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h_townner · February 7, 2013, 07:28 PM

First of all, thanks for allowing me to be part of this group. Im new to the forum and new to reloading. For at least 6 months I've been patiently saving and buying reloading equipment a little at a time and trying to learn as much as possible. I currently own a Redding T-7 and a couple set of dies for my 357 handgun and my newest aquisition an AR in 223/5.56. Also own a few other caliber guns but for now I'm going to settle for this 2 calibers. Also I own the lyman and lee manuals and a few other things like a powder scale and a few basic case prep tools.

I was lucky enough to have been saving my 357 brass and currently have about 500 to reload. In this uncertain times, it took several trips to sporting good stores to finally be able to score some gun powder, primers and bullets. And being that straight walled cases are easier to learn on, I ventured and pressed a few rounds (that I have yet to go shoot). I carefully followed the lyman manual and did the suggested starting load to kind of get a feeling of the process and to get acquainted with the equipment. I don't have a doubt that the loaded rounds are going to be ok, except I need to experiment with the load to find the sweet spot for my handgun.

During those trips to the stores, I was able to also put my hands on 200 new 223 cases (winchester) and the only gun powder available was CFE223, however I haven't find any small rifle primers nor any bullets. Also, I was extremely lucky to find some 5.56 ammo, Independence made in Israel. I have a few questions, if I may:

1.- All reloading data for 223 also applies to 5.56? In other words, after I shoot my factory ammo and save my cases, I can reload them with the 223 load data?

2.- When following the suggested loads on any manual, the specs listed are for the tested guns (clearly specified on the load data)....what can I safely expect, as far as the results IF my gun is totally different than that specified on the load data? Particularly, in the Hodgdon data for CFE223 the test gun had barrel lenght of 24 in with a 1 in 12 rate of twist...my gun has a 16in barrel and 1 in 9 rate of twist....can I safely follow the suggested load data?

Sorry for the long post, I'm sure I'm going to have a lot more questions in the future.

February 7, 2013, 07:28 PM	#1
h_townner Junior Member Join Date: February 6, 2013 Location: Space city, USA Posts: 10	Newbie here with some questions First of all, thanks for allowing me to be part of this group. Im new to the forum and new to reloading. For at least 6 months I've been patiently saving and buying reloading equipment a little at a time and trying to learn as much as possible. I currently own a Redding T-7 and a couple set of dies for my 357 handgun and my newest aquisition an AR in 223/5.56. Also own a few other caliber guns but for now I'm going to settle for this 2 calibers. Also I own the lyman and lee manuals and a few other things like a powder scale and a few basic case prep tools. I was lucky enough to have been saving my 357 brass and currently have about 500 to reload. In this uncertain times, it took several trips to sporting good stores to finally be able to score some gun powder, primers and bullets. And being that straight walled cases are easier to learn on, I ventured and pressed a few rounds (that I have yet to go shoot). I carefully followed the lyman manual and did the suggested starting load to kind of get a feeling of the process and to get acquainted with the equipment. I don't have a doubt that the loaded rounds are going to be ok, except I need to experiment with the load to find the sweet spot for my handgun. During those trips to the stores, I was able to also put my hands on 200 new 223 cases (winchester) and the only gun powder available was CFE223, however I haven't find any small rifle primers nor any bullets. Also, I was extremely lucky to find some 5.56 ammo, Independence made in Israel. I have a few questions, if I may: 1.- All reloading data for 223 also applies to 5.56? In other words, after I shoot my factory ammo and save my cases, I can reload them with the 223 load data? 2.- When following the suggested loads on any manual, the specs listed are for the tested guns (clearly specified on the load data)....what can I safely expect, as far as the results IF my gun is totally different than that specified on the load data? Particularly, in the Hodgdon data for CFE223 the test gun had barrel lenght of 24 in with a 1 in 12 rate of twist...my gun has a 16in barrel and 1 in 9 rate of twist....can I safely follow the suggested load data? Sorry for the long post, I'm sure I'm going to have a lot more questions in the future.