STICKY - Good/Bad brass list converting 5.56->300blk

[BallisticTools]

This may be old news to many, but since I mostly do military brass I just discovered this:

There's COLT 223 headstamped nickel plated casings that are actually steel. Watch out for it if you get commercial mixed brass or range pickups.

[stengun]

Howdy,

This may be old news to many, but since I mostly do military brass I just discovered this:

There's COLT 223 headstamped nickel plated casings that are actually steel. Watch out for it if you get commercial mixed brass or range pickups.

If in doubt use a magnet. I keep one on my reloading bench at all times.

This thread has been very helpful since I've been picking up about 100 rounds of range brass every week at my local range.

Thanks for the thread!

Paul

[Aussiehunter]

Rather than throw away brass that doesn't feed, send it to me snail mail, I'll gladly pay your postage/packing costs and reasonable fees. PM me if you are interested.

[excess650]

I have an IK 03 that measures .012 and very uniform .0003 runout,who made this case?
Filippo

IK is yugoslavian surplus, thanks for the data

I ran into some cases today that were either Berdan primed or else had tiny flash holes. IK was among them. I couldn't deprime with my Lyman universal decapping die.

[Expat]

You may add swiss GP90 brass to the bad ones. While the stuff is actually good quality and plentiful/free where I live, it requires neck reaming and has a crimped primer. I didn't take the wall thickness though.

[destrux]

Just had an entire batch of 100 LC09 that cracked the necks after one firing. Never had that happen before.

I got them fresh from a guy who bought a dump truck load of them from a military auction. They were unprocessed/uncleaned. I even sorted out all the SAW brass.

I'm annealing all the rest before I form them, I have a couple hundred more, I bought a .50 cal can full of them.

I had a whole bunch of LC09 in a mixed military brass lot that cracked the necks, sometimes only at the shoulder. Must be something with that lot. I didn't anneal before forming either. I'm not sure it would have helped enough to make it worth my time. Rather just avoid the LC09.

[destrux]

One question, I didnt see ADCOM brass listed? It has an AD headstamp.

I use it, it works fine for me. I haven't measured it though.

[destrux]

I got a dozen or so IK13 cases (yugoslavian) and they won't decap with my Lee or RCBS decapping pins. No idea on neck thickness, I couldn't even decap them. I thought they were berdan primed at first but they're not, just a really small flash hole. I managed to deprime one with pin punch. I could have decapped them all like that and drilled the flash hole out but c'mon.

Also, I've converted a bunch of the MKE 13 brass and it all measured 0.013" and converted fine for me. I sourced it from some MKE M855 ammo I bought at Walmart back before the green tippers gobbled it all up.

[Aussiehunter]

Thursday I got my package of ex rental range brass from a local dealer in NSW. Its 500 300 blk and 500 223 once fired range brass. After sorting them all, I actually have 534 300 blk and had 512 223. However, the onses and twoses and less than 20's went into a seperate bucket to be cut for blk:
The 300 blk cases included:
GFL 300 Blk
SIG 300 Blk
PNW Arms 300
R-P AAC Blk
Hornady 300 Whisper/Blk
Gemtech 300
The mixed headstamps were a mix of:
Barnes 300
Speer 300
JAG 300
MAST 300
JBA 300
A swag of 223 remans including:
WCC NATO
TAA NATO
TZZ NATO
LC NATO (211)

I cut up about 80 odd 223 for my plinking brass:
BHA 223 MATCH
IMI 5.56
Aguila 223
PPU 223
PPU 5.56 NATO
MKE
WCC NATO
TAA NATO
TZZ NATO
Hornady 204 Ruger / 223 / NATO
RG L2A2 NATO
WOLF 223
PERFECTA 223
GFL 223
With the 100 NEW Gemtech 300 Blk cases that finally came in from backorder, I have 700 odd extra cases to play with.
The PPU 223 and NATO, MKE, WOLF, IMI and the RG NATO had to be neck turned, but overall, I'm happy with the result. I was surprised that only 100 of the 223 brass was LC, with the rest being Federal 223 and NATO (127), CBC 5.56 NATO (102) PMC mixed early and late HS (104) and a smattering of others. I also kept the Winchester 223 brass as well, the others got made into Blk. The 223 will be kept for the switch barrel (223 Wylde / 300 Blk) 7615 I have planned for the next project.
I gotta go turn off the polisher and sort some more Blk
Cheers.

