Military vs commercial 223 brass

[jkc054054]

Crimped primers

In January at the Indy 1500 gun show I purchased from a vendor a bag of .223 brass. I did not notice or ask at the time but when I got home I found out that about 20% of the brass was military and therefore the primers were crimped. I would prefer no military brass so that I don't have the extra step of removing the crimp from the primer pocket after removing the primer.

1) Do any reloading suppliers sell commercial only brass or is it always going to be a mix of commercial and military?

2) A head stamp with a cross inside a circle means the brass is military (NATO). Does ALL military brass have this symbol?

3) I heard for semiautomatic or full automatic rifles to use primers that are Mil Spec because they are safer to use with these rifles since they are a little harder than non Mil Spec primers.

 

[indyjohn]

My question is do any reloading suppliers sell commercial only brass?

Yes. Unfired or Once fired can be found. I saw new .223 primed brass for $110 / 500 today.

 

[warthog]

Send me your Military brass and I will make it good for you,. no charge. No joke.

If you don't trust me, tell me what to send you in exchange for you to hold until you get your brass back.

I will send it back ready to load and you won't need to worry about it ever again.


NEW brass is pretty high for .223 Rem these days and hard to find, it's up to you.

 

[red_zr24x4]

1. Yes they sell all military/all comm. once fire. But honestly, you only have to remove the crimp once and its not that big of deal. you can use your chamfer tool and in a few twist its done.

2. I'm not sure if it all has it but 90% does. there are some comm. brass with crimped primers also. I can't remember the head-stamp right off hand though.

3.I've loaded for a Garand and an AR since the early '90's and have never had a slam fire using Winchester primers. The cups on the Military style primers are thicker, but if you make sure your primers are completely seated its not that big of a deal.

 

[warthog]

Sorry, guess I didn't really answer you but the NATO symbol is on all NATO country's military brass, yes. Not on all military brass, just those countries in NATO. Many ranges sell all commercial brass as they tend to sort it prior to sale since NATO brass and some makes like Remington, are more sought after therefore sell for more than mixed headstamp brass. As the person above says, seat the primers correctly and n o slam fire danger will be present.

 

[Toolepqk]

I've got an rcbs swaging die you can borrow if you need to. It will take care of the crimped pockets. I am also in greenfield. Send me a pm if you're interested.

 

[jblomenberg16]

+1 to the RCBS swager. Removes the crimps easily and with little effort.

One thing you will want to still do is sort by head stamp. Commercial and military brass can have slight differences in case wall thickness that can affect case volume, and therefore chamber pressure.

For typical plinking loads this wont matter much as generally those are loaded with plenty of margin compared to max pressure. However, if you are loading for accuracy, the case volume will start to matter. Both in absolute pressure compared to the maximum (hotter loads are often more accurate) and also in load to load variation.

 

[jkc054054]

This is getting way more complicated and taking more time than I had planned. I am looking at my brass now (I purchased 250 for $45) and unless it has the NATO symbol (cross inside a circle) I am having difficulty telling the difference between the military and the commercial brass. How can I tell the difference?

Also is there any used brass I should avoid purchasing? I read in another forum to avoid using FC 223 brass for maximum loads. Or should I give up buying or finding used brass and instead get new brass?

 

[jblomenberg16]

This is getting way more complicated and taking more time than I had planned. I am looking at my brass now (I purchased 250 for $45) and unless it has the NATO symbol (cross inside a circle) I am having difficulty telling the difference between the military and the commercial brass. How can I tell the difference?

Also is there any used brass I should avoid purchasing? I read in another forum to avoid using FC 223 brass for maximum loads. Or should I give up buying or finding used brass and instead get new brass?

Anything with the Nato Cross is good to go. For max loads, I would recommend using brass that you know the history on. Ie. it came from new ammunition that you purchasd, is new brass that you purchased, and that you know how many times it has been fired.

I've used PPU (Partisan Privi) with good success on my hotter precision loads for my .223.

For normal loads, you'll probably get 7-10 loadings per case before you start to see cracks in the neck, most likely from resizing. For hotter loads, you may see 3-5, and in addition to neck cracks, you might start to see some circumferencial cracks about 1/4" up from the rim. That is an area that stretches and will thin over time as you size.