223 brass quality

[flatsticks]

Looking to get some thoughts on the quality of the 223 brass I have from my shooting this year.

Going to be handloading them and the search I found was not very recent .

Here are the brands that I have in bulk ,

Federal fc stamp

Federal Lake City stamp

Fiocchi GFL stamp

Saw complaints on the Fiocchi for noot having a centered primer pocket .

Going to be using the lesser brass for fmj range shooting and the better brass for polymer tip rounds for the yotes.

Hear good things about Lake City but is it worth getting the swager die set , will I find them useful after getting the crimp taken care of ?

Have some other brands of brass but just 20-30 of them like Nossler , Hornandy , Sierra.

Will be for an AR15

 

[kcofohio]

The FC and LC brass basically are the same. Both are good quality. I've never used any Fiocchi brass.
You can either get the swager or get a chamfer bit and lightly remove the crimp. Either way, once you remove the crimp, you don't have to worry about it again.

 

[Random 8]

If you're doing small quantities, one of the inexpensive primer pocket reamers will deal with the crimp. My preference for .223 brass is as follows, YMMV.

Military/paramilitary: (actual mil contract and crimped primer commercial range brass). 1. IMI 2. TAA, LC, WCC, Win paramilitary with crimp. 3. PMC (few or no primer crimps) 4.Hornady/frontier. 5. Any other. Some good, some questionable. I don't like the FC paramilitary, brass seems soft and the crimp is overdone on my samples.

Commercial, no crimp: 1. Lapua 2. Nosler or Norma 3. PRVI 4. Any other

 

[troy fairweather]

All are pretty good, fc is soft.

 

[edwardware]

This question has been worked over on Accurate Shooter's cartridge page.

In my use:
- modern SCAMP LC brass gets used for high-prep-time accuracy rounds. It's so tough that it'll last 20+ reloadings before the pockets go, exactly what I want if I'm going to invest time in prep.
- everything else (non-LC) goes in a bucket, and is used to make der-blastin' ammo. My wife and I were out last week with an iron-sighted AR and that ammo, and it provided no excuses for missing the IPSC Torso targets at 300 yards.

TL.DR: If you're going to invest time in a batch of brass, use LC Brass.

 

[Laphroaig]

Federal brass is notorious for primer pockets loosening prematurely. I see they are now offering some with crimped primer
pockets. I wouldn't waste my time removing crimps for only a couple of expected loadings.

If you're going to invest time in a batch of brass, use LC Brass.

 

[entropy]

I loaded a batch of hunting loads in LC18 and 19 SCAMP about a month ago. I had been using LC 09 and 14 for hunting loads, but when I went through my range pickups from this summer, I found the 18 and 19, so they got the Nosler Ballistic Tip Varmints, the 09 and 14 got FMJ this time around.

 

[NWcityguy2]

I shoot every piece of 223 brass I find laying on the ground, almost exclusively using 223 load data, but occasionally 5.56 as well.

I've dealt with primers falling out of Federal brass in 7mm-08/308/30-06 after only one firing but I've never had it happen in 223. Every few hundred pieces of brass I resize I find a few cracked neck at random, but a loosened primer pocket is rare.

IDK if they make brass differently in 223, or if it isn't a problem in small sized primer pockets for some reason. I've got a lot of brass but I will shoot 2-4k rounds of 223 a year and have been doing so for several years. Federal is one of my most common headstamps in my brass collection.

 

[kmw1954]

Mine has been trimmed to four headstamps. PMC, GFL, PSD and LC. The LC and PSD are crimped pockets. Ream and uniform the pockets just once and all is good.

 

[jebova2301]

For me, personally, I don't use FC branded brass, and will especially avoid it in times like right now where people are digging into their stockpiled ammo. In the past, they used to have very thin webs(approximately 0.170 inches instead of the more standard 0.186 inch thickness), and it could lead to the primer pockets opening up way too early(sometimes not even holding a primer after the first firing). I believe the issue has been resolved for several years, now, but I still don't feel like taking the prep time on something that isn't going to last at least a few loads. As for LC brass, I will take all of that I can get my hands on. LC and IMI are my two favorite brands, as they seem to last several reloads(have achieved 10 reloads with both with no annealing and no neck splits before the primer pockets started getting loose) and provide more than adequate accuracy. After the first 3 reloads, I shift them into the "range fodder" bucket where I will just be using them to shoot steel and not worried about being as accurate.

 

[jeeptim]

Lake city is my go to.
Once i remove the crimp I only prim with CCI easy to pick out,
I scrounge lots of brass and have about 1000 prepped lc cases and they load many times

 

[cfullgraf]

I like Lake City 223 Remington cases.

Around 2005 when I was shooting Service Rifle competition and bought a Compass Lake Competition AR-15, Compass Lake recommended using Winchester brass. They also recommended one or two other brands but I forget what they were.

