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Posted: 1/14/2013 4:51:51 PM EDT
| What is the .223 minimum case length you can use to safely reload? I'm using a zip trim and lee cutter piece. I'm getting some varied results in length and sometimes brass (federal) is really short. |
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Quoted:
What is the .223 minimum case length you can use to safely reload? I'm using a zip trim and lee cutter piece. I'm getting some varied results in length and sometimes brass (federal) is really short. This comes up all the time. I have never seen a "MINIMUM" length in print. I have seen where people have posted here something like -.030" which would be 1.730" If you are not crimping the consistency of your trim lengths is not real critical. All it does is change your neck tension ever so slightly but using different brands of brass with do that more than a simple .010" or so of neck length. If the brass you are wondering about is once fired Federal and is already under "trim length" I would not worry about it. Unless you are looking for max accuracy just load it. |
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Originally Posted By dry flash3:
The problem with short cases is lack of neck tension. Myself, I wont load anything shorter than 1.749. If it's shorter than that is goes into the "make into 300 blk" can. dryflash, My Lee trimmer cuts to 1.745" Guess its time for a new one. Or time for a 300blk 
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Quoted: Originally Posted By dry flash3: The problem with short cases is lack of neck tension. Myself, I wont load anything shorter than 1.749. If it's shorter than that is goes into the "make into 300 blk" can. dryflash, My Lee trimmer cuts to 1.745" Guess its time for a new one. Or time for a 300blk That would be too short for me, but will work if that's the tooling you have. |
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Quoted:
On a funny note, when I first began reloading years ago, I trimmed some 500 .223 cases by hand with a little Lee hand trimmer. Then I found out I was supposed to resize first, then trim! OK, not so funny but a valuable learning experience........  also at the time you didn't know to save that brass and you could just convert it to the 300 blackout everyone's so kool-aide about :-) 
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Quoted:
Quoted:
What is the .223 minimum case length you can use to safely reload? I'm using a zip trim and lee cutter piece. I'm getting some varied results in length and sometimes brass (federal) is really short. This comes up all the time. I have never seen a "MINIMUM" length in print. I have seen where people have posted here something like -.030" which would be 1.730" If you are not crimping the consistency of your trim lengths is not real critical. All it does is change your neck tension ever so slightly but using different brands of brass with do that more than a simple .010" or so of neck length. If the brass you are wondering about is once fired Federal and is already under "trim length" I would not worry about it. Unless you are looking for max accuracy just load it. http://www.saami.org/PubResources/CC_Drawings/Rifle/223%20Remington.pdf Straight from the SAAMI website. Shows 1.760" - .030" for case length, so anywhere from 1.760" max to 1.730" min 
I trim mine to 1.750" and have never had trouble with case life or chambering issues. |
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Quoted:
hm ok thanks for all the replies mines trimming to about 1.739 for most i guess ill stick with it until it gets down a little more I know what you mean. I was not joking, well not totally, when I posed with dryflash's quote. Metal has been and still is my life. For some reason it seems the length rod on the .223 Lee trimmer is soft and has allowed the cutter to dig in to it. I suspect yours did the same. Lee would most likely replace it but after paying shipping, both ways, its probably much cheaper just to buy a new one. It should be cutting at 1.750" +/- a couple thousandths. Oh. I see my memory isn't totally gone. (1.760" -.030") was correct. Thanks for the post. 
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