Case Separation by Manufacturer

[KenpoCop822]

I am currently getting ready to ramp up my production of .223 reloading for both training and SD. I am curious if it is worthwhile to separate cases by manufacturer. I get my casings from a local range, and generally get the following headstamps:

Win NT
WCC
Winchester
Lake City
R-P

If it makes any difference, I know that this is all once fired brass.

Is there any significant difference, such that I should prefer one over the others, or even bother separating out at all? If so, how would you rate the listed brass, from highest to lowest quality?

My shooting will be out of a AR-15 carbine, shooting probably no longer than 300 yards, and that would likely be stretching it for my general usage.

Thanks.

[B52U]

To me it's worthwhile to separate for accuracy reasons. Different manufacturers cases have slightly different capacities that affect pressure. How much this matters to you depends on how concerned you are with squeezing out accuracy and how close to max pressures you intend to load to.

Personally I like LC brass the best.

[darr3239]

I don't shoot any where near as much as a bunch of guys here on M4. With that said, as a handloader, the only cases I've had popped primers with were FC. They weren't over pressure rounds, just loose pockets.

[markm]

I would only sort them off for crimp removal. Other than that, the primer pockets are the only variance you should find. Hot XM193 brass might have a little looser pockets, depending on year/headstamp.

"WCC" generally gets loose primer pockets fairly quickly. "W.C.C." (if you get any) is Israeli made, and is a little better for whatever reason.

[glocktogo]

As stated, accuracy demands and peak pressures should dictate. If you're reloading mainly for close-in (under 100 yards) training and plan to keep pressures relatively mild, then it's likely a waste of time. Same thing for ringing torso sized steel out to 300. The keys to better accuracy are cases sorted by interior volume and neck tension/concentricity.

Remember that 5.56mm brass has less volume than actual .223 Rem brass. Also, Federal brass tends to be softer than the others, so you'll get fewer loads per piece out of them, especially if you're not annealing. Remember that even before pressure signs and fatigue, overall stretch/grow (how many times you trim) the case will determine when to discard them. If you pick up brass at a general use range where reloads are allowed, I would try to separate brass that appears to have been reloaded before and toss those. You have no idea how many times the previous user trimmed them. Lots of match shooters will use brass that's used up at actual matches, so they don't have to police their brass between relays/stages.

[B52U]

Remember that 5.56mm brass has less volume than actual .223 Rem brass.

Be careful stating this as absolute. I weighed case volume for several .223 commercial brands against Lake City and LC actually had more volume than most. In researching it, I found the general rule of military cases being less voluminous propagated from .308 shooters.

[markm]

As stated, accuracy demands and peak pressures should dictate. If you're reloading mainly for close-in (under 100 yards) training and plan to keep pressures relatively mild, then it's likely a waste of time. Same thing for ringing torso sized steel out to 300. The keys to better accuracy are cases sorted by interior volume and neck tension/concentricity.

Remember that 5.56mm brass has less volume than actual .223 Rem brass. Also, Federal brass tends to be softer than the others, so you'll get fewer loads per piece out of them, especially if you're not annealing. Remember that even before pressure signs and fatigue, overall stretch/grow (how many times you trim) the case will determine when to discard them. If you pick up brass at a general use range where reloads are allowed, I would try to separate brass that appears to have been reloaded before and toss those. You have no idea how many times the previous user trimmed them. Lots of match shooters will use brass that's used up at actual matches, so they don't have to police their brass between relays/stages.

I respectfully disagree with all of this.

I mix all of our long range 5.56/.223 brass and load 77 gr SMKs... and dump them into 7.62 ammo cans. I've never had as sorted off/like headstamp group shoot any better than a random handful. Almost all common .223/5.56 mm brass internal volumes vary insignificantly. There's some chart from Accurateshooter that displays this. Mil brass doesn't vary from everything else enough to impact anything.

The reason FC brass quits sooner is not the brass hardness, but rather the thin case web. FC gives up primer pockets faster than most brass. In my experience primer pockets are what end brass life, not trimming repetition. I don't anneal any .223 brass due to the volume I run.

I used to toss out brass I picked up that appeared to be loaded more than once. Now I cull it at the resizing die if it feels like it's got excessive headspace (very, very rare), and more commonly, at the priming stage. If I seat a primer that feels too loose, I mark the brass and toss it into the recycle bucket after the following firing.

99.7% of the time, primer pockets are why I toss brass. 0.299% of the time I'll see a split neck. And the last 0.001% (if that much) of the time, I'll have a case separate. I think I've had like 4 or 5 separations over God knows how many hundreds of thousands of rounds.

[Bret]

If it makes any difference, I know that this is all once fired brass.

How do you know this?

[KenpoCop822]

Without giving away to much (to protect the guilty), the place where I get it from only uses commercially manufactured ammunition from wholesalers.

[Bret]

OK, just wondering if you were getting taken advantage of. I see fired range brass sold all the time at local ranges (and on eBay) as once fired. I'm sure that it is mostly once fired, but they have no way to know if it all is. I know that I leave my multiple times fired brass on the floor sometimes.