Federal .223 Headstamps - Need Help!

[RangerPark]

It doesn't look like brass bombers ships to Canada. Otherwise, I'd buy 1000 LC cases from them.

As for photos, not all sites allow third party hosting. I could never see the photos you posted in this thread.

 

[bigedp51]

It doesn't look like brass bombers ships to Canada. Otherwise, I'd buy 1000 LC cases from them.

As for photos, not all sites allow third party hosting. I could never see the photos you posted in this thread.

Its my understanding that military 5.56 cases are made to the same standards. So your Canadian military 5.56 cases should be made to the same higher standards since we both use the same basic AR15 type rifles. The higher standards for 5.56 cases came about after the 1968 Congressional hearing on the M16 rifle jamming problem.

Photos were from the link below, lets hope the link isn't deleted. It would help if forums all used the same standards on images. And if you Google .223/5.56 headstamps and look under Google images you will find many more photos.

55gr 5.56 NATO and .223 Remington Ammunition Comparison
https://www.ocabj.net/55gr-5-56-nato-and-223-remington-ammunition-comparison/

 

[RangerPark]

55gr 5.56 NATO and .223 Remington Ammunition Comparison
https://www.ocabj.net/55gr-5-56-nato-and-223-remington-ammunition-comparison/

Thank you very much for that link. It appears I have a mix of mostly American Eagle and Independence brass. Nothing MilSpec here. Oh well.

 

[bigedp51]

Thank you very much for that link. It appears I have a mix of mostly American Eagle and Independence brass. Nothing MilSpec here. Oh well.

Check your cases with the two inch rod, "YOUR" Federal cases may be fine. Some say that Federal has improved their quality, my problem cases were from around 2005 area.

You could also buy the primer pocket gauge below to check primer pocket diameter.

Swage Gage ® Small Primer Pocket Gauge
https://ballistictools.com/store/swage-gage-small-primer-pocket

I went a step further and bought several pin gauges and use a pin gauge .0005 smaller than the primers diameter I'm using.

You may think is over kill but I bought a bad brick of primers once that ruptured and etched the bolt face of a brand new rifle. I was lucky, they were Remington primers and a Remington 700 rifle and Remington replaced the bolt and replace the brick of primers for free.

 

[Reeferman]

I'm very happy with mine, got it from Budget Shooter Supply. It's very easy to adjust. I set mine up in a spare press so I could decap and full length resize on one press and swage on the other. The trick is to swage only as little as is required to properly seat a primer. This will usually mean you won't get a perfect radius every time. You can over do it and end up wilt loose primer pockets. If you under swage and end up with some overly tight primer pockets it's easy to touch them up afterwards.

Sounds good that is probably the way I'm going to go.

 

[Scott_N]

The dimples or circles are on all ATK/Federal cases, below is a Lake City case with the dimples. It is my understanding the dimples/circles represent which machine the cases were made on when inspecting the cases. Meaning what machine to check if the cases are out of specification.

Below Federal “American Eagle” XM193 55gr 5.56 NATO and the Lake City military cases have the same type dimples/circles.

Below Federal dimples/circles from American Eagle .223

Thanks for the info!

 

[bigedp51]

Thanks for the info!

Google is your best friend for finding information, and the information is not limited to one forum.

I "borrowed" the photos from another site to show the difference in the type dimples and they were deleted.

The basic difference is military 5.56 cases are made of "harder" brass and not made thicker like 7.62 NATO cases.

The 5.56 cases can not be made thicker and have enough case capacity. And the Lake City 5.56 cases have the most case capacity vs .223 cases.

So again its the thinner flash hole web that causes Federal primer pockets to stretch out of shape sooner. And I read that the newer Federal cases are not as bad as they were in the past.

But it was simpler for me to buy bulk once fired Lake City cases and have a better grade case for much less. And the only better .223 case would be Lapua that rates 2nd in the brass hardness scale.