OK, so most of you know I buy up the .223 Rem brass from some police ranges, process it and sell it.
There has been a fairly strong preference among my customers for Winchester brass, followed by Winchester military (WCC), and IVI.
Federal is a favourite of a minority. Quite a few seem to avoid it like the plaque. I found this odd at first as when I first started shooting in the late 80's, Federal pistol brass was highly regarded.
I've been slowly accumulating federal, so I started processing a batch today. Normally, the Dillon 1050 doesn't require a lot of adjustment, but whenever I dump the catch box, I guage the last case in the Dillon headspace guage. Same thing when I first start up the press, I check the cases in the guage and for OAL after the trim station.
Up until now the only thing I've ever had to play with was the depth of the backing rob for the primer pocket swaging station, and only for one batch of IVI.
The last batch of brass off the press was IVI. They guaged perfect. Right between the go/nogo step in the guage, and 1.751 OAL before final tumble. The batch of Winchester before that was exactly the same.
Today I began a load of Federal. :shock: :shock: :shock:
Holy sheep dip, what a difference.
The OAL was reduced to 1.745, and the cases fell below the minimum step in the headspace guage. I freaked out, and grabbed the last box of IVI off the press to double check. Nope, they were perfect.
I checked out the shellplate. No problems, just as tight as ever.
My only conclusion is that there is far less "spring" in the brass used by Federal. Since it seems impossible for the press to have changed, there must be a difference in the brass.
There has been a fairly strong preference among my customers for Winchester brass, followed by Winchester military (WCC), and IVI.
Federal is a favourite of a minority. Quite a few seem to avoid it like the plaque. I found this odd at first as when I first started shooting in the late 80's, Federal pistol brass was highly regarded.
I've been slowly accumulating federal, so I started processing a batch today. Normally, the Dillon 1050 doesn't require a lot of adjustment, but whenever I dump the catch box, I guage the last case in the Dillon headspace guage. Same thing when I first start up the press, I check the cases in the guage and for OAL after the trim station.
Up until now the only thing I've ever had to play with was the depth of the backing rob for the primer pocket swaging station, and only for one batch of IVI.
The last batch of brass off the press was IVI. They guaged perfect. Right between the go/nogo step in the guage, and 1.751 OAL before final tumble. The batch of Winchester before that was exactly the same.
Today I began a load of Federal. :shock: :shock: :shock:
Holy sheep dip, what a difference.
The OAL was reduced to 1.745, and the cases fell below the minimum step in the headspace guage. I freaked out, and grabbed the last box of IVI off the press to double check. Nope, they were perfect.
I checked out the shellplate. No problems, just as tight as ever.
My only conclusion is that there is far less "spring" in the brass used by Federal. Since it seems impossible for the press to have changed, there must be a difference in the brass.
