.223 case seperation

[MGYSGT]

Infantrytrophy,

Your photo is spot on for the separation of my cartridges. My head space gauges are coming in the mail, as I write this response. I will also try the spent primer method today and see what comes of it. That's thinking outside the box. Thank you all for your responses.

Tom

 

[CatShooter]

Here's my down 'n dirty headspace checking procedure, others may have something different.

Remove firing pin assembly from bolt. You can also remove the ejector but not absolutely necessary.

Insert desired EMPTY unprimed, trimmed to proper length case in chamber.

Take the bolt handle and try and move it forward then backward.

If you have "slop" or back and forth movement, you have a headspace issue, either improperly sized brass, out of spec brass or if brass is correct, chamber issues.

You can have 14 thou of "slop" and still be inside of "spec".

That is not a good test.

 

[Smalltruck]

Bigedp51 I owe you a beer for solving a problem for me about stretched cases. And the trick for checking headspace is greatly appreciated.

 

[hogpatrol]

;D Who's getting the pretzels? :

 

[bigedp51]

Below a Colt field gauge for the AR15, 1.4736

Below, my Hornady cartridge case headspace gauge adjusted to read true headspace, meaning it is no longer a comparator gauge.

Below, new unfired Federal M193 ammunition, .002 shorter than the GO gauge.

Below, same ammunition fired in my chamber, 1.4675

Below, after full length resizing and .003 shoulder bump

You adjust the Hornady gauge by placing feeler gauges between the red and silver bodies of the gauge and adjusting the "gap" between the two halfs of the gauge to match your headspace gauge.

 

[akajun]

Wow, ive never seen a case head separation in a .223 before, and Im an avid highpower competitor shooting a .223 wylde chambered ar. My brass cracks at the neck well before that could happen, or the primer pockets get so loose that they wont even hold a wolf primer. My short line ammo is all loaded with "lake city rejects" from federal ammo and is marked lc09 or lc08. Im probably on its 9th or 10th firing, no case head thinning or separations ever, Ill keep firing it till I get too many cracked necks. I full length size my rounds to .005 thousandths which is the max my sizing die will push them, as I shoot my ammo in different rifles and need it to function 100%. I think there is something wrong with your die or chamber. I have a 6mm lyman resize die that will push the shoulder back .030 if you let it. It will seperate cases on the 2-3rd firing. You will need the hornady gauge to figure this out.
Back when we all shot m1a's and garands, a broken shell extractor was standard equipment in your shooting stool and I didnt load commercial .308 more than 3-times and military brass 5-6, any more than that was testing your luck.

 

[searcher]

I've bought about 10,000 of the LC NEW, UNFIRED, UNPRIMED cases, mostly from Natchez Shooters Supply a few years back. Since then, I've fired just over 20,000 rounds loaded in .223 and .556 chambers, as well as some I necked down to .20 caliber. If this stuff is "reject" brass, i'll be happy using it over commercial brass in A/R's any day. Never had a case seperation, loose primer pocket (I limit most A/R loadings to 8 with any brass) or other flaw that would reason it to be "reject" brass. It outperforms everything else available for the A/R. I'd use Lapua but had too many issues with the softer cases when loading the heavies. Anyway, if you don't go overbore on your load, bump the shoulder .003" - and NO more, and are attune to what is happening when temperatures change dramatically when using temp sensitive powder, there should be no reason for case seperations - especially with this brass. That is not to say you did not encounter a bit of bad brass - which is always possible. How many times had that brass been fired?

That said, I spent a bit of time shooting at "the stumps" in my Marine days and if you are using a temp sensitive powder - you are using it at the place the powder companies should test their powders! I have shot there in the morning when it was 45 degrees and saw the temps rise to 118 degrees at 3:00 p.m. Even the "typical" temperature variations there could absolutely contribute (if not cause) the problem you encountered.