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When you guys sort lake city brass do you sort it by year or weight, also I'm taking it when your loading high pressure loads like MarkM you stick strictly to 556 brass?
I do not pay attention to the date code on my LC brass, but I do keep track of how many times they've been reloaded (or fired).
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There's nothing special about 5.56 brass. I load hot stuff in all flavors of acceptable brass.. FC, LC, R-P, whatever.
If I have a heaping bucket of once fired, I'll sort and run it in batches by kind. Once it's twice fired, it's all mixed together.
Thank you guys right now it's mainly LC,Federal, and PSD? brass that i have.
For my precision stuff I sort by date and then group by weight to .5grains difference.
For plinking/SD rounds all I expect is minute of bad guy at 30 feet so the twice fired and odd date/weight stuff gets grouped together.
For my precision stuff I sort by date and then group by weight to .5grains difference.
There was some experiment by someone that showed weight sorting yielded nothing. :confused:
I've not tried it because I run like 7-10 gallons of brass in the load rotation.... way too much time in brass prep already.:(
StingerDan
06-29-13, 18:50
Is all LC brass 5.56? The reason I ask is I was at the range with my son-inlaw and he had an ammo can full of what I thought said Lake City.223 I don't recall seeing 5.56 on the can.
Well, there isn't any difference between .223 and 5.56 brass either way.
I just sort by year.
Well, there isn't any difference between .223 and 5.56 brass either way.
The year is more important than the caliber? :confused:
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StingerDan
06-29-13, 22:00
While the exterior dimensions of the two are identical. The interior dimensions of the 5.56 case is smaller, Which in turn make for thicker case walls in the 5.56, which allows for the higher pressures which can be handled by the 5.56 chamber compared to a .223 chamber. Also the same powder charge in the 5.56 will be higher pressure. Your accuracy will go to shit if you mix the two. Dan
While the exterior dimensions of the two are identical. The interior dimensions of the 5.56 case is smaller, Which in turn make for thicker case walls in the 5.56, which allows for the higher pressures which can be handled by the 5.56 chamber compared to a .223 chamber. Also the same powder charge in the 5.56 will be higher pressure. Your accuracy will go to shit if you mix the two. Dan
According to data provided in another thread on here, the cases are pretty much identical and do not cause the pressure differences themselves.
5.56 vs .223 pressures (https://www.m4carbine.net/showthread.php?p=672888#post672888)
There is no significant difference between 5.56mm cases and common commercial .223 cases and therefore the cases are a non-issue in the difference in pressures between the two systems. The chamber and specifically the free-bore and leade are where the significant difference lies.
According to data provided in another thread on here, the cases are pretty much identical and do not cause the pressure differences themselves.
https://www.m4carbine.net/showthread.php?t=54797
Yup. Lots of myth and misinformation surround the 5.56 vs. .223.
StingerDan
06-30-13, 06:10
WOW! After reading the comments above I started doing some research on the subject and Damn! There are so many sources that say the internal volume of a 5.56 is smaller, but they show no proof to back that up. All the charts on internal case capacities certainly do not. So I stand corrected. I think. I think I will do some testing of my own. Capacities, weights, and accuracy wise, just for personal satisfaction, and so I can put this to bed in my own mind. Thank you for bringing this to my attention. Dan.
That lower case capacity stupidity gets perpetuated because it is true of 7.62X51 brass.
I was running our .308 load in some Mk118 LR brass, and was getting some slight compression. I don't see that in Lapua brass.
The 2 kinds of brass that have a much lower case capacity are PMP and small font headstamped PMC (not the Bronze line)
You can spot those on the press because the powder fills so high compared to regular brass.
I guess I'm curious as to why people sort by date code. I've always thought that "times fired" is the most relevant way to sort.
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I guess I'm curious as to why people sort by date code. I've always thought that "times fired" is the most relevant way to sort.
OCD. ;)
WOW! After reading the comments above I started doing some research on the subject and Damn! There are so many sources that say the internal volume of a 5.56 is smaller, but they show no proof to back that up. All the charts on internal case capacities certainly do not. So I stand corrected. I think. I think I will do some testing of my own. Capacities, weights, and accuracy wise, just for personal satisfaction, and so I can put this to bed in my own mind. Thank you for bringing this to my attention. Dan.
I did some weighing of cases and stuff. Came to the conclusion there isn't much difference, if any at all. Then on a different board, some jackass was claiming he could tell the difference between LC cases and others because he could feel the weight difference. He was all pissy after I called him on it and another guy called bullshit on him.
StingerDan
07-01-13, 21:02
I did some weighing of cases and stuff. Came to the conclusion there isn't much difference, if any at all. Then on a different board, some jackass was claiming he could tell the difference between LC cases and others because he could feel the weight difference. He was all pissy after I called him on it and another guy called bullshit on him.LMAO.....
I guess I'm curious as to why people sort by date code. I've always thought that "times fired" is the most relevant way to sort.
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I recall someone actually measuring the case capacities for different year LC brass and found variances. This is why I sort by year. I also keep track of times fired as well. Not difficult to do both since I batch load in 50-100 round increments anyway.
The 2 kinds of brass that have a much lower case capacity are PMP and small font headstamped PMC (not the Bronze line)
I loaded a batch a while back that was about 50/50 old PMC and '11 LC but I haven't sent any down range yet. Maybe I'll break them out and see if I get a difference in velocity between the two.
This was the PMC brass with the sealed primers and super tight pockets...
I loaded a batch a while back that was about 50/50 old PMC and '11 LC but I haven't sent any down range yet. Maybe I'll break them out and see if I get a difference in velocity between the two.
This was the PMC brass with the sealed primers and super tight pockets...
Is the font on the headstamp really tiny? The brass is beefy as hell and the primer pockets never quit.
You can tell the brass by the sound it make banging together. The cases sound like steel... not clangy at all because they're so meaty.
They're just a pain in the ass because you have to segregate them off... or at least I do since the capacity is so wildly different.
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