223/556 Brass Identification

[JL6.5]

After a couple years of collecting brass, I’m finally getting into the reloading game. I have been cleaning and depriming 223/556 brass and realize some cases aren’t quite as nice as others.

The most noticeable flaw I find is flash holes that are off-center.

Anyway, I’ll get to the point. I need some help sorting these so I can give the higher quality brass extra TLC and the junk brass will become plinking ammo.

What brands/ headstamps are considered premium and which are junk? Also, is there a reference list list somewhere that explains head stamps so I can identify brands better (ie. LC = Lake City?)

Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thx

 

[Mr Tibbs]

JL6.5 223/556 is produced in the US and in many countries around the world.
What i do is use US mil-spec, LC, WWC. Commercial brass Winchester, Federal, Remington , just keep in mind most if not all US Mil-spec brass has a crimp in the primer pocket that must be removed before a new primer can be installed. Plenty of handloaders like Lapua brass because of it’s quality and consistenc.

 

[JL6.5]

Yeah. I’ve deprimed about 1k so far and a majority were crimped. I’ve been using an RCBS brass boss to chamfer, clean, and uniform all the primer pockets. Well worth what I paid for it.
I have noticed a lot of the 223 cases are not crimped (as severely) and are very easy to deprime. If they are crimped they are nowhere near as hard to remove as 556 cases.

 

[99106]

First I would suggest go and watch Erik Cortina's videos on reloading regarding brass prep and listen to his 2 podcasts from Just F'n Send It. Lapua is king, other niche brands which you probably don't have are next like alpha, peterson and I would put star on par with them as well and maybe norma too. Win, Federal next and rem, pmc, gecco, privi bringing up the rear. Wcc = win, umc = rem, lc = lake city # with stamp = year produced. Anything below Norma is more likely to have one or two with offset primer holes. I just chunk any I find.

Most labeled 556 will likely have a primer crimp.

Mil brass ie 556 may be slightly thicker.

Group by sort brand and 556 vs 223

Might be advisable to use small base die. Definitely advisable to keep separated between bolt gun and semi. Full length size them, trim, chamfer and knock primer crimp out where applicable. Load and go.

 

[clcustom1911]

For me, only when I make precision ammo I basically separate my bulk brass by NATO headstamp as one group, then everything else in the other.

If it's plinking, I dont separate shit... I only have 5.56 chambered weapons. I size/deprime, prep the primer pockets and trim a few hundred at a time.

Time for a tangent about brass differences and safety:

Pro tip: 223 brass OAL is usually about 1.72", 5.56 NATO is 1.75-1.76". Longer neck to seat the heavier/longer bullets out farther because 5.56 loadings are hotter (for humans) than 223 loadings (for varmints) both in powder charge and bullet weight. Thats why its generally not recommended to put 5.56 ammo into a 223 chamber. If its a minimum size 223 chamber, that longer neck on the 5.56 may get crimped into the bullet by the chamber... and that, as you could imagine, would be a really fucking bad thing.

NATO headstamp:
the circled cross

One thing I do is for making precision ammo is find all the same brand and headstamp of brass.

I have a shit ton of nickel plated Speer 223 brass of different years that I have separated just for "precision". I dont separate by year headstamp because I've weighed all the different years I have and they are within 1-2 grains of each other.

 

[Lange Carabine]

I must respectfully disagree with your "pro tip" about the difference in and supposed purpose of neck length differences between .223 and 5.56.
.223 and 5.56 external case dimensions are identical, including neck length.
Chambers differ only in the throat area, 5.56 chambers have a longer leade than do .223 chambers.
Minimum headspace is identical for .223 and 5.56, so any variation in neck length is due to manufacturing tolerances(IMO any .223 case .030"-.040" under max OAL was made out of spec or has been excessively over trimmed) and has absolutely nothing to do with seating the bullet further out to alleviate pressures. Thats the whole purpose behind the longer leade in 5.56 chambers.

 

[AManWearingAHat]

I have a lot of NATO brass on hands. I use it for my semi-auto loading since I sometimes lose brass. My match prep procedure is to separate by head stamp years, and then decap and then weight sort within a year into batches of 50 or 100. From there, remove the crimp, trim (the weight sort usually makes them more or less a uniform length), and then VLD chamfer and deburr. It produces good results on paper for me.

