PMC Bronze 223 Brass for reloading

[teddy12b]

How good is this brass going to be for reloading?  The case necks look discolored and I've read that's because it's anealed.  I don't know anything about that or how it affects the brass for reloading.  Is it going to be good reliable brass for reloading?

[yooper77]

During the forming process all brass is annealed.  I have used PMC brass for my 243 Winchester for over 6 re-loadings, before I need to anneal again.

The annealing process is done to the brass after forming, because forming brass makes it brittle, so annealing softens it.

I anneal in the dark with a torch and a bucket of water, I spin the cases in a shell holder on an electric drill and heat the neck until I see dark red appear and quickly quench the brass.

yooper77

[teddy12b]

I don't know if I'm ever going to get that into the case prep part of reloading.  Beyond the usual trimming I'd never take the time to heat up each one like that.  Maybe if there was an industrial oven I could run them through, I'd consider it. 

6 reloadings sounds reasonable enough for me.  So for reloading the brass in an AR it would be fine then?

[yooper77]

You can not use an oven for annealling, because the case heads need to remain hard.  If you anneal the whole case will soften and the case head will fail at firing, or will possibly not hold a primer.

yooper77

[Steve P]

I anneal my brass with the RCBS trim mate.  I picked up a allen head screw with like thread and ground the head down to primer size (one small primer size and one large primer size).  I then epoxied a stainless washer on underside of the screw head.  Put the screw in the trim mate and turn it on.  Place sized brass over the appropriately sized head and let it spin.  Hit with a torch in dimmly lit garage.  When brass starts to change color, knock it into a pan of water.  You can easily do 100 .223 in an hour.  If you need to anneal more than that, get the case annealer that Ken Light makes.  You can do several hundred in an hour easily with his.

The PMC brass also has a crimped in primer.  You will have to swage or trim the crimp out of the primer pocket to get a good primer seat.  Other than that, they work good.  I have several hundred made up in 7TCU and they have lasted 3 firings so far without any problem.

Good luck,

Steve 

[LaOtto222]

The PMC brass is on par with Remington and Winchester brass. I have posted a link to information about .223 brass, it has a lot of other stuff about the 223 also.

http://www.6mmbr.com/223Rem.html

I have been using the Hornady annealing kit. It consists of three sizes of "spinners" and a bottle of heat sensitive paste + instructions. I bought a Black and Decker cordless screw driver (180 RPM) for it. I snap in the appropriate sized spinner daub on some of the paste on the case wall, just below the shoulder and spin it over a propane torch until the paste melts and the drop it into a bucket of water. I have used it enough to tell when the case is ready without putting the paste on by learning what it looks like as the paste melts, so I no longer need to use it. I never timed it, but it feels like I can do around 100 an hour. It is easy, should have been doing it years ago. Annealing is a must if you are resizing one case to another, optional if you do not want to stretch a case to it's longest use and you have deep pockets. I figure I save the cost of the kit after stretching 200 223 cases to their maximum use.