Case not big enough for load?

P

Prof Young

New member
With so much of not doing anything else I've loaded just about everything I can load. Then happily realized I have some cleaned, sized and deprimed 223 brass, some 55 FMJ 223 bullets and a half pound or so of Reloader 15.

The table that came with my lee dies say 25 grains of RL15 as a starting load. I get all set up, do my first charge and . . . the case isn't big enough to hold the charge. I figured I screwed up. Checked it all again, re-read the load data, charged the case again and . . . yeah it doesn't all fit in the brass.

Talk to me please!

Life is good.

Prof Young
 
Prof Young said:
With so much of not doing anything else I've loaded just about everything I can load. Then happily realized I have some cleaned, sized and deprimed 223 brass, some 55 FMJ 223 bullets and a half pound or so of Reloader 15.



The table that came with my lee dies say 25 grains of RL15 as a starting load. I get all set up, do my first charge and . . . the case isn't big enough to hold the charge. I figured I screwed up. Checked it all again, re-read the load data, charged the case again and . . . yeah it doesn't all fit in the brass.



Talk to me please!



Life is good.



Prof Young
Click to expand...

I've never loaded with it, but something doesn't sound right. It's a slow powder for lighter bullets like the 55gr, but a number of references mention 25 gr as a starting load with 55gr bullets. Are you sure your scale is calibrated?

No one on several forums mentioned compressed loads with it. Are you absolutely sure that's Reloder 15 in the can?

Sent from my moto z4 using Tapatalk
 
Hmmm.

Quickload thinks a typical .223 case with about 30.2 grains case water overflow capacity, this should be about 96.5% loading density when a bullet is seated 0.2" into the case neck.

What is the headstamp on your brass? If it says 222 instead of 223, that would explain the problem. Otherwise, take a case and plug the primer pocket and weigh how much water it will hold level to the mouth (no meniscus).

Old School is correct about the speed. The lightest bullet Alliant shows RL 15 with is 62 grains. It will run the 55's, but the ballistic efficiency will be poor and a lot of the powder will exit the muzzle unburned.
 
I don't seem to have any load data in my books for Rel 15 in the .223 with that weight bullet. Do you have another source other than Lee data? I can't find it anywhere else.
 
I've used 25.0gr and higher loadings of RL15 for 55gr pills in .223 with great results. It compresses at about 26.5gr. I don't understand why you can't stuff 25.0gr in the case Prof Young? The other posters have good things to investigate.
 
I had the same issue back in Feb '20. My notes in my Lyman 49th manual indicate I was trying to load some 62gr hp's using the 63gr data. Lyman 49th states 24.7gr of RX15 as the starting load, with a max of 27.5gr. I don't load to max loads so the 24.7gr filled the 223 case (either PMC/Winc/Fed/LC-don't remember) up pretty good. I weighed out 27.5g for giggles and there was NO WAY it would fit. 25.0gr of RX15 pretty much filled the case up per my notes.

Lyman 49th states 23.8g as a start and 26.5g of RX15 as max for the 60gr vmax, so I stopped using the Lyman data for this round of load development.
 
Thanks!

Thanks for all the info and queries.

Yes, I'm sure they are 223.

I'm sure it's reload 15.

I'm sure it was 25gn or maybe a touch more.

Guess I'll calibrate the electronic scale just to make sure then compare with the balance scale.

This brass is all stuff I've had to trim, but I think it'd be hard to over trim the. Will check anyway.

RL15 is a bulky kind of pellet powder, but I wouldn't think it would make that much difference.

Life is good.
Prof Young
 
I looked at Alliant's latest data.
The lightest bullet they list for RL15 is a 62gr Speer.
And the MAX charge weight is 25.0gr.

Personally, for a 55gr bullet, i'd try a faster burning powder.
Win 748, Varmint have worked well for me.
 
What brass are you using . There are some brands that have considerably less volume available . CBC is one of them . I was loading some 223 rounds one time with IMR 4320 ( similar in size to RL-15 ) and mixed brass . Every time a CBC case came along my charge filled to the top of the mouth while all other cases only filled to the mid or top of the shoulder . I went ahead and seated the bullets anyways and shot those just to test . I don’t remember the exact numbers but believe I got 100 fps more out of the CBC cases .

EDIT
I just put 25gr of RL-15 into a FL sized LC-15 case and it barely filled to mid shoulder . I'd check the scale and brass for the issue .
 
Last edited:
I forgot about the CBC. I've never had any, but had heard they made some very low capacity ones at some point (and maybe still).

Prof Young,

Look at this page. Scroll down until the scroll bar is about 1/3 of the way down the article and you will see a table of case weight vs. water overflow capacity in grains of water. You'll get some idea what is normal. Measure the water capacity of your case to see how it compares.
 
Unclenick said:
I forgot about the CBC. I've never had any, but had heard they made some very low capacity ones at some point (and maybe still).

Prof Young,

Look at this page. Scroll down until the scroll bar is about 1/3 of the way down the article and you will see a table of case weight vs. water overflow capacity in grains of water. You'll get some idea what is normal. Measure the water capacity of your case to see how it compares.
Click to expand...
Good article, Unclenick! Thanks for posting.

Sent from my moto z4 using Tapatalk
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top