 

[clcustom1911]

I must respectfully disagree with your "pro tip" about the difference in and supposed purpose of neck length differences between .223 and 5.56.
.223 and 5.56 external case dimensions are identical, including neck length.
Chambers differ only in the throat area, 5.56 chambers have a longer leade than do .223 chambers.
Minimum headspace is identical for .223 and 5.56, so any variation in neck length is due to manufacturing tolerances(IMO any .223 case .030"-.040" under max OAL was made out of spec or has been excessively over trimmed) and has absolutely nothing to do with seating the bullet further out to alleviate pressures. Thats the whole purpose behind the longer leade in 5.56 chambers.

It's all good. I know what the dimensions on the drawings say, and yes they are supposed to be the exact same. I said nothing about the headspace dimension. That is the same. I mean the length of the neck that grips the bullet.

I just measure what I find in real life between 223 (1.72-1.73") and 5.56 casings (1.75-1.76"), not just what the cartridge drawings say. Measure the OAL of 5.56 NATO brass and OAL of 223 brass and let us know what you find. 0.020-0.030" isn't manufacturing tolerances from piece to piece. That's insane.

 

[Doom]

There is a lot of confusion here. There are actually 3 556/223 chambers. The original M16 released in 1964 known as the 556 was the same chamber/55 gr FMJ as the 223 Remington. The 5.56 Nato was a cartridge developed in ~1980 by FN to address some of the faults of the M193 round but based on the original 556/223 remington. This lead to the M855 round with the 62 gr bullet with the steel penetrator. The bullet is long, >0.9” and would jam the bullet in the original chamber. Thus FN increased the freebore dimension. This also required that the twist be increased so 1 in 7 was adopted. This cartridge is what we know as the 556 Nato and was adopted by all NATO countries in the 1980s.

 

[Lange Carabine]

Measure the OAL of 5.56 NATO brass and OAL of 223 brass and let us know what you find. 0.020-0.030" isn't manufacturing tolerances from piece to piece. That's insane.

I have many times, and did again before posting this reply.
Regardless to whether its commercial 223 or 556 nato complete with the little cross in a circle mark, I find new, unfired cases to measure a very uniform 1.750"-1.753" oal.
I have never seen any new 223 cases as short as you claim.

 

[sinister]

If I find any cases with obvious off-center flash holes (typically Fiocchi) I shit-can them. They're already "Off," which won't help with accuracy with plain 55-grain blasting bullets.

I segregate between GI and commercial (i.e., Lake City, WCC, IMI, TAA, then others). GI goes into National Match competition ammo, good commercial (Winchester) becomes 600-yard ammo, and everything else becomes blaster ammo. I think I have 25 Lapua cases from who knows where.

 

[clcustom1911]

I have many times, and did again before posting this reply.
Regardless to whether its commercial 223 or 556 nato complete with the little cross in a circle mark, I find new, unfired cases to measure a very uniform 1.750"-1.753" oal.
I have never seen any new 223 cases as short as you claim.

Interesting. All the nickel plated Speer 223 headstamp brass I have (multiple gallon zip lock bags worth) are 1.73"

Meh. Still shoots guud

 

[Lange Carabine]

Interesting. All the nickel plated Speer 223 headstamp brass I have (multiple gallon zip lock bags worth) are 1.73"

Meh. Still shoots guud

Yep. That's what really counts.

 

[FLIGHT762]

That Speer nickel brass happens to be very weight consistent brass. They are also a bit short on the fired case length, 1.730"-1.740". These cases make very accurate ammo.

 

[clcustom1911]

That Speer nickel brass happens to be very weight consistent brass. They are also a bit short on the fired case length, 1.730"-1.740". These cases make very accurate ammo.

They are super consistent across different years. I have 2011-2017 headstamp and they are all within 5-ish grains of each other.

 

[FLIGHT762]

In my testing, I've found them to be within 2 grs. or so after complete processing. I'm lucky to have access to a L/E range where a large agency uses these for duty use.

 

[clcustom1911]

In my testing, I've found them to be within 2 grs. or so after complete processing. I'm lucky to have access to a L/E range where a large agency uses these for duty use.

Before I resigned from my agency, that's where I sourced zillions of pieces. So, I'm goooooood for a good long while.

 

[lightman]

After a couple years of collecting brass, I’m finally getting into the reloading game. I have been cleaning and depriming 223/556 brass and realize some cases aren’t quite as nice as others.

The most noticeable flaw I find is flash holes that are off-center.

Anyway, I’ll get to the point. I need some help sorting these so I can give the higher quality brass extra TLC and the junk brass will become plinking ammo.

What brands/ headstamps are considered premium and which are junk? Also, is there a reference list list somewhere that explains head stamps so I can identify brands better (ie. LC = Lake City?)

Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thx

I didn't see where anyone actually answered your question. You can google cartridge headstamps and find a few list of headstamps.