 that they have the same capacity.
Load the AMAX bullets and shoot them single shot if you have a rifle with a 7 or 8 twist rifling. Otherwise, buy a new upper or trade the bullets. Or save them until you get a rifle with fast enough twist to shoot them. Beware of buying an off the rack bolt gun for this bullet. Savage sells a rifle chambered for .223 Rem with a fast twist barrel, I don't know if Remington does. You'll need at least 1 turn in 8 inches rifling, anything slower won't stabilize this long bullet. 9 inch twist won't work. |
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Friend #2 read that in a reloading manual. The reloading manual is incorrect.
Lawyers have an input in reloading manuals today. Instead of correctly stating " mil and com cases in 223 have the same capacity, However 7.62 x 51 cases are heavier than com 308 cases. Drop the load 10%". They err on the side of caution so new reloaders won't get mixed up, and say all mil cases. Anyone who has loaded both com and mil cases in 223 and worked up loads knows this. And also knows the warning is true in 7.62 x 51 mil brass. 
Here is Molons case capacity chart for refrence. I wish this myth would die. Next time pick up some Hornady 75 gr HP's, these can be loaded to mag length. |
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Quoted:
I bet you SouthAfrican PMP .223 is less than 29.2gr. Cause a powder charge that fits in a WinNT case does not fit in a PMP case. I was wondering why the heck powder was everywhere.... The PMP is pretty well known as heavy brass. It weighs about 10 grains more than most of the rest! |
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