Extreme Reloading: 5.56 Brass (ep. 01) 

You are most welcome. Thank you for watching and posting

I keep them for reference. For instance, I have some hunting rounds I loaded nearly 10 years ago. If I need to refer back to exactly how those rounds were loaded I can still do that as I write the finish date on the box. I also keep record of all my precision rifle shooting and that is more for a scientific purpose. I record temperature, wind speed, wind direction, humidity, and barometric pressure along with my shooting notes. I have seen the very interesting effect of humidity and pressure on point of impact. Good question. Thank you for watching and posting.

Thank you very much.

And that is exactly what we saw in this video. Thanks for confirming and thanks for watching and posting.

Thanks for watching and posting. I have not used Lee dies. I use RCBS, Hornady, and Redding (along with one Forster competition die). I am setting the decapping pin to just push-out the spent primer or de-cap the fired case. If we set this too far out the expander ball/head will impact the web of the case head (internally) and either bend or snap the decapping pin. I did that once but repaired the die by replacing with a new decapping pin. I can certainly mention these points in future videos. After doing this for so long sometimes the small nuances of why this or why that slip by. Thanks again for watching and posting!

A couple of reasons Chad. First the digital caliper gives me a measurement that I record (the range) in my reloading notes, instead of a "go/no go". Also, while I am checking these cases I can get a good feel for the consistency of this group of brass. Lastly, while I certainly have plenty of specialty tools , I can use the calipers for numerous measurements during reloading. I am curious, what case checker do you like to use? Thanks for watching.

@@sdkweber I use an L.E. Wilson for case length and headspace. I have a good feel on the end for that one. I use an RCBS chamber gauge too especially if I neck size only. Biggest improvement has come from the headspace side of the Wilson gauge. Both are for 300blk.

@@chadparker8198 Hello Chad, were you seeing headspacing issues with your 300 Blackout? How much improvement (MOA?) did you see with that gage?

@@sdkweber I shot commercial ammo and just saw a correlation with headspace and accuracy. I would say about a 3x improvement once I made it my focus. Retail ammo- smallest was 300 Whisper from Hornady (7-8 MOA), best was 125 Grain Nosler BT Match ammo (4 MOA). Still, the commercial ammo is conservative on headspace. I increased to close to max and achieved 2 MOA with Sierra 2121 and WIN 296. BTW, Remington's run of the mill 120 grain offering did nearly as well as Nosler Match Grade BT Boat Tails. Shooting fluted SS Wilson Combat 18" with a focus on Supers and Ft. Lbs Energy approaching 7.62 x 39 loads.

@@chadparker8198 Thanks for the details Chad. Best of luck with your 300!

Hello DLN1234. Sounds like an interesting test. The difference between 5.56 and .223 is confusing however and doing some additional reading about it, the cases should be identical. We often hear that 5.56 cases are heavier due to the increased pressure but the increased pressure may come from the additional powder that is sometimes used in 5.56 loads. The BIG difference though is the chamber specs. The .223 has a short leade area (designed originally for varmint hunting with 40 gr. bullets) while the 5.56 has a longer leade to accommodate the heavier and longer bullets (originally 55 gr but today 77 gr. bullets are quite common). Shooting a 5.56 round in a .223 chamber (which may have more powder) can cause pressure problems due mostly to the short leade in the .223 chamber and a bullet that may jam against the lands.

@@sdkweber Agree with what you have said but many individuals on RU-vid say that not only is there a difference in throat length but they also say the case thickness in 5.56 is greater. I can't find that proof. My point was I just bought a Win. case of 5.56 and the brass was stamped LC 2.2 not Win. 5.56 and the case of PMC 5.56 I just bought was stamped PDS 2.2 not PMC. 5.56. Bottom line with either a new cartridge or the shot once cartridges the only variance I found was the 5.56 cases had some 2gr. + -more in powder. I'll bet the military doesn't accept these variances. 🤨

@@DLN-ix6vf I understand what you are driving at now. Thanks for the follow up. It might be that some of the 5.56 we are getting is stuff that did not pass mil-spec tolererance. I don't know what those specs are though but having served in the military, let me tell ya', we were not shooting premium ammo there either. :)

@@sdkweber I can't understand why the Military doesn't set up their own manufacturing of ammo utilizing soldiers who want or need to retire from active service but don't want to leave the Service. At least manufacture military speced ammo for range practice. These would be great jobs !

@@DLN-ix6vf Agreed. Your approach makes sense. I learned from some more recent veterans that the military doesn't even have military cooks/chow halls anymore. It has all be out sourced to contractors. If you have not seen it yet, you should watch the documentary "Why we fight".