[crossroader]

Major problem I found was that while forming brass was the development of the hated internal brass ring at the juncture of neck and shoulder, If loading shallow seated boat-tails it is not as noticeable, but when seating flat-base it becomes a problem with chambering. Inside neck reaming of this small amount is simple do to the amount is so slight. I found that using the appropriate sized and champhered four flute end mill, or drill bit this area can be cleaned up in a finger held process. This solved my head scrathing and takes no more time than brushing the inside of the neck.

Originally compiled by tlee_20, updated with user reports. In general, the wall thickness around 1.360 inches from the base will determine success or failure. As a rule of thumb, if the wall thickness is greater than 0.014, there may be problems with the loaded diameter of the neck being too large to chamber easily.

Neck thickness data:

Factory Blackout brass

Gemtech (factory 300 BLK) - 0.011"
PNW Arms - 0.011"
RP - 0.010"

Converted brass

Good:
ADI - 0.012"
Aguila - 0.012"
A USA - 0.012"
FC - 0.013/0.014" [Note 1]
GFL - 0.012"
HB - 0.013"
Hornady (223 headstamp) - 0.011"
Hornady (nickel 223) - 0.012"
IK03 - 0.012" [Note 4]
IMI - 0.012" [Note 4]
IVI - 0.013"
IVI ('85) - 0.012" (runs great)
LC - 0.011"
LC (converted blank) - 0.012"
PERFECTA 223 rem. - 0.012"
PMC - modern "bronze" and "X-tac" are good, older PMC with small letters may have problems
PS - 0.011/0.012"
PSD - 0.011"
RA - 0.013"
RA ('69) - 0.012"
RP .223 - 0.011'
SSA - 0.012"
TAA - 0.013"
Tula - 0.0115"
TZZ - 0.012"
WCC - 0.010/0.011"
Winchester - 0.011"
WIN NT - 0.011"


Thick neck wall, bad without neck turning:

ATI - 0.015" [Note 3]
CBC - 0.014/0.015"
CJ6 - 0.015"
DNL - 0.016"
FNM - 0.016" [Note 3]
FRONTIER - 0.015"
GECO - 0.015/0.016"
Hot Shot - 0.014" [Note 3]
HRTRS ( Herters?) - 0.017"
ICC - Reported as bad
IK03 - 0.015" [Note 4]
IMI - 0.015" [Note 4]
KFA .223 REM - 0.015"-0.019"
MKE13 - Anecdotally reported as troublesome
MPA - 0.015"
NPA - [Note 3]
PMC (old headstamp) - 0.015"
PMP - 0.015"
PPU - 0.014/0.015" [Note 3]
RORG - 0.015"
RWS - 0.014-0.015"
S&B - 0.015/0.017"
Wolf Brass .223 - 0.014"

General notes:

There's no consistent difference between "5.56" and "223" when it comes to brass.

Many manufacturers may use different sources for casings at different times. This means that even within the same headstamp, it is possible that a particular batch was from a different source and may be different. Treat this list as a rule of thumb, and double check before processing a large quantity.


Note 1:
"FC" brass includes several types of brass that don't seem to come from the same factory. Most of them are good to go, but the "thin web" FC that turned up a few years back tends to have thicker walls and will cause neck thickness problems. Some FC that runs thicker is the newer stuff. Has beautiful annealing marks on it. Has FC @ 12:00, numbers @ 3:00 and/or 9:00 (May have both, could just have one), and the year @ 6:00


Note 2:
NPA is very low quality brass, with a super small flash hole, and is likely to cause broken or stuck decapping pins, or other problems.

Note 3:
The brass marked with this note may require extra sizing force, and machine flex may cause them to headspace too large if the machine is not set up specifically to do this "harder sizing" brass. This is due to thicker brass, alloy variations, or variations in factory anneal. This isn't always universal within a headstamp, for example, some older PPU had the problem and others did not.

Note 4:
This brass is included in both the good and the bad list based on differing user reports. It is important to keep in mind that sometimes a single headstamp can be made at multiple factories on multiple differing manufacturing processes. Other times a manufacturer that has their own brass factory might bring in brass from another manufacturer during times of high demand or to fulfill a large contract.