ar brass

sandy hicks

sandy hicks

New member
Do ya'll size your ar brass for minimum headspace like a bolt gun or just full length size it. How often do you anneal it or do you just load it and let it ride. It will not be loaded hot. I plan to find a load that will avg .75. And then load up a bunch of it for coyotes, hogs and whatever.
 
Originally Posted By: sandy hicksDo ya'll size your ar brass for minimum headspace like a bolt gun or just full length size it. How often do you anneal it or do you just load it and let it ride. It will not be loaded hot. I plan to find a load that will avg .75. And then load up a bunch of it for coyotes, hogs and whatever.

It is always best to FL size the AR brass. NS only can be problematic in feeding, extraction and potential out of battery issues.

I routinely run 100-200 cases in rotation so I don't anneal those. If I were running some that I shot in smaller quantities like my 20-250 and only have 50 cases I would be annealing about every third or fourth firing.. That way the barrel will be gone after about two annealings or the primer pockets.

On an observational note I have some 6X6.8 OLD SSA brass that has over a dozen firings on it and still going strong. That stuff is like Gold.

Greg
 
I full length resize (Redding dies with carbide sizer button) by running a pile of them through the die lubing the with a small amount of Imperial Sizing Lube. I prime them on the downstroke of my Redding T7. Then Trim them in a Worlds Finest Trimmer. They are ready to load. I keep track of # of times a lot has been fired and get many (at least 10 times)reloads from them. When you run them through the trimmer any thin/split case necks will show up. Regards
 
i FL size all my ar brass, or any brass that MAY be used in an AR platform firearm.

i do have an annealer now, have annealed all my bottle neck brass i had on hand and plan to do so on at regular intervals for the foreseeable future.
 
I FL all my AR stuff. Never annealed. Have noticed in some brass that primer pockets go about the same time necks start to crack in my 5.56/223. Some of that brass has been fired a whole lot of times, but it is more of an accuracy load and not 'hot' at all.
 
I read Sandy's question to ask who sets their fl size die to only resize enough to easily chamber/extract. I do, as it minimizes case stretch and makes the brass last way longer. Especially important with more expensive brass like 204 and Grendel brass. I strive for 3 or 4 thousandths shoulder set-back. For years I did the trial and error method by chambering a piece of brass, setting the die down more, chambering, etc until it just chambered and extracted easily. This whole process became way easier with the Hornady case gauge set. Empty pistol brass will work for this gauge also but the Hornady set is much nicer. This is for ammo used for normal hunting and target shooting/plinking.

Now if I was loading defensive or "shtf" ammo I'm in a different mode entirely. I would want it sized to minimum.
 
just regular for 99% of what i do.


i do have a set of SB dies for both LC 7.62 and LC 5.56 but that's just in case i get a batch of MG fired stuff that really needs a good going over. One of my LR 308 chambers is right on the bottom side of saami minimum spec, so that upper needs some extra love when i initially size brass for it - fired brass from that barrel will pass a .308 Sheridan gauge if that tells you anything.
 
Thanks again. Will order some redding dies and a selection of 60 to 70 grain bullets and then wait on the rifle to arrive. Glass and mounts are here and a fair selection of powder and bullets already on hand.
 
I use my Lee neck sizer on my 223 brass that I shoot out of my AR,S and have NO trouble with it. I have a 223 Gage that I check my brass and my reloads by neck sizing my brass last a long time. I never load a hot load in my 223 so my brass last longer.
 
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