Thinking of .223

[Gunowner99]

I will preface it with this, I am loading for an AR that I have. It might go in different ARs that I have but only ARs not bolt action. No, I am not starting this tomorrow as I am just learning how to load handgun however just making sure I have all the right tools in place. I am not a benchrest shooter so not really sure if I have to use a primer pocket uniformer and all of that kind of stuff?


Separate by headstamp. Separate by 223 and 556 (either way, load the same as far as charge? Can I mix cases of each or is that an issue?). I literally have a set of dies for 223 reloading but I’m assuming regardless of the case I use 223 or 556 I will load them the same with the same charge but I’m wondering if I mix 223 with 556 brass does that make a difference?

Deprime on universal die that I have for depriming. It’s a Lyman or Lee, I forget now.

Tumble 3 hours in walnut.

Lube (12:1, warm each bottle before mixing initially in warm water, shake before each use). Or what do you do to lube?

Put 50 cases in a plastic ziplock
Try to stand them so lube gets inside cases
Spray with lubricant
Work all around
Lay out on a paper towel to let it dry 15 minutes

Put on press and full length resize and deprime

Measure OAL

Trim, Chamfer, Debur. I have a manual one to do that however I believe there might be something you could put on the chalk of your drill for around $100 that will do all three actions at once? Is it worth the money is it better to get a case prep center what say you?

Measure OAL

Swage if needed (do this only on once fired military, corrrct? No need to keep redoing?

All of the above is done with the lube on correct?

Tumble 30 minutes in plain corncob to get lube off.

Prime in an empty position of turret with swaging die in it. Just what I plan to do.

Charge, seat and crimp. Check charge frequently

Measure Frequently

[oldengineer]

Sounds pretty extensive to me. I clean mine with a vibratory cleaner, deprime and check OAL, use a Lyman Case Prep Express to clean the pocket and swage if necessary, use a spritz of Hornaday One Shot an a pad, and do 5 cases at a time. After resizing I use a case gauge to check and then proceed. I measure each charge and trickle to spec.

[ExFlyinguy]

OP,
I separate .223 from 5.56. I do not separate by headstamp of same cartridge.

I have read so much about the differences between case capacities that I got overwhelmed and no longer care. Like I said above I separate between the two and use load data appropriate to the cartridge.

To be honest I don't load much 5.56 cases. Most of my acquired range brass is usually .223 I guess I'm not the only one that squirrels the 5.56 away for SHTF and shoots the cheaper .223 for plinking.

I typically use Hornady "one shot" spray lube. Put the cases in a large tupperware bottom and spray. Shake it a bit and spray again. Nothing fancy. Don't care if any got inside.

If I want to get picky for my varmint .223 bolt gun. I'll give the cases a little extra love, but I know that's outside the scope of your question

[JoshIronshaft]

I also load .223/5.56 for only semi-autos. No extreme demand for accuracy, but with a chrono and a little time I found a load that is close to M193 velocity and seems to group well out of all of my rifles.

Your process does sound excessive to me.

I went down the rabbit hole with separating .223 and 5.56 cases. I grabbed a variety of head stamps of both and I checked the case volume with water. I found that the volume of .223 and 5.56 cases were similar, with the volume of .223 cases falling between the min and max volume of 5.56 cases with different head stamps. Because of this I do not separate .223 and 5.56 cases at all, and this is in line with what the majority of reloaders with similar goals will do. Note that this is definitely not the case for .308 and 7.62x51, which I think causes some confusion with .223 and 5.56.

I tumble my brass in a HF vibratory tumbler using fine walnut media with primers still in the cases. I haven't found a reason to worry about cleaning primer pockets.

For lube I use the Hornady One Shot spray lube and love it. I think the people who have issues with it are making a few simple mistakes. You need to shake the hell out of the can, and you need to let it dry at least 10 minutes or more. I also spray a little in the die each time I spray another batch of brass. I have a plastic box with lid that is about 12" long by 8" wide. I toss three handfuls of brass in it, spray a little lube, close the lid, shake it around, spray a little more lube, and shake it around again. I don't worry about 100% lube coating the cases or getting any inside the case mouth. Knock on wood, I haven't had an issues for thousands and thousands of rounds.

I load on a Dillon XL650 using two separate tool heads.

First tool head has a universal decapping die in position 1 and then the Dillon rapid trimmer and full length sizing die in position 4. With this set up all the brass goes through the trimmer when it is sized and I never have to measure cases once the dies are set.

Once the brass goes through this tool head I swage the primer pockets as needed with the Dillon swager. You don't need to swage brass again when you go to load it but it won't hurt it if you do.

I don't do anything to remove the case lube. It doesn't seem to bother my rifles, which I clean about once a presidential term haha!

On to the second tool head. Position 1 is a Lyman M die to expand the necks for inserting the bullet. The rapid trimmer does a good job of trimming without the need for chamfering but this neck expander makes sure I have no issues scraping jacket off of the projectiles.

Position 2 is the dillon powder thrower. Position 4 is the bullet seating die and position 5 is the lee crimp die.

I give all rounds a quick visual inspection to check primers are seated fully and check for neck cracks or anything else.

Loading 2500 rounds takes about 8-10 hours once the tumbler cleaning is done.

[Marcus99]

Be careful not to over-lube. I simply lay mine out on a paper towel, give them a spritz, roll them over and spritz again. I like the RCBS Case Slick lube because it's a pump spray and not aerosol. The last can I had of Hornady one shot ran out of aerosol before it ran out of lube. The aerosol cans just seem to spray everywhere. I don't really make a fuss about removing lube either, maybe I should, but I don't(see previous comment to not over-lube).

I've never mixed 556 and 223 brass because I primarily only shoot 223 brass. I have a 223 bolt action that I also load for, so eliminating 556 from the equation just makes things easier for me. I don't get into separating by headstamp, or weighing cases, or any of that jazz. I also avoid brass that has the military primer crimp..just one less thing to deal with. The case prep machines are nice for doing large batches.

[crapshoot]

I load 223 as well for AR's. I have for about 15 years now. One of the things I've done for years is use pam cooking spray for lube when I'm doing mass quantities of resizing cases. I din't even remember why I started using it, but I'll toss a couple hundred cases in a plastic bag, spray some pam on them then shake it up. But I also wash my brass with hot soapy water before and after I resized/decap. I also soak it overnight after decapping in a white vinegar solution to make it extra shiny. It doesn't come out of the solution shiny, but since I tumble my rounds in corn cob after I'm done loading they come out looking like factory ammo. The factories tumble everything before it leaves no difference in doing it myself.

I also don't bother cleaning primer pockets. I'll give them a visual inspection and if there's a chunk of something in there I'll use my primer pocket brush, but brass prep sucks to begin with and after trimming and removing primer pocket crimps on .mil brass, I don't really care about a dirty primer pocket.

[Yoder]

I used random range brass. I never checked if it was.223 or 556. Ran in the tumbler about an hr. Lubed, resized/deprimed. Ran in the tumbler about an hour. Cut all cases and beveled. Also reamed primer pockets in case some were crimped. After that I loaded them on a progressive press. I still have under 1 in groups at 100 yrds.