.223 Brass Choices

Buzznrose

Buzznrose

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Getting ready to begin loading for a bolt rifle in .223. I’m looking for decent accuracy and have my primers, bullets and powder in place. But I am looking for suggestions on my brass.

I have several gallons of brass from saving and collecting myself and friends. I would guess 99% or more was simple AR blaster ammo.

I started sorting about a gallon of it and the main choices I have at this point are Wolf, PPU, WIN USA 5.56, PMC, RP, and FC.

I’m at a starting point and just trying to get some consistency at this point. Down the road, I’ll probably buy some Starline or Norma when I get this in more precise shape but for now, looking for your recommendations to get started.

I do not anneal (yet)…got too many other things to put in the budget at this point.

I’ve also considered just buying some good ammo to start out with…like Black Hills or some other quality stuff, but I figure this is a good way to start piecing this together.

Thanks…
 
Take 100 brass, same headstamp, benchrest prep it. Sort by weight to get 50 good brass. Should get many loadings out of it.
69Sierra4166CCI450TestLC.jpg A.jpg My test with LC brass, of different years.

Some Black Hill match brass (BHM) that was given to me, did well also. SavageAxis223R.jpg
 
Last edited:
243winxb said:
Take 100 brass, same headstamp, benchrest prep it. Sort by weight to get 50 good brass. Should get many loadings out of it.
View attachment 1190630My test with LC brass, of different years.
Click to expand...

For not match brass I do the same.. select from one manufacturer, prep it, sort by weight and box by 100. I tend to select out the RP, WIN, and FC for prep. I then keep that make of brass for a particular rifle; IE my 700 XCR gets RP, my M7 gets Win, my SPR gets FC. It just makes it easier to sort as it's all sized to fit that chamber. The other stuff goes into my 3Gun match and practice ammo. The .MIL stuff I use for 5.56 equivalent loads.
 
Keep your loads sufficiently below Hiroshima level, and the choice of brass will have little of any IM-portance on PER-formance.

You probably will find some brass works easier in your shell-holder, and has better longevity.

By the time you're on your third firing of 5.56 brass out of an autoloader, think about retiring it unless you are willing to inspect every case, or you are willing to contend with some small amount of head separations or loose primer pockets.

5.56 is so abundant and inexpensive, there is zero probability that I will ever anneal 5.56 brass. Annealing doesn't solve the head-separation issue or the loose-primer-pocket issue.
 
W.E.G. said:
Keep your loads sufficiently below Hiroshima level, and the choice of brass will have little of any IM-portance on PER-formance.

You probably will find some brass works easier in your shell-holder, and has better longevity.

By the time you're on your third firing of 5.56 brass out of an autoloader, think about retiring it unless you are willing to inspect every case, or you are willing to contend with some small amount of head separations or loose primer pockets.

5.56 is so abundant and inexpensive, there is zero probability that I will ever anneal 5.56 brass. Annealing doesn't solve the head-separation issue or the loose-primer-pocket issue.
Click to expand...
Definitely agree, if your using an autoloader your brass needs to be checked and tossed after 3-5 uses. I never had an issue until I got a mini14.... bolt guns just don't seem to be a problem. Unless your shooting a match barrel, brass just doesn't seem to matter.
 
Bullet choice is going to be far more important than the brass that you choose.

I use a lot of LC headstamp brass, mainly because it is popular, and is tough. Lapua and Norma can be very consistent. It has been a while since I have used R-P brass but years ago it worked well in prairie dog loads. FC headstamp brass is soft but can give good results if you stay away from max loads.

Neck tension can really affect the little 223. I like to anneal and use a mandrel die to get consistency. Neck turning can help but it is too time consuming for the slight improvement.
 
Actually... I'm a PMC brass fan.... I'd use that over most of that other stuff, although RP is also a favorite of mine as well.

As was mentioned, best thing to do is cull out 1.5 times the brass you want to load... prep it, and then weigh the cases, discarding the 33% on either end of the weight 'bell curve' which will leave you with reasonably consistent brass for your load workups.

Be aware, however, that if you switch to a different headstamp, you will probably need to drop back a little and work back up. Although not as bad as, say .308 brass, there are some significant differences in brass weight and capacity between headstamps, and particularly between 'commercial' cases, and 'military' cases.
 
I too have been happy with PMC 223 brass. It's plentiful and the case weights are fairly consistent as well. Mine all came from the ground at an outdoor range. Full length size and trim for my first loading.
 