I have a bunch of Hornady 204 Ruger cases for my prairie dog AR-15 and they have performed well. I would not have concern over using the 223 Remington version.

Starline Brass makes a good product as well. I've not tried their 223 Remington cases but would not hesitate to tryit once it becomes available again.

For serious work, I prefer to use one head stamp. Reloading various head stamps runs into issues sometimes where some of the head stamps have issues in the reloading press. For blasting ammunition, I use mixed head stamp but I'm prepared to cull those cases that give me grief in the press.

But, the bottom line, it depends on what is available. With these current times, it can be a real issue. Even in the best of times, it still can be an issue.

 

[IALoder]

LC brass is my preference, even with the crimped primer pockets. Tough, lasts a long time, pretty consistent! Everything else is either traded off, or used as blaster brass. I have found GFL brass to be pretty good minus the off center flash holes. Works well for blaster ammo!

 

[kmw1954]

I've been using GFL and PMC brass mostly because just starting out I do not need to deal with the crimped primers, I have a friend that shoots the GFL by the 50 round box and every time he comes to the range he shoots 2 boxes. Which he then saved the brass, the box and the plastic tray for me. So right now I have 800 rounds all prepared to load that all came from his one gun and all with the same lot number so it should be consistent. Also I don't believe that I am enough of a marksman yet to tell the difference in just brass.

 

[Pivot Dr]

WCC and WRA are both good head stamp brass. Kind of depends on which part of the country you are. LC is more common between the mountains. On the coasts, not so much. LC brass is LC brass whether Olin/Winchester or Federal is running the place. Hornady has sourced brass and loaded ammo from LC in some situations. They, LC, aren’t changing the brass manufacturing process just to do a few runs for someone. Changing the head stamp die is no big deal but changing alloy and process is.
I haven’t had any problems with any brand of 223 brass, off center flash hole or not. I’m only punching paper and varmints out to about half a mile so it’s not a big deal to me. I see more effect from different powder and primers than different brass.

 

[Average Joe]

I only reload Lake City brass, keeps things simple, and Lake City seems to be in abundance on the ground at the range .

 

[Bfh_auto]

I set Hornady and pmc to the side. The first takes 2 tenths more powder to get me in my node. The latter takes 2 tenths less.
This is the experience I've had with my brass.
Everything else can go in the magazine after a full prep and I won't notice a difference.
Perfecta goes in the scrap bin. I haven't seen that in a while.

 

[kcofohio]

I set Hornady and pmc to the side. The first takes 2 tenths more powder to get me in my node. The latter takes 2 tenths less.
This is the experience I've had with my brass.
Everything else can go in the magazine after a full prep and I won't notice a difference.
Perfecta goes in the scrap bin. I haven't seen that in a while.

All the Perfecta I collected got or is getting cut down for 300 BLK sub loads that I don't care if I retrieve the brass. Terribly offset flash holes.

 

[243winxb]

Cheap ammo gets less annealing at time of manufacture in 5.56/223. I suggest annealing your brass & buy a fl sizing bushing die. Necks last longer when not over worked.

 

[alsaqr]

LC cases are about as good as any. Each year i fire a couple thousand rounds of M193 ball ammo manufactured in the 1960-70s. The best 5.56mm cases i've found have mid 1960s TW head stamp. Those cases are carefully prepped and used for my accuracy loads.

i don't do primer pocket swaging: Prefer to use a cartridge case chamfering tool in a drill press.

 

[kerreckt]

PPU, LC, and IMI are the top of the heap in my experience.

 

[Coyote conquest]

At one time FC was really soft and wasn't very good to reload with. I haven't had a problem with it in at least five years. Most people who say it's bad haven't tried it in a few years. I like it!! Anybody who has any who don't want it can send it my way.

 

[Ifishsum]

I have probably a couple thousand FC 223 cases from the last 8 yrs or so that I saved back and didn't load because of negative reports about primer pockets, etc. Last year I decided to load up a few hundred because I wanted a different headstamp for a specific load, and to see for myself if they hold up or not. So far I've got 4 firings on that batch with no issues so I'm satisfied it is fine, although I still consider LC to be top of the heap and worth the extra prep effort (old habits I guess). On the upside the FC always starts out short and usually doesn't need a first trim, also doesn't always have a primer crimp so it actually preps quicker for me.

 

[flatsticks]

Wow lot of good info provided thank you !

Will try and split up the cases I have some for fmj and the good ones for the yotes and more precise shooting .

Already derprimed all of the brass and tumbled/ dried most of it .

Been sorted out by head stamp and in containers .

 

[peeplwtchr]

The FC and LC brass basically are the same. Both are good quality. I've never used any Fiocchi brass.
You can either get the swager or get a chamfer bit and lightly remove the crimp. Either way, once you remove the crimp, you don't have to worry about it again.

Thanks for the info., I have alot of both (Using LC now), and was wondering the difference.