PMC 223 brass for reloading?

Chilly807

Chilly807

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Who's used PMC once fired .223 brass for precision reloading? I've picked up quite a bit of it and now find myself starting to load for .223
I plan to sort it into 2 or 3 groups by weight. Most of the cases I've weighed so far (only 20-30) have fallen within a 3 grain variance.
I'll probably eventually move to Lapua brass, but I'm hoping the PMC will work well enough to take the urgency out of acquiring Lapua.
Most of what I have is in good shape, with minor nicks and dents from being ejected.
I also have a hundred or so Lake City that'll eventually get used. The PMC is easier to use initially since I don't have to ream primer pockets.
 
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You can use just about any brand of brass and get excellent results. Its all about weight sorting.

The more brass you have, the finer you can sort it into groups by weight.

If all you have is 100, then your box of 100 will reflect the full range of weight variance.

If you have 300 rounds and sort into lots, then each box will reflect 1/3 of the total weight variance.

If you have 2000 cases and sort into lots by weight, then each box of 100 will reflect 1/20th of the total weight variation.

Once you get your head around this, you will find there is no reason to buy Lapua.

If you can find a few thousand rounds of Lake City you are golden... Lake City is great stuff if you sort it as described here. Then anneal.
 
I loaded a bunch of it as my bulk 55grain reload, including whatever range brass I picked up. As I recall its weight is somewhere in the middle of the range for 223 brass, remington being the lightest, IVI being the heaviest.
 
It's a Tikka T3x Varmint, slowly making its way to me from the vendor.

I've loaded for 6.5 CM, 243 Win, and a few others. I regularly shoot out to 800m, both in practice and competition. My intent is to use the 223 as far as 600m, if the day calls for longer ranges than that another rifle will get used.

I'm not new to loading for accuracy, but this is the smallest capacity case I've ever had to work with.
My understanding is that the smaller volume makes it more sensitive than a larger case, but we'll see.

My initial question was more about durability than consistency, I'm hoping the dents from being ejected from an autoloader will get ironed out in the first few firings in the bolt rifle without splitting them. Close to 55,000 psi should do that.

I'm used to using Lapua brass in the 6.5 and 243, not having to weight sort brass, deburr flash holes, etc has been nice.

The PMC brass isn't like that, unfortunately. It was free, however, so I won't complain too much.

Even Lapua brass can be weight sorted, of course. My shooting ability doesn't warrant that degree of obsession though.

The Lake City that I have is somewhat better from a weight variance perspective, maybe 2/3 of what the PMC is. I'm getting it cleaned up, de-primed, pockets reamed, and annealed so it's ready to be sized to the new rifle's chamber.
If I had more of it I'd probably use it in place of the PMC, as it is it's a fall-back option.
 
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