The head stamps you mention I would use PMC and LC brass. I sorted by year for just general shooting. I have close to 10 firings on the LC but I do anneal after every firing. Primer pockets are starting to get loose. All of my LC brass is from when Fed ran the plant. Don't have of any data on how the Win run plant QC is. For max accuracy you need to sort by case volume, much easier and faster to just but some good brass (Lapua).
 
Wolf, PPU, WIN USA 5.56, PMC, RP, and FC.

Me, I scrap Wolf, WIN USA, and usually avoid RP. I like PMC, then PPU and will use FC.
 
I use matched brass for my "accuracy" loads. That means better than FMJ and under 1 MOA for shooting small stuff at 100 yards.

If I was shooting some sort of matches with the .223 I would buy premium brass.

For FMJ plinking I use mixed cases, only scrapping cases where the powder is noticeably higher or lower in the case. I full length
size them to fit my Wilson case gauge and I get 10 to 12 firings with the cases before I start losing them to loose primer pockets,
with no signs of internal separation. I do check each and every one internally for signs of incipient case head separation after each
firing before I size/prep them. Don't over size them, and you won't have issues unless you have bad chamber, and even then if it's
a hair long you can size to fit it, but that's a different question.
 
If you have a gallon of once fired or range pick up 5.56 brass, you have more than enough value in hand to do minimal prep and cleaning to be able SELL the mixed lot and use the proceeds to BUY known origin, quality brass. Lapua will give you the luxury of never questioning whether better brass would shoot smaller.
 
Over the counter bolt gun or something you had built? Chamber uniform?
The 223 is incredibly forgiving in either a bolt gun or an AR.

As another poster said, bullets matter most. Everyone has their favorite brands of brass. You could weight sort your brass (ignoring the headstamps) and then do some detailed prep to cull even more. That’s what I’d do….pick a few bullets and weight sort the brass and then uniform those that all weigh in a similar range and load and go bust caps. See what the rifle tells you.

I doesn’t hurt to buy new brass either. I can’t tell you the last time I saw new Laupua brass though, and it seems to be the odds-on favorite these days. YMMV.
 
Varminterror said:
If you have a gallon of once fired or range pick up 5.56 brass, you have more than enough value in hand to do minimal prep and cleaning to be able SELL the mixed lot and use the proceeds to BUY known origin, quality brass. Lapua will give you the luxury of never questioning whether better brass would shoot smaller.
Click to expand...
Finding Lapua 223 brass is pretty difficult right now.
 
I have used New Starline 223 brass and have been very happy with it. I use it in my AR-15 "hunting" load and "round the house" load. I took it out of the bag, chamfered the case neck, primed and loaded. 1.25 or better MOA at 100 yards with a 4x Scope. good enough for me.

OP I am very glad you posted this thread as I just this week went through seperated every single 223/5.56 case I had. I was wondering the same thing as you, what headstamp should I use first. I have Wolf, Frontier, FC, LC, PMC, RP, and Winchester. I chose PMC first due to sampling of case weights being the most consistent. Next is RP. The rest will become just blasting or stash ammo. Side Note: FC brass IME for 5.56/223 is NOT GOOD to me I just keep it and trade it off when I can. Its not worth the crimp removal, size, trim, flash hole, just to get one more shot from it before the primer pocket loosens up.
 
Most of the brass you mentioned are light weight. Around 91-92 grains except the PPU which usually weighs in around 97-98 grains so probably has less internal capacity. Keep this in mind when working up your load.
 
If I could find new Lapua 223 brass anywhere I'd be all over it. There was a guy selling 100 new pcs on another forum. It was gone 5min after it was posted.

I have been using Norma and have lost count on the number of times it has been reloaded but I am shooting targets that points score. This year I tried some Hornady brass and after a couple reloadings it was failing miserably. So for now it is back to PMC brass that a few friends save for me.

The PMC is all once fired from a couple different guns so I wash it, decapp it and then measure, sort it. First I measure base to datum and sort, short of what load to, what I load to target length to +.005" and then longer than the +.005. After doing that I sort by OAL. the same way. This practice has worked very well for me so far. The best of what I have to work with.

Was also just given 80pcs of Norma 5.56X45 that is all the same lot all fired from 1 rifle.
 
For my Compass Lake competition Service rifle, they recommended 223 Rem W-W cases. Lake City case would work fine.

For my 204 Ruger prairie dog ammunition, I have Hornady cases, it was what I could find in quantity at the time. They preformed well in both my Prairie dog 26" barrel AR-15 and Savage 12FCV bolt rifle.

In general, the same brand of case should reveal better results. Some brands may be better than others.
 
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