reloading 223

[okieshooter]

would it make sense to buy 1000 rounds of wolf to shoot and thus have the brass left for reloading?? or is wolf brass no good for reloading??

[BCB]

okieshooter,

223 Remington brass, no matter who the manufacturer, is fairly cheap to purchase once fired brass.  I have always had real good luck with military LC brass, federal, or PMC.  I would just purchase brass and get reloading right away...BCB

[stimpylu32]

would it make sense to buy 1000 rounds of wolf to shoot and thus have the brass left for reloading?? or is wolf brass no good for reloading??

While wolf is not bad brass you do need to check a couple things , one is to make sure it is not Berdan primed , most of their newer stuff is Boxer primed and uses standard primers . They say that their newer Wolfe Gold brass cases are fine for reloading , I have never used any so not much help there .

You will also have to check the case capacity of their brass , it may be like some of the PMC and LC stuff that is a heavier case and has less cap meaning you will not be able to load them to a full max load without going over pressure .

stimpy

[okieshooter]

thanks guys if it is reloadable I get 1000 loaded rounds for not a lot more than 1000 brass, I will have to check the primer sounds like.

[Old Syko]

Okieshooter

Forget the Wolfe!  5.56x45 Lake City brass from 2000 to date can be bought for $60 or $65 per 1000 and it is already properly annealed.  Swage the primer pocket, size and you're ready to load.  You aren't going to buy 1000 rounds of Wolfe for even 3 or 4 times that and the Wolfe in .223 is a poor excuse for ammo to begin with. 

Case capacity differences between commercial .223 and available present day 5.56 LC, 2000 and newer, is nothing more than a myth.  You will see more capacity difference between different manufacturers of commercial .223 brass than between LC and your favorite commercial offering.   

I use a ton of the Wolfe 7.62x39 but I'll never touch their .223/5.56 again.

[BCB]

I just looked through my reloading records and I have found that LC 84, 85, and 89 have proven to be really good brass and they have produced some fine accuracy from a Super 14" and a Super 16" barrels.  PMP (no, not PMC) also was good as was Federal.  Again, purchase once fired and start at the minimum load recommended and go to it.  The $$$ you use to purchase "off brand" named ammo will purchase many once fired cases as well as other components.  Good-luck...BCB

[okieshooter]

Old Syko I found lake city brass best price 180 per 1000. if you know where I can get some for 60-65 a 1000 can you point me in the right direction. Would be greatly appreciated.

[BCB]

olieshooter,

Try this site:              http://www.gibrass.com/brass.html

I purchased suplus powder from him and all is good...BCB

[Old Syko]

Jeff Bartlett (gibrass) in Owensboro Ky. as BCB pointed out, is where most of mine has come from.  His present supply is a mixture of M16 and SAW fired and you may lose some of the SAW fired examples but he seems to always throw in more than enough to make up the difference.

Okieshooter;  If you take an excursion to the top of the page when you enter the handloading forum here at GBO you will see a thread that Stimpylu32 as moderator has been kind enough to set up that allows easy access to some great resources. 

We owe Richard a vote of thanks for his efforts to make these resources available to all.

[okieshooter]

thanks guys, bookmarked gibrass

[1sourdough]

  No Wolf ammo in this house. They may have some O.K. stuff but I'll pass.

[LaOtto222]

I have found some brand new (never loaded) LC '06 brass at $100/500. Been thinking about ordering some. How do you guys think that it compares to Winchester and Remington Brass?

[Old Syko]

I've seen very little difference in capacity between LC and most commercial brass if capacity is your concern.  RORG on the other hand is a bit of a different story and even then the difference is minor.  The LC will outlast the commercial in some cases by almost double.  With mild loads i get 16 to 20 loads out of LC and at best 10 or 12 from commercial brands.  Federal is a bad word around here, much too soft.  At 6 to 8 loads primer fit becomes too loose for my needs and they have to be discarded.

Otto when you can buy single fired LC for $65-1,000 why would you pay $200-1,000 for new?  Processing brass is just part of the experience and doesn't take long at all.  Since you sound like the kind of guy who enjoys his time at the loading bench, this sort of surprises me.