Welcome to the world of reloading! Those two calibers are the most common so there is lots of equipment made for reloading the 5.56 and 9mm Luger. Do you have a press and scale? Dies? I have had very good luck with RCBS and Hornady and would suggest these brands to you. Both companies make "kits' to get a person started and there are lots of videos out there on how to reload. We did a "essentials" series a few years ago. The videos are kind of old now but still good info, here is the link if you are interested ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-XvmFa2M9B0g.html Let me know if you have other questions too.

The 5.56mm and .223 are the same thing. The difference between the 2 are case volume and thickness. One can take .223 brass and load it to milspec, but not the other way around. I have a few mini 14s and ARs and shoot factory civilian and military ammo just fine out of both.

@@hoffmiermp I've measured volumes of both and case thickness, there is not enough difference to make a difference and it appears its only manufacturer tolerances.

Happy to do so, here is a link to the case prep checklist that I have used for years: www.dropbox.com/s/g8mc76qs6s156vu/Reloading%20check-off%20sheets.xlsx?dl=0 Thanks for watching and posting.

Thanks!

You are welcome. I hope it helps you.

@@sdkweber Not sure how to forward entries - this is the link that you posted to someone by way of request for the checklist...

Are you using the Lyman case length gauge? Some gauges will not pick up problems and some gauges give false negatives. When you are out at the range do you see any problems with these rounds feeding and cycling? That is the real test. More to the point though, what is your combined overall length with the seated bullet. How does it compare to the load data recipe you are using? Also what bullet are you using? Thanks for watching and posting.

You should be able to fix this with full length resizing (don't forget to lube those cases first). That will bring it right back in... you may need to follow up with some trimming afterwords as it will likely elongate during this process. I hope this helps. Thanks for watching and posting.

@@sdkweber After a great amount of head banging I found that my dies are 20 cal. dies that were in a brand new box listed as 223. Thank you for your help and the list.

@@culinaryavatar7762 Glad to hear you got it figured out. Take care.

Glad to see you are watching our series on reloading for the 5.56 and .223. As you will see in upcoming episodes we are developing rounds that function well in three different rifles, an AR-15 (DPMS Oracle), IWI Tavor, and Ruger Mini-14.

I have gotten used to it. When not in use for reloading I slide this bench under the cabinet giving me some more general work space. Ideally I would have a larger shop but that is not the case.

Looking forward to this series. New to rifle reloading and much different than pistol reloading.

Thanks again for watching and posting. We just finished recording the next episode and it is very interesting how all this turned out.

Thanks for watching and posting. I have not used WC-844 but did a little research on it. I see it is available through American Reloading and they recommend following "recipes" for Hodgdon 335 (H335) minus 10%. I then visited Hodgdon's site and they show maximum powder charge is 21.4 grains when using a 62 grain bullet. The M855 is a 62 grain bullet but since it has a steel core instead of lead it will be longer meaning max powder charge needs to be reduced even further. I would say you should NOT try to use 26.1 gr of WC-844. I strongly encourage you to use a more standard powder (there are so many good powders for .223) and follow the reloading manuals precisely. If you have WC-844 and really want to use it I would contact the manufacturer and get load data from them. If they won't provide it I simply would not use it.

@@sdkweber Thanks for the info. The problem I have is that many people say they run n-amount of grains in 223/556, 556 or 223 without specifying whether they are talking barrels or brass and then you got that one guy that turns a topic into a completely different discussion.

@@Murderface666 You are welcome. The "grain" is a very common unit of measure in firearms. It is used to measure the weight of bullets, the weight of brass cases, and the weight of the powder charge. It is a very fine measurement as there are 7,000 grains in one pound. Yes, it can be confusing and sometimes you just gotta ask "are you talking about the bullet or the powder" or something like that. In my .220 Swift I use a 40 gr. bullet and 42 gr. of powder. Thanks for watching and posting.

I will try to get this fixed. I will need to post a new link. Thanks for letting me know.

Where is the broken link to the checklist ? I thought it was on this video but do not see it. If you can help me find that link I can get it fixed quickly. Thanks again.

Ok - so as you can see, YT is being communist about even letting me tell you who commented on YOUR video along with a file link. You posted the link from dropbox. If you can, I'd make a pdf or an image of it and run a 15 second vid of it on camera. At least that way we can get the content of it and its layout... Alternatively, I'm happy to shoot you my email addy if there is a way to communicate with you through here... Let me know. Thanks.!

@@verdedenim662 I think I can find it. Thank you.

Here is the link to the checklist that I use during Case prep: www.dropbox.com/s/pa2f2hz78897s8q/ReloadingCasePrepCheckList.pdf?dl=0