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dumb AR around 20-24"

Chevy_man said:
Weight changes drastically with case head thickness. There's zero chance you get similar internal volumes by weight.


Lake City is actually pretty good and dirt cheap. Sort by year if you want to get fancy.

Lapua is always a solid choice for great brass. Alpha, Peterson, and Norma are good, but harder to find.

Winchester/Federal/Remington is hit and miss.
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I stay away from LC or any other 5.56 brass just so I don't have to fuck with the primer pockets.

SGA used to sell 600 round cases of loaded Lapua 55g FMJ .223 ammo for like 40 cents a round, so I bought two cases as blasting ammo, and now I have over a thousand rounds of premium brass.
 
Chevy_man said:
Bought a fx120i and auto-trickler v4. ES on velocity dropped from the 30-40 range to 10 or less. Inside neck mandrel had dropped it from 75-100 to 30-40.


I'm thinking the bench rest guys spending $4k+ on a primethius are crazy, but they're wanting a powder scale to put es at 1. :homer::lmao:
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BTW that scale Creedmoor Sports sells is as accurate as my FX 120i, and they run them on sale now and then for $249.
 
Roc Doc said:
BTW that scale Creedmoor Sports sells is as accurate as my FX 120i, and they run them on sale now and then for $249.
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Does it interface with the auto-trickler though? Because that's the magic.
Roc Doc said:
I stay away from LC or any other 5.56 brass just so I don't have to fuck with the primer pockets.

SGA used to sell 600 round cases of loaded Lapua 55g FMJ .223 ammo for like 40 cents a round, so I bought two cases as blasting ammo, and now I have over a thousand rounds of premium brass.
Click to expand...

I have a Dillon primer pocket swager. Don't even think about it anymore:flipoff2::lmao:


I'm dumb :homer:
 
Chevy_man said:
I found huge increases in consistency with an inside neck mandrel to set neck tension
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don't all rifle sizing dies have the li'l nugget on the decapping rod?
Pistol dies don't, but the rifle ones do, and at least on the 54R you swap it out between 307 or 310 for 308 or 312 bullets, you know?
 
Roc Doc said:
I stay away from LC or any other 5.56 brass just so I don't have to fuck with the primer pockets.

SGA used to sell 600 round cases of loaded Lapua 55g FMJ .223 ammo for like 40 cents a round, so I bought two cases as blasting ammo, and now I have over a thousand rounds of premium brass.
Click to expand...
ammoseek shows 1.76/rd for the cheapest lapua offering, loaded
nothing at all on empty brass

guess I'm fucking with the case mouth deburring reamer to cut the crimps out lol
 
been running an old rcbs balance-beam scale, just set the meter to drop a little bit low
using a piece of '06 brass as a trickler because it is a lot nicer than the crappy plastic lyman one I've got

got an old RCBS digital scale but it starts counting up tenths of a grain if you don't zero it every 30sec or so, probably has leaky capacitors or a dead bleed resistor in it or some such shit
I just don't use it for powder, only sorting bullets and brass, though ya'll say the brass is a waste of time so I'll quit doing that
 
[486] said:
don't all rifle sizing dies have the li'l nugget on the decapping rod?
Pistol dies don't, but the rifle ones do, and at least on the 54R you swap it out between 307 or 310 for 308 or 312 bullets, you know?
Click to expand...
I'm using the Short Action Customs bushing dies with their decapper mandrel. I used to decap, then bushing size with the expander ball removed, and finally use a 21st Century mandrel. Three steps to do what I do now in one, I used to be dumb. :homer:
 
[486] said:
don't all rifle sizing dies have the li'l nugget on the decapping rod?
Pistol dies don't, but the rifle ones do, and at least on the 54R you swap it out between 307 or 310 for 308 or 312 bullets, you know?
Click to expand...

Yes.

And yet, I get varying resistance on necks running them through the mandrel.

I know it doesn't make sense. But I also know it's like $40 and it works. :homer:

I've tried much more expensive stuff that did nothing. :laughing:
 
Roc Doc said:
I'm using the Short Action Customs bushing dies with their decapper mandrel. I used to decap, then bushing size with the expander ball removed, and finally use a 21st Century mandrel. Three steps to do what I do now in one, I used to be dumb. :homer:
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I have multiple 550s, one just processes brass. :homer:

Trim, size, neck.... Just run them through! :smokin:
 
Chevy_man said:
Yes.

