Are Federal "FC .223 Rem" Cases that bad?

[greg11]

I find I have a lot of them. The primers go in great and I haven't noticed any of them to be loose. Yet I searched google and cam up with this site that seems to bash them:
http://www.sksboards.com/smf/index.php?topic=34912.0;wap2

Are they that bad? Seems about 90% of the brass I have (range brass) has this head stamp. I'm just using them for plinking purposes, not accurizing. I find most of the rounds I've made with this brass are good for 50 yard plinking (with my Blue Dot loads). At 100 they seem to open up. Although I'm still experimenting with seating depth and charges for the blue dot.

Since we're on the topic, any brass recommendations for when my H335 shows up? I've heard Lake City brass is one of the better one's out there due to it being thicker than commercial. Anyone like them? I've also heard good things about winchester for accurizing.

Funny though, as I search google for brass recommendation, some people love one brand or another and some say it is utter garbage. For instance some swear by Winchester but some HATE it.

 

[Grizzlypeg]

I haven't experienced any problems with them yet. I am getting decent MOA accuracy with them from my AR-15 w. 69gr SMK and varget powder. I do have a batch with formerly crimped primers that I will be testing soon for accuracy. If I can't get 10 straight into a good group I won't be happy.

 

[old enfields]

Most of mine is Federal FC brass. No problems at all. You do have to swage or ream the primer pockets.

 

[Claybuster]

I've loaded a great deal of older Federal FC brass and it works fine. I have loaded some recently produced Federals that require swaging the primer pockets and can't tell a difference between the two.

 

[sunray]

Federal brass is well known for being soft. That doesn't mean it's bad. Just that it won't last as long as other brands.
"...range brass..." Quit doing that. You have no idea what has been done to it, how many times it has been loaded or anything else about it.
Lake City is U.S. milsurp. Not terribly easy to find in Canada.

 

[INTIMIDATOR]

I started using the Federal brass but found out after a few loadings it was not long enough anymore, I had to keep shortening my 'trim to' length due to a couple of short cases. There were no accuracy problems that I found. The only thing is the primer pockets. Make sure you chamfer them really good, I had a few primers get wedged in crooked. Currently I use Winchester brass.

 

[Canuck223]

My suggestion is if you are going to use them, wait until you have enough to last. Size them with a headspace guage handy. DO NOT simply run them through dies adjusted with other cases. Federal tends to be quite soft, and doesn't spring back at the same rate as other brass.

 

[thump_rrr]

Federal brass is well known for being soft. That doesn't mean it's bad. Just that it won't last as long as other brands.
"...range brass..." Quit doing that. You have no idea what has been done to it, how many times it has been loaded or anything else about it.
Lake City is U.S. milsurp. Not terribly easy to find in Canada.

There is nothing wrong with picking up range brass.
More specifically brass that still has a crimped primer pocket since it is truely once fired.
On most commercial ranges in Canada we don't have to worry about the brass having been run through a machine gun so case head separation isn't an issue.

I check all my .223 brass with a case gauge to verify that they're within SAMMI specifications.

 

[joe-nwt]

Federal brass is well known for being soft. That doesn't mean it's bad. Just that it won't last as long as other brands.
"...range brass..." Quit doing that. You have no idea what has been done to it, how many times it has been loaded or anything else about it.
Lake City is U.S. milsurp. Not terribly easy to find in Canada.

I have picked up more LC brass at our range than any other the last few years. There is literally piles of it.

 

[junkdude]

Almost all of my 223 brass is once fired range brass, recovered within a few days of the TAC team having left it. About an equal mix of Federal, PMC and Lakecity (LC). All seems to work fine and never any problem with any of it, it all gets full length sized, trimmed and flash hole uniformed. It's accurate enough for plinking or shooting gophers.

I do use a RCBS pocket swager on all the ones that have the pocket crimp, simply chamfering the pocket mouth didn't work for me as the pocket was still too tight in some cases. I've also found that almost all the LC brass needed the pocket uniformed, as they were not deep enough to fully seat the primers; so the LC brass automatically gets the pockets uniformed too.

I purchased a couple bags of winchester brass (other calibers too) and was generally dissapointed with their quality control. Either short changed with the number of brass in the bag, or some are flawed and can't be used. Reminginton seems to have better quality control, and often I get a couple extras in the bag.... but range brass is my preference as it's cheap.