223 case length

[coolhand]

I am just starting to reload 223 and some of my resized case are 10 to 11 thou shorter then the trim to length can I still use these cases or should I toss them. They are federal lake city.

 

[Suputin]

They are fine. Too short is fine. Too long is the problem.

 

[bigedp51]

The only thing that can happen is a carbon ring will build up in front of the short cases. And if you do not keep the neck of the chamber clean the longer cases may chamber hard.

Just like shooting .38 Specials in a .357 Magnum and then the .357 cases become hard to load because of the carbon ring.

 

[cr5]

Shoot em, they'll stretch

 

[BlackSheepBrass]

Sounds like you are using Federal brass. I have seen it as short as 1.732". It is a little disconcerting when running the trimmer and seeing pieces not being trimmed. I usually have a minor freak out until I check the head stamp. When I am trimming in bulk I use the following: I usually try to aim for around 1.748" to ensure once second order deviations come in I don't end up anything outside 1.743" - 1.753"; as my first order deviation is +/- .0015 to .0002.

 

[todbartell]

Choot em

 

[GunsNotPuns]

I am just starting to reload 223 and some of my resized case are 10 to 11 thou shorter then the trim to length can I still use these cases or should I toss them. They are federal lake city.

I usually trim to shorter then that

Like someone said, too short isn't the problem, too long is.

 

[hometownhero]

Shoot em. With my 6x45 when I necked up some brass it was all in the 1.730" range. Some were even less then that.

 

[Ron AKA]

I am just starting to reload 223 and some of my resized case are 10 to 11 thou shorter then the trim to length can I still use these cases or should I toss them. They are federal lake city.

Standard SAAMI length is 1.760", but the tolerance allowance is to let them be as much as 0.030" shorter than that.

 

[coolhand]

Thanks for the info

 

[scra]

No worries....fire away!