And yet, I get varying resistance on necks running them through the mandrel.

I know it doesn't make sense. But I also know it's like $40 and it works. :homer:

I've tried much more expensive stuff that did nothing. :laughing:
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what does this mandrel look like?

is it the hornaday style where it is nice and olive shaped, or the RCBS style where it is a collet that holds the decapping pin and 'just happens to have' a band that expands the case mouth when withdrawn
 
coverkhaby.jpg
 
muleskinner said:
Norma brass
globalordnance.com

Norma Precision Range and Training ammunition .223 Rem FMJ 55 Grain Bullet 20 round box UPC: 871004009982

Global Ordnance
globalordnance.com globalordnance.com
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ooh, and even better there's this for a li'l bit more:
www.ammo-sale.com

Norma Precision Golden Target Match 223 Rem 69 gr Hollow Point Boat Tail Ammo 20 Per Box

Norma Precision Golden Target Match 223 Rem 69 gr Hollow Point Boat Tail Ammo 20 Per BoxNorma Dedicated Hunting - .243 Win tipstrike 76 Gr Is a High-Performance Hunting Ammunition Designed To Provide Superior Accuracy And Terminal Performance. This Ammunition Is Designed To Provide Maximum...
www.ammo-sale.com
 
maybe the decapping mandrel is like .220" or something
could you go measure the one that was giving inconsistent neck tension results?
 
ooh
neck mandrel that is working when case is going up has the case head square on the shell holder, where one that it working when case is dropping has the case cocked in the u-notch shell holder

maybe an argument for that lee APP press and its symmetrical pass through shell holder?
 
Chevy_man said:
Does it interface with the auto-trickler though? Because that's the magic.
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Well apparently it does, I had not noticed that it has an RS232 port, its just slower than the FX or Satorius, but it will work with the autotrickers
 
ended up with a big ol jug of h380 (well not that old, jug's plastic)
seems to be right around 2000-mr and cfe223 on the burn rate chart, so hey why not give it a go
almost no load data out there since it is an ancient powder everyone hates due to temp-sensitivity, but my really old speer and hodgdon books show some 70gr loads starting at 26.5 on out to 28.5gr

28 is about all that fits into an LC case, so that's a li'l strange
pooked together some at 26, 26.5 and 27gr with some 77 smk

Lots of conflicting data out there on the forums
Some even saying that 27 is the max charge with a 55gr
goddamn I'd forgotten how much fuddlore there is out there
we'll see if I die

oh didn't hit post on that, thought I did
well anyways didn't die
primers didn't even flatten out any
they shot good, it was tightening up at 27, so maybe I'll try 27, 27.5 and 28 next time
 
old powder/new powder.....old books/new books......Toss in the forums which will normally fuck you an you dont have a chance:laughing: All you can do is go off what the primers and brass look like
 
I've had different lot numbers of h4350 take 1-2 grains different to maintain velocity. :eek:


And case isn't full until you can hear the grains crunch.

My 25-06 has been getting a diet of 62grns if retumbo, while the book says 56 is compressed and 58 is max :homer::laughing:

115s at 3300 out of a 1:7 are explosive. Turns out 315k rpm is about the limit of a partition.
 
Chevy_man said:
And case isn't full until you can hear the grains crunch.
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h380 is a really fine ball powder, finer than h335
27gr is to the base of the neck, so loading 77s to mag length you're squeezing that powder quite a bit since it packs in pretty tight on its own
 
me or who?

looks like it's right next to h380 on the chart, is it a ball powder?
Probably has the same temperature sensitivity that all ball powders have.

Probably act pretty similar.
 
yea, its a pretty fine powder. Meters awesome:smokin: IIRC guys were saying that it landed between rl15 and 17 on the burn chart.

It does good things with heavier bullets in a 223
 
[486] said:
me or who?

looks like it's right next to h380 on the chart, is it a ball powder?
Probably has the same temperature sensitivity that all ball powders have.

Probably act pretty similar.
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I dunno why I thought h380 was a stick. But I don't use it much.


I've found that case design has more effect on temp stability than powder type. 6.5 sta-ball has been super stable in the 6.5 Creed for me, but it wasn't great in the 243.

Just have to do the hard work of testing and shooting :flipoff2:
 
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