223 brass

[ICUDIEN]

How important is it to have all the same kind of brass?

[possum1]

In my opinion, it depends on how accurate you want to be. With my experiance when target shooting I get better groups when sorting and weighing brass from the same manufacture. When loading hunting loads it doesn't matter to me. Just my opinion.

[nova1194]

I have found that just keeping the head stamps the same makes a pretty big difference, most all major brands seem to be pretty equal accuracy wise, but because of case volume differences between brands it can make for some pretty big spreads velocity wise. 223 is a small case anyway, so it doesnt take much difference in volume to throw pressures off.
Then sorting by weight can fine tune your loads even more.

Mike

[GaCop]

+1 on sorting by case weight.

[Elkbane]

ICU,
The other posters have it right. Are you plinking with an AR or trying to hit small targets with a bolt gun?

I shoot mixed head stamp with my AR and it seems to do fine, but I wouldn't do it on a bolt gun. Here are some or the effects you can expect from mixed brass:
* different internal case volume - the effect will be differential pressure from the same powder charge, and this could be significant
* different flash hole dimensions - probably the same diameter, but some are drilled and some punched - you can mitigate this by unifroming and chamfering the flash holes
* different case wall thickness - in addition to the effects on case volume, this can make a significant difference on neck tension, especially if you are using bushing type dies, which "fix" the external dimension and drive all the variability in thickness to the inside. Some will have a better "grip" on the bullet than others, and the results won't be real pleasing.
* different "hardness" of the brass - take Winchester and Lapua, for instance. The former always seems quite hard to me and the latter is usually pretty soft. They'll spring back differently after sizing and you'll get some of the same effect as the neck tension comment above. Plus, the shoulder bump may be different so you may get some of the case volume effect.

I just don't know how you'd set up your dies for precision work with mixed cases, unless you oversize everything and then use deis with an expander ball, but it still is going to lead to high case to case variability. The whole reason most folks reload is to eliminate variability....
Elkbane

[bigedp51]

Why reload if your going to make ammo with even more variables than factory loaded ammunition.

Remington .223 cases in the left hand bucket, Federal and military in the right hand bucket, wash bin and coffee can. They have yet to be weighed and sorted by head stamp and date.

[img width=600 height=450]http://i122.photobucket.com/albums/o254/bigedp51/IMGP6208.jpg[/img]

Normal factory loaded 30-06 ammunition below with a extreme variation of 10,000 cup and a standard deviation of 3,100 cup. You could do better with a simple Lee loader and a cheap set of scales. (and with sorted uniform brass)

[img width=600 height=363]http://i122.photobucket.com/albums/o254/bigedp51/30-06chart-1.jpg[/img]

[cornstalker]

You talking about for the Savage, the Weatherby, or the ear busting bullet hose?

I agree that for the AR I wouldn't worry. For the Weatherby and the Savage, I would sort them by headstamp at very least...
...or throw it all away and start with brand new Lapua brass. ;D

[dolomite_supafly]

I shoot A LOT of 223 or at least I did at one point. Not very scientific but until I started sorting by brand I never really had what I would consider decent groups. Even today if I get a unexplained flyer I check to make sure it is the same type as the rest. I would also weigh the cases and not use any brass that weighed ouside of the norm.

I recently started uniforming the primer pockets and flash holes. The tools aren't really expensive. It is a time consuming process but a process you only have to do once. Since doing this it seems like the flyers have become less prevalent than before as well as my groups are shrinking a bit.

I even sort for my AR now but I don't do all the prep and tha has seemed to help some as well, not as much as with my Savage but asmall gain is stll a gain.

At a bare minimum I would sort to make sure all brass is the same. Then I would weigh within those groups. Then uniform the primer pockets and flash holes. I think by doing this you will see a marked improvement in your rifle's accuracy.

Dolomite

[ICUDIEN]

Thanks for all the replies guys I guess I'll just have to quit being lazy and start sorting my cases. :)

[GaCop]

I sort, weigh, and prep primer pockets and flash holes on all my brass whether for my AR or Savages. Being retired, I can take the time to be anal about all my brass. All this work seems to pay off even for my 16" carbine as it will shoot sub-MOA at 100 yards with many loads.

[rcinit]

I know this is an older thread but I'd still thought I's bring it back.

What is considered "out of the norm" as weight is concerned for .223 brass? What varation would be concidered to great? I weighed 5 ea of four different types of once fired brass. All the brass was cleaned, full length resized, trimmed, flash holes reamed and then cleaned again. The Federal brass was not trimmed after resizing as is was all under 1.750 in.

Remington: 90.8, 91.0, 91.0, 91.2, 91.9 avg 91.2(rounded)
Federal: 92.0, 92.0, 92.3, 92.6, 92.6, avg 92.3(rounded)
LC 09: 92.3, 92.4, 92.4, 92.6, 92.8, avg 92.5(rounded)
Hornady: 93.3, 93.4, 93.6, 93.7, 93.8, avg 93.6(rounded)


Also I've read Federal brass is not as good(to soft) as some other type of brass.

[helotaxi]

Also I've read Federal brass is not as good(to soft) as some other type of brass.

The rumor is that the primer pockets loosen up, but I've not had issues. I've got some Fed cases that I've reloaded several times and the primer pockets are still good enough. I don't load to wring every fps of velocity out of my loads either, though.

For my accuracy loads, I sort cases and keep the batches together for their lifetime.

[rcinit]

I myself have load Federal .243 brass up to 9 times with no problems. However I tossed the brass at that point. Since I do not not anneal the brass I figure why push it. But what about weight variation?

[rks1949]

I sort brass by case head stamps,LC is one of my favorites. If I'm shooting for group,I use brass that has been weighed to with in .2 gr. One of the best things that I have done is buy a good micro(competion) bullet seater die. More flyers are caused by run out,than anything else.I also neck turn my "target brass",but not my hunting cases. Ron