[LaOtto222]

Syko - Thanks for your opinion, I do value it. I kind of thought that the Lake City brass would be of higher quality than Winchester; which I have been using for the last few years. I have worked with once fired Military brass, but not LC. I bought a large batch of TW '72 brass. I was not that impressed with it. The ones I have worked with have to be sorted for off center flash holes. Once fired cases I had, needed the primer punched out, and the primer pockets chamfered and tumbled before doing any thing else to it. I find the some times the rims are chewed up and then there are dents in the cases, the case head has marks in it that look like they have seen high pressure, similar to ejector marks in a bolt gun that has seen high pressure. It is not that I can't work with it, I can and have. I do spent quite a bit of time prepping cases so I am a little "fussy". I full length size, trim, deburr the inside and outside case mouths, uniform primer pockets, deburr the flash hole and depending on the application turn case necks and resize again; just in case I pulled the neck off center by turning. I just thought that I would have better cases that still cost less than civilian cases ($20/100) and still be all the same head stamp in perfect condition. I have not bought them, just considering them. I would still consider once fired cases. Is your experience with once fired LC better than mine with TW '72 and do you get a choice of year of manufacture when you order? Other than sorting for year; does it matter which years you get? The few places I looked at were more than $65/1000, but much less than $200/1000. Anyone else can jump in here too.

[Old Syko]

The majority of my .223 is for AR use so what some may consider imperfections really play no part in usability.  I do load for some bolt guns in .223 also so they get the cream of the crop.  My son's MK10 is here now and it is a one holer to 200 with this brass and associated loads so it does work.

As I said earlier, what Jeff offers now is a mix of years from 2000 to 2006.  For $65 it's not factory clean and new.  Yes some are dented.  The majority pop out during sizing.  Some are junk from being SAW fired.  The majority are from 16s and 4s but I've yet to come up short on count for my uses as there is always enough shipped to make up the difference.  I've found the year means nothing at all even in the bolt guns.  Capacity is where it's at and even that can't be checked accurately until it's been prepped and fire formed in the gun of choice.

Quality of manufacture from 2000 to date is in a much different league than what we were shown in the earlier years, especially the late 60s and early 70s.  Some of that stuff was barely functional when it was new.

For me the extra life i get from the Mil stuff more than makes up for the extra labor to prep brass.  The commercial stuff takes only slightly less work to prepare, even for the bolt guns and only lasts a bit over half as long.

[LaOtto222]

I presently have 3, 223's; two bolts and an H&R Ultra. All are single shots so 500 cases will last me for a long time. I have 500 in rotation right now with 400 waiting in the wings. So I am not really case challenged right now. I am thinking about going Prairie Doggin' next spring and thought I would load up 500 Rounds for each of my bolt guns. Case cost is important, of course, but paying $23/100 is not going to be a big deal to me. If I was burning up 300 - 500 rounds a week, then it would start being a big deal. With what I have on hand and would add another 500 rounds, it should last me for several years - you can only shoot a single shot so fast and they are not the only guns I have to shoot.

[RonO777]

You might look at http://www.scharch.com/ They have primed 223 once fired brass 1000/133.68, 500/70.00 And in unprimed 1000/99.47, 500/52.50
Ron

[Troyboy]

Maybye I'm missing something but i dont see why you wouldn't buy factory ammo shoot it up and then reload. Then you know what you have, aside from new brass of course. Trying different weight bullets as you go to see what works best. Just my 2

[stimpylu32]

Troy

All in all that is not a bad idea for someone just starting to shoot and load for a new rifle , the problem comes when you start to load in volume for say a P-dog shoot or some types of shooting matches were you need 500 to 1000 rounds or more that all shoot the same or as close to it as possable .

In that case you need more consistently than you can get by mixing case brands , when I load for Ok. P-dog shoots I try buy my powder in a 8 pound keg to keep the it the same , as well as buy my bullets in 500 round sleeves to keep them in the same lot , as well as primers in the same lot .

stimpy

[Troyboy]

Ok, Just the green i guess

                                     Troy