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1x fired 223 brass
joshmb1982
Member Posts: 8,929
is it normal to need to trim once fired brass? i ordered 1000 lc cases from wideners a while ago and had to trim them. and i just got some more mixed headstamp once fired casings and im needing to trim them all back as well. my books say the case overall legnth should be between 1.750in and 1.760in. most all of these are measureing around 1.763+. so im going ahead and rimming them to halfway at 1.755in. yet cases ive fired through my ar that were factory new have very little change in OAL. whats going on with this??
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is it normal to need to trim once fired brass? i ordered 1000 lc cases from wideners a while ago and had to trim them. and i just got some more mixed headstamp once fired casings and im needing to trim them all back as well. my books say the case overall legnth should be between 1.750in and 1.760in. most all of these are measureing around 1.763+. so im going ahead and rimming them to halfway at 1.755in. yet cases ive fired through my ar that were factory new have very little change in OAL. whats going on with this??
Yes, it's quite normal for once fired brass to be at or past the outer limit! The majority of the brass probably won't stretch much during the next firing, unless the gun has a max head-space or a hot load is fired! I usually trim ALL calibers of once fired brass .005 less than the minimum, for example 1.745 for 223 brass and I can normally fire the brass more times before requiring a 2nd trimming! (If crimping the bullets I make sure ALL the brass is trimmed to the almost exact same length) I keep a heads up on how many times the brass requires trimming, because after trimmed 3 times the brass is stretched to the point of thinning at the web base and the rim seprating from the hull! If this happens don't panic, because usually instead of using a hull extractor you can usually use a bore brush and remove the case from the chamber! (use a bore brush the size of the rifle chamber and when inserted just slightly twist the brush in the direction that it will tighten to the ram-rod while pull bac)
Good luck to Ya!
Your AR may have a minimum head-space, but I've seen some brass stretch to more than max in some guns even when the head-spacing was minimum! (some manufacturers brass is softer also)
I use a case length guage for mine.
Lucky i had an auto trimmer with a 3 way cutter, it saved me weeks if work,[;)]
it would trim and i would swage primmer pockets.
Military brass is usually heavier in weight.
I've seen groups at 100 yards increase by 2-3 inchs if the same load is TESTED in mixed up non weight matched brass! The increase in group size may be because the heavier brass has less interior volume and if same grains load of power is used, the velocity may be higher and therefore the deviation and consistency from shot to shot varies with the mixed up weight brass! For hunting brass I separate the brass by weight and don't pay much attention to the Brass manufacturer! I also uniform ASLL of my brass primer hole internally!
I also use a permanent marks a lot type colored felt tip pens and I can color code the heads of my match weight brass (reloaded shells) as to how many times it's been reloaded. For example Black=1, Red=2, Green=3, etc. I usually only neck size for bolt action type guns and label the brass as for use with that ONE particular serial number gun!