A few questions...

[jjp016]

Good morning, everyone. I have a few questions pertaining to reloading for my WOA Varmint 223. I think I know the answer to the first two, but can't find the answer to the last one for the life of me. Any help is much appreciated.

1) I have some once fired brass from Mil-Spec (or close to it) AR-15s. Using my Wilson headspace gauge, I measure these at about .020" over spec. When measuring brass that has been shot out of my WOA rifle, I get about .011" over spec. Is there anything wrong with FL sizing this brass down to about .008" over and using it in my WOA? (P.S. I also use a concentricity gauge to weed out the bad brass).

2) If I am culling brass for concentricity, turning necks, and reaming primer pockets anyway, is there any point in using Lapua brass over Hornady or any other manufacturer?

3) What is the "A" headstamp? The brass has "A" on the top and "223" on the bottom.

Thanks in advance.

 

[Blue68f100]

You measure brass after its has been sized. Then if over max trim. Now most brass that has a crimp will be long after the first shooting. Also you will have crimped primer pockets too address.

The only reason to use Lapula brass is for consistency in volume and all ready fully preped, besides being excellent brass. I do sort rifle brass by head stamp since most will have a different case volume. You could sort by weight and get you close.

 

[RPRNY]

".020" over spec". Do you mean length? If so, trim the neck length back to correct size, but .020" is quite a bit of stretch. If not length, then what is this measurement?

Lapua is very good, very consistent brass. If you are shooting for match or at the edge of 223 performance, the consistency of Lapua brass might matter. It sounds to me that you are taking care to ensure an equal level of consistency with other marques, so no substantial benefit to switching to Lapua

"A" alone sounds odd. "A" "USA" is Armscor USA, "A P" is Armscor Precision. "A" with a numeric code could be Ammutechse out of South Africa, but with the "223" designation, that's very unlikely.

 

[MtnCreek]

By over spec, do you mean 0.020 and 0.011 over the high step or low step in the gauge? Setting the shoulders back 0.012 once will likely be fine. I would keep the brass separate from the WOA and other AR's with longer headspace.

Unless you're dealing with a tight chamber (and WOA shouldn't be), I wouldn't neck turn. I mostly use LC mil-surp brass, prepped, but not turned and get acceptable (to me) accuracy. I'm not spending the extra money on lapua for a rifle that's hard on brass and tends to hide them in the grass. YMMV.