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Old January 7, 2015, 08:28 PM   #1
SamNavy
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5.56 plinkin... how good do they have to be?

I've got 2000 once-fired 5.56 cases. Lake City, WCC, and PSD. I've got a Dillon 550, and have resized a few and am using a Wilson case gauge as a measure. They are all within the 2 steps of both ends on the gauge, but a few I can run a straight-edge over and feel that they're a thousandth or 3 too long or short on either end...

I guess this could apply to any caliber, but specifically for reloading this military brass to shoot out of a non-precision AR15 just to go plinkin... do I need to worry if I'm a pinch out of spec on the case-gauge? Are they going to shoot fine or is this something I absolutely cannot overlook for safety?

I've got the motorized case trimmer for the Dillon, so trimming brass is cake, but if only a few percent of this brass sized "outside" the gauge, can I shoot'em?

What say you?
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Old January 7, 2015, 09:25 PM   #2
frogo207
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The big thing is if you are going to crimp the bullet in they need to be the same overall length. Unless you are using the Lee Factory Crimp die. If you are not going to crimp them and they are not over SAMMI max and fit into the gage just load them and go. If you are worried they will not fit try a few in the rifle to see if they chamber before making a butt load. I usually FL size and if not over max just load them and shoot for blasting ammo.
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Old January 7, 2015, 09:48 PM   #3
oldpapps
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Safety is the prim point.

If the cases are too long, they can pinch the bullets when chambered and that is not good.

Keep the lengths in spec and load middle of the road or a little below and go for it.

Now my question. If primers and powder cost the same and bullets aren't all that much more, why would you want to make plinkers when 'top shelf' loads are so close? No, I didn't say custom tailored loads for a single rifle, but better than the crap loads that are sold in bulk.

So little added effort for so much better loads. Your choice.

Enjoy,

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Old January 8, 2015, 12:34 AM   #4
Machineguntony
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I have about 20,000 Lake City and mixed military brass, and I've gone through all of them at least twice.

I do not load for accuracy. I load for high volume fire, so you might say that my ammo is plinking ammo.

During the first run through the brass, I had about a dozen become jammed in the chamber, to the point where I had to mortar the round out of the gun. This wasn't the brass' fault, as I think I overcrimped the bullet and thereby crushing the neck a little. After the second run through, I had no such problems.

I am currently about 1/10th of the way through the third run through. No problems yet.

There's no way that I'm trimming 20,000 pieces of brass, so when the brass is too loose or too long, I'm just going to toss them and get some more. I have no idea how many firings the brass will last. I was wondering if anyone knows.
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Old January 8, 2015, 03:22 AM   #5
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I don't trim mine either, I just measure, I know how long my chamber can take and it's way longer than specified length. if you have a 5.56 barrel, chec and see with unloaded long pieces of brass how far you can go before jamming up into the barrel. mine goes up to 1.775 w/o issue, so I use anything under 1.770 and anything longer goes in the blackout pile. after the blackout gets too long it will go to the future .22TCM pile. .223 brass is just so abundant that I don't feel like spending the time to trim. I do separate the ones that measure right at 1.750 for match use.
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Old January 8, 2015, 04:19 AM   #6
Jimro
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I process surplus brass this way...

Pay the man to decrimp the primer pocket. Run every case through a FL die, trim every case using a Possum Hollow trimmer.

Even with this you'll get differences in case length because the Possum Hollow trimmer trims referencing the shoulder, where other trim methods trim referencing the case head (Lee for example). When I sort for brand and year, the tolerances go way up, so I am pretty sure that the "spring back" from the brass leaving the FL sizing die is different between different brands, but quite consistent in the same year of LC brass.

After that I don't trim again. 4 reloads and then recycle. The AR may not be as hard on brass as an M1A or Garand, but I've seen AR's lock up from feeding a second round into the chamber occupied by the front have of the previous round. Case head separation is a heck of a malfunction.

For plinking ammo, just keep loading it up until the necks split, as you don't know when the case head will separate. Could be first reload, could be tenth. But generally the necks will split before the case head separates. Generally.

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Old January 8, 2015, 08:06 AM   #7
rebs
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I also trim them once with a possum hollow trimmer and reload them until the neck cracks. The possum hollow trimmer in a cordless drill is so fast and easy, why not trim them once.
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Old January 8, 2015, 10:49 AM   #8
steve4102
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Quote:
I've got 2000 once-fired 5.56 cases. Lake City, WCC, and PSD. I've got a Dillon 550, and have resized a few and am using a Wilson case gauge as a measure. They are all within the 2 steps of both ends on the gauge, but a few I can run a straight-edge over and feel that they're a thousandth or 3 too long or short on either end...

I guess this could apply to any caliber, but specifically for reloading this military brass to shoot out of a non-precision AR15 just to go plinkin... do I need to worry if I'm a pinch out of spec on the case-gauge? Are they going to shoot fine or is this something I absolutely cannot overlook for safety?

I've got the motorized case trimmer for the Dillon, so trimming brass is cake, but if only a few percent of this brass sized "outside" the gauge, can I shoot'em?

What say you?
I say, you are jumping the gun and assuming your cases are to long from Head to case mouth and may need to be trimmed.

IMO, I think your issue has more to do with and improperly sized case and the distance from the head to Datum line on the shoulder is to long and not total case length.

I think your FL sizing die needs to be turned into the press more.
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Old January 8, 2015, 10:49 PM   #9
SamNavy
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Quote:
I think your FL sizing die needs to be turned into the press more.
That's entirely possible. I think my big problem is that I've been using my buddies Forster Coax to load hunting ammo and I'm spoiled. The Dillon is great for bulk, and I've done about 15k rounds of pistol ammo and about 100rds of .308 that took me a long time because I was using the Dillon more like a single-stage... but they weren't like what I can do on the Forster.

I understand that if the brass is too long, it'll get pinched in the chamber, so be on top of that. I understand the dangers of over-crimping and don't plan to crimp at all.

While primers and powder are pretty much fixed costs, bullets are all over the place. I've got about 10 different kinds of 55gr FMJ's and soft-points that were anywhere from .08-.14 cents each, and I've got some absurd match stuff that I got from a buddy cheap but that I know run about .25ea. Cheap is better to just go plink steel.

The purpose of this post was to see how I can speed up my process. As the quality control of my brass goes up, time per round goes WAAAAY up. If I can get away with not sweating being a few thousandths off on sizing, it's one less step in the process. I do not want to be unsafe, but I also want to utilize the speed of my Dillon and crank this stuff out.
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Old January 9, 2015, 12:55 AM   #10
steve4102
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Quote:
I understand that if the brass is too long, it'll get pinched in the chamber, so be on top of that.
Note, that to "get pinched in the chamber" the case has to exceed 1.772 inches. That's pretty long and I doubt a once fired case will grow that much after sizing.

http://www.saami.org/pubresources/cc...0Remington.pdf
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Old January 11, 2015, 10:52 AM   #11
9MMand223only
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Trimming is a pain, unless you have one of these. Then you can HIGH VOLUME trim, SO FAST.


http://www.amazon.com/Worlds-Finest-.../dp/B009NKJXFQ

Put it on the end of your cordless drill, place your worlds finest trimmer straight up to the sky, and you can literally trim a piece maybe 1 every 2 seconds.

This is a fine system too, its genuis really, because it won't trim them, until you size your brass. So you size first, THEN trim.

Brilliant

Last edited by 9MMand223only; January 11, 2015 at 11:36 AM.
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