well Im stumped...

[Mteague09]

I finally managed to get my hands on all of the components needed to reload the .223 round for my AR. After weeks of firing wolf rounds out of it I can finally start experimenting.

I got the dies set up so that the finished result is 2.21 OAL, with federal brass and hornady 55gr V max bullets.

Now I get everything set up the way I want it, and for some reason the primers will not go in the cases... I tried it with Lake city, PMC, and Federal cases... will not work. When they do go in they need to be pressed in hard and end up looking like they are crooked.

Figured it might be the primer inserting tool, so I switched over to my auto-prime and I could barely get the primer to go into the case at all.

Ive never reloaded a smaller rifle round like this... so maybe someone can shed some light on what to do about it... I only reload for 7.62, 30-06, 300 mag, and .270... so Ive never even picked up a box of SRPs before.

[Lycanthrope]

Some brass has a primer pocket that you need to ream if you want to reload.

An example of the differences.




Lycanmaybethat'sitthrope

[notenoughguns]

Most likely primer pockets have a crimp .
Wops , Jeff beat me to it .

[Steve in PA]

As the others pointed out, you have brass with crimped primer pockets.

[Xringshooter]

Several ways you can remedy this problem. Easiest, least costly but more time consuming is to get a deburring tool. You just stick the end of it into the primer pocket and give it a few turns to put a bevel on the primer pocket and remove the crimp.

Next up would be a powered deburring tool and the most expensive (but easiest if you are going to reload a lot of crimped brass may be worth it) is a primer pocket swager. It removes the crimp and reforms the primer pocket so that primers go in nice and smooth. Most reloading equipment companies make something to do this. I happen to like Dillon equipment so I got theirs.

I pick up a lot of brass at the range that people just leave laying, and I do scrounge through the brass containers where people put the brass they police up . Brass is one of the places that you can save money during reloading if you have a good source and a lot of people don't reload and just throw it away.

[Mteague09]

Yeah... Im always trying to find more brass. So I went to the range on a saturday (when it is packed). And there must have been 6 or 7 ARs. I filled half a fat 50 up with all the brass I found. Found a few 30-06 Federal cartridges which made me happy because I never find those.

I guess I will go through all of my cartridges and see if I can find any with no primer pockets. Maybe Ill be able to find a hundred or two of them... then I'll be happy. If not ill have to purchase one of those primer pocket swagers...

Oh well..

[Nate7667]

Spend the couple bucks and pick one up.
For all the longer it takes to do, run all your cases through it. It only needs done once.

Keep your reloaded fired brass separated from new fired/new found brass. Just to save your from swaging/reaming it again when not needed.

[Pete D.]

I would have suggested the reaming solution also. What bothers me is that the OP says that he tried three different brands of cases and had trouble with all three. The LC brass I can understand but all three...and multiple cases?? Just seems like the odds would be against that since most commercial brass that I have seen needs no reaming.
Pete

[GuyMontag]

In case nobody mentioned it, they're probably crimped...

[notenoughguns]

I've run across all three of the cases that the OP mentioned that had primers crimped .