.223 and 5.56mm

Fade2Gray

January 04, 2009 05:07

There has been a lot of talk around this forum about SHOOTING .223 and 5.56mm from the same guns. But, what I want to know about is RELOADING. Can my .223 and 5.56mm brass be mixed and reloaded at the same time with the same dies?

Thanks!

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  sandwarrior

  January 04, 2009 07:35

  Fade2Gray,
  
  Yes! The brass is the same dimensions throughout. One caveat to this though is more often than not mil-spec brass has crimped primers. You need to get a tool to either cut or swage that out. I use RCBS and swage it out.

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  Fade2Gray

  January 04, 2009 07:44

  Thanks!
  I did know about the crimped primers. I have yet to buy a swager. I own a Dillon progressive loader, unfortunately I don't have the resources to set up and get to business. Hopefully my next PCS will lead to a more permanent location where I can get cranking.
  
  Is there a way to tell what is crimped or not? Should I just use a swager on it all?

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  Nwcid

  January 04, 2009 07:45

  Yes and no. Depends on what kind of accuracy you would like to have. Mil brass can commercial brass have DIFFERENT internal sizes due to the Mil brass being thicker. This means you will end up with different pressures with the same amount of powder in the different kinds of cases. If you are just blasting ammo I would say no biggie but if you want accuracy, no way.
  
  As it was said Mil brass has crimped primers so you will need to deal with those. It is not a big deal to do, just one more step. Depending on how many you have to do will depend on the decripming too you need costing from $10-$100.

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  B17-P51

  January 04, 2009 11:33

  Big +1 on Nwcid. Drop whatever your favorite load is with commercial brass at least .5 grain and sometimes 1.0 gr with a powder that is a little faster.

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