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New brass

2K views 18 replies 10 participants last post by  GONRA 
#1 ·
Anyone using new winchester .223 brass? Opinions.
 
#3 ·
Me either. I used to belong to a gun club and bushels of once fired 223/556 laying all around the firing line after the AR boys play with their toys. I have more than I will ever use.

I also saw the Obama train wreck coming and bought new Remington 223 case lots before the post 2008 panic at insanely low price. My heirs will have plenty.
 
#5 ·
BennyS, Winchester brass will work just fine, however as others have stated, GI 5.56x45 brass is very available and cheap. The only drawback is .... you have to chamfer the peened primer pockets the first time you reload. I much prefer LC headstamp (Lake City Arsenal) to any other "civilian" brass .... it lasts longer and is more uniform at a fraction the price.
 
#6 ·
I have about 100 or so LCs and they are gtg. I had a federal fail on me on the third firing. I give my brass a good inspection before I load but it went kaboom. Now I will never use federal brass again. I have some pmc and it seems to be good stout brass. My local basspro stocks winchester and I want to get some new brass to load for my new gun.
 
#7 ·
LC 5.56x45 once fired brass is almost a standard for AR loads.

FC is notorious for loose primer pockets. Any FC .223 I pick up

goes straight to the Trade/Recycle bucket.

PMC is good brass, and their military side PSD is my second choice

after LC. But be forewarned: PSD has the toughest primer crimp of any

5.56 brass I've come across.
 
#8 ·
BennyS, Don't sell Federal brass short just because you had a failure .... ALL brass is subject to failure, no matter what brand. BTW, Federal also makes 5.56 NATO ammo. It has a "FC" headstamp along with the 2-digit year of manufacturer. What I have found .... typical case life in my bolt action 223 Rem is about 6 reloads. In a AR-15, you are lucky to get 4 reloads. Most brass fails due to case head separation, split necks, loose primer pockets, or defective extractor ring ... some just from body dents that can't be corrected by sizing. It is not unusual to find a defective case after the first time fired and this applies to all brands.
 
#9 ·
I bought 2000 rounds of what is supposed to be new, primed, Winchester brass a few years ago. It was mispriced on the website I bought it from, so was a smoking hot deal. They quickly corrected the price but honored the mis-price for my existing order.

I'm skeptical about it being "new' because the necks have a slight darker discoloration like they're freshly annealed. Does anyone know if annealing is a standard part of new brass manufacturing?

Haven't actually loaded any of it yet.

- Jay
 
#11 ·
JRobyn, Yes, it is quite normal to see cases discolored slightly dark with some pink from the shoulder to the mouth. Merely an indication the case was annealed after being formed, which work hardens the brass. If you tumble the cases, the discoloration from annealing goes away.
 
#14 · (Edited)
BobbyS, I would walk the very ground that I-OH-we-gin laid out and upon which he makes his statements. Especially when you are wishing to throw out the entire batch when there was a failure on only one piece of brass! Indeed, you would be eradicating the entire shipment for sake of 1% of the total. :confused:
 
#18 ·
I use both LC and Winchester brass. I use the LC for my 55grn and 62grn AR middy and my Ranch Rifle loads and I use the Winchester for my long range 68grn AR loads. Both work well and I retire them after 5 reloads. It's a way of keeping the different loads separated. I'm lucky to have a ready supply of guaranteed once fired from our range as we let the State Police and local LEOs and clubs train at our range for free provided that they leave their brass. So I only keep LC brass with the primer crimp intact and sell or scrap the rest. Many LEOs use Win Whitebox and I've collected up those after they shot them.

The F-C marked brass, even with the crimp intact, goes into the sale pile as we've had too many loose primer pocket issues (primers dislodging and jamming actions) in our CMP shoots even after a single reload to bother with it with the LC and Winchester brass plentiful. With a personal stock of over 10K of LC brass, 6K of it I have left with the crimp intact for later use, and over 6K of Winchester brass, I think I'm GTG for a few years.
 
#19 ·
Just for the record, GONRA reminds ya'll to use these primers:
Small Rifle Magnum Remington Nr. 7 1/2
or
Small Rifle Magnum CCI Military #41
for reloading .223 Remington or 5.56x45mm, REGARDLESS of the brass you use!!!
(Avoids SLAMFIRES in semiautos, PUNCTURED PRIMER CUPS in everything.)
 
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