Has anyone been using any current PMC 223 brass lately? How tough are the primer pockets? I have some here, and after measuring for neck thickness and h20 capacity. It's seems better suited to what I want to try with my factory bolt gun. Which is size the neck less both up and down, and to test a new... read HOT load that I'm really compressing powder on in my current case.
PMC 223
- Thread starter grovey
- Start date
I use it in my .223,but my loads are not hot .I like it ,holds up just like any other brass with normal loads .I have also formed it for my 20 Tac and it's fine at those pressures. Primer pockets stay the same for many loads,I would describe it as easy in/easy out...they don't feel overly tight right from the start but don't get any loser either. I use CCI 400s in the .223 and 450s in the 20 Tac.
May be worth a shot then. I'm going to fire just one of these cases 10 or 12 times to see how/if it holds up to a hot load. I'll start with a moderate load, and then lean on it more till I get to max or a bit beyond. The brass has been fired twice thus far . Once as factory and FL sized once and I fired one moderate load in development. I'll mostly neck size it with a collet die to keep sizing down to a minimum till I have to bump it back. I want to move less brass in the long run, and this the closest way I have to mimic the FL die I want honed . To windy out to do anything serious today. I'll use up some odd components too.
Not that anyone gives a crap, but I did do my little test on a piece of the PMC 223 brass yesterday, so I'll follow up here. I didn't realize it until it was over , but somehow my loaded rd measurement the night before ( 1 am) was waaaay off. I think I'd seated a pulled bullet when I did my initial measuring? I dunno... I can't really explain it, but instead of a loaded rd of .250 - .251 ( seemed large ) It actually is kinda thin at 246.5 with a fresh bullet! Not what I expected, but after the results I may try the brass for the app I intended to anyhow because the extra capacity is there..
I started with a 2x fired case. My first load yesterday was a middle of the rd charge, and I moved up to near max the second time around. All looked well, so I fired the case eleven more times after that at 3/10ths over book max. Surprisingly, I didn't have to bump the shoulder back at all. Collet neck die only... The primer pockets didn't seem to get any looser throughout my testing with a fed 205 primer. I started at 1.749 for a length, and after the ninth firing it had only grew to 1.756. I trimmed back to 1.750, and after 4 more shots it measured 1.752. What surprised me was I didn't have to bump the shoulder at all. No click, no hard bolt lift.
All in all it was a learning experience and since I've been really under the weather with my bbl in the dirt for a few weeks it was something to do on a windy day.
I started with a 2x fired case. My first load yesterday was a middle of the rd charge, and I moved up to near max the second time around. All looked well, so I fired the case eleven more times after that at 3/10ths over book max. Surprisingly, I didn't have to bump the shoulder back at all. Collet neck die only... The primer pockets didn't seem to get any looser throughout my testing with a fed 205 primer. I started at 1.749 for a length, and after the ninth firing it had only grew to 1.756. I trimmed back to 1.750, and after 4 more shots it measured 1.752. What surprised me was I didn't have to bump the shoulder at all. No click, no hard bolt lift.
All in all it was a learning experience and since I've been really under the weather with my bbl in the dirt for a few weeks it was something to do on a windy day.
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By neck sizing, you saved the brass from a lot of work. Would be interesting try the same test with a FL die. What was the load and bullet?
I had several 100 here too . Back when I weight sorted them I found that there actually were two different headstamps. One with a small pmc , and one with a large PMC. My test was with the small pmc stamped brass.
ToddKS
Gold $$ Contributor
Thanks for that information. I will have to take a look at what is in these buckets. I would guess I have 4-6K at least to choose from. I sorted them out because they were not crimped and I thought that would be handy but I never did anything with them except put them in the closet.
The reason I did the test was I somehow measured a loaded rd that was thicker than any other 223 case I have on hand. I want to get my FL die honed, and was contemplating doing based on that skewed number as to work the brass less each way. That's why I only neck sized to closely mimic the results I'd get with a honed die. (best way I had) I used old/odd / and or unwanted components I had on hand. Fed 205 primers, 55 gr sp ,over book max load of 26.3 grs of BLC-2.
That's what surprised me the most. I expected to push the shoulder 2 or 3 times. It's also why I said I may still try it. The case has the extra capacity to push a new bullet I'm trying. With my current case I'm compressing powder so tight my neck tension isn't holding the bullet where i want it without adjusting the seater down another 0.005. I'm right on the brink of the next node. If in fact it works out I'll be trying to run them without annealing too.
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