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Posted: 7/29/2013 5:20:29 AM EDT
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Folks,
I have been reloading since I was 14 and now I am 58. So I am not new to the game and produce annually about an average between 40,000 to 125,000 rounds of ammunition of various calibers. However, at the moment I am trying to salvage a problem that perhaps some of you folks can help with. I bought a bunch of once fired brass at government auction. 9mm, 5. 56, 7.62 and .50 BMG. The 5.56 is giving me trouble. What seems to be the issue is the federal 5.56 cases seem to have an issue in the web/case head area.normal dillo/lee/rcbs/rcbs small base and ch4d dies will not bring them back into close enough to full seat in a case chamber gauge. They are close, real close. The issue now revolves around the following. I have 8 assorted variants of M16-AR15 platforms as well as a couple of bolt guns. Only one has an issue with chambering the federal cases. Not all of the cases are out of spec, but too many are. I sent the AR15 back too it's manufacturer to be checked and asked them to open the chamber at the case rim area of course they would not for liability reasons. Anyone have any ideas on how to deal with this short of scrapping 15-20K pieces of brass? If I could get the chamber opened up to field gauge specs would work since 9 out my 10 rifles will chamber the darn stuff. Nick |
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I don’t reload federal brass.
If a small base die will not resize the brass properly why would you even consider it safe to use? Brass that was run through a LMG may not be good for reloading even if it will resize. I could see polishing or reaming a chamber that is too small. I can’t see enlarging a chamber past the chamber spec. |
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Your Federal .223/5.56 cases, are they FC or LC head stamp?
Which manufacturer's case head space/length gauge are you using? I have the Lyman gauge, LC brass seems to have slightly larger diameter at the head, would not go into gauge no matter how close to spec the case was resized. Had to very slightly ream the opening to the case head space/length gauge to accommodate LC brass. As far as I know, other manufacturer's gauge doesn't have this issue, the Wilson gauge gets a lot of recommendations. |
| I ran into that, was told it could be SAW'd brass. Bought a RCBS small base sizer and it did not help. Just could not get it to ever fit the case gauge. If you have a lot, maybe there is a process like the other poster mentioned to re-condition it, but it is probably expensive. |
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It sounds like it is out of spec really close to the rim? Perhaps you could grind a 223 shell holder down to the bare min to get the sizer die closer to the rim?
Alternately you could have one of the die makers construct you a special die to resize the outside of the entire case (like a 40 S&W bulge buster die)? Sounds like you have a bunch of SAW brass. They are known for having generous chamber dimensions. |
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Folks,
After several hours of trouble shooting I have found the issue. Now I am trying to get a custom made SWAGER to fix it. Get this....I have heard for years that federal brass is soft and have seen once fired .308 gold medal unable to hold a primer and would fall out after seating the new primer. So, here is the problem and possible solution, small base RCBS die to start with, looked good, next station primer pocket swage station, again looked good and dropped into the case gauge. Primer seating station.....it is adjustable for seating depth of the primer. It made no difference if the primer was seated to -.004 depth or was not seated deep enough I am going to try to get RCBS to make me a swaging die at about .376 and a pusher at .370 and try to swage the rim back into spec. Talk about soft brass!!!!!!!! At least it should let me load them at least once. Nick |
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Quoted:
Have you got any proof to back up that statement. Are you asking a question? And, if so.. to whom? If you're asking me about Fed brass, I've run 10s of thousands of pieces of it since the crappy stuff they made back in the 90s. It's now not significantly worse or better than anything else out there. I definitely had first hand experience with the bad brass... but it's been over 5 years or so since I've seen any of it in range pick ups, desert shoot pick ups, etc. 
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| Roll Sizing - CASEPRO-100 http://www.casepro100.com/index.html I seen where someone does 5.56mm brass. Email Casepro and ask. |
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Federal brass "myth" was very real for me,
at least with loose primer pockets on FC AE223 brass. Had lots of problems with blown primers when I started reloading last year. Switched to wider diameter primer Rem 7 1/2, CCI 450 & #41, took care of most problems. Now I will reload Federal AE just once with mild plinking load and then scrap. |
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Quoted:
Folks, After several hours of trouble shooting I have found the issue. Now I am trying to get a custom made SWAGER to fix it. Get this....I have heard for years that federal brass is soft and have seen once fired .308 gold medal unable to hold a primer and would fall out after seating the new primer. So, here is the problem and possible solution, small base RCBS die to start with, looked good, next station primer pocket swage station, again looked good and dropped into the case gauge. Primer seating station.....it is adjustable for seating depth of the primer. It made no difference if the primer was seated to -.004 depth or was not seated deep enough I am going to try to get RCBS to make me a swaging die at about .376 and a pusher at .370 and try to swage the rim back into spec. Talk about soft brass!!!!!!!! At least it should let me load them at least once. Nick I had the same problem with some of my brass, rims over sized or head a bit to large to be resized with a normal die. I made my own push thru dies on my lathe using steel drill bushings and an aluminum body. With a pusher of the right size and lots of lube they resize perfectly. For the 223 case you need a V size drill bushing http://www.victornet.com/report/Drill-Jig-Bushings-Headless-377-to-7-16-ID/880.html. 
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Quoted:
Are you asking a question? And, if so.. to whom? If you're asking me about Fed brass, I've run 10s of thousands of pieces of it since the crappy stuff they made back in the 90s. It's now not significantly worse or better than anything else out there. I definitely had first hand experience with the bad brass... but it's been over 5 years or so since I've seen any of it in range pick ups, desert shoot pick ups, etc.
Quoted:
Quoted:
Have you got any proof to back up that statement. Are you asking a question? And, if so.. to whom? If you're asking me about Fed brass, I've run 10s of thousands of pieces of it since the crappy stuff they made back in the 90s. It's now not significantly worse or better than anything else out there. I definitely had first hand experience with the bad brass... but it's been over 5 years or so since I've seen any of it in range pick ups, desert shoot pick ups, etc.
Kind of a question, but not really. As I don’t really care if they have straightened up their ‘mythical’ problems or not. I don’t reload with federal brass. |
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