Do I need to adapt my reloading? Loading for an AR.

Only thing I'd mention is if you get some military brass, you'll need to remove the primer pocket crimp. To do that, you will either have to swage it, or ream it. Personally, I ream it by putting a hornady reamer into my drill and going to town. Some guys will swear by swage, some will tell you to ream. Both will do the job. I'm going to leave that decision to you, and just say "do your research".
 
Being a AR smith & builder, I have a little different take on things,
But mostly I agree with the basics listed above.

You CAN tune the gas system to work with about any round you come up with.
Pulse strength (pressure) and duration (time) are just two components,
There is a lot you can do with the mechanical parts to get your AR cycling fine with about any load you can come up with...

The draw back is the rifle might not want to fire 'Standard' rounds after you modify for a higher or lower powered round.
Guys that set up for an ultra quiet suppressed that is really spongy is a prime example.
Another example is very short 'Pistol' barrels.
A third would be ultra high pressure long range rounds.

You are better off in the long run getting an AR loaders manual that gives you loads that function in the 'Average' AR and work your loads from there.

You can work the ejector/extractor to throw your brass about anywhere you want them.
Figure out a good load, something you are happy with, and when you decide this is going to be your 'Standard' load, figure out where you want your brass to land...

My varmint/table guns drop the brass on the bench next to me, a rug keeps them from rolling off.
Field or 'Fox Hole' guns throw the brass forward to keep hot brass off the guy next to you.
At the range, throwing brass forward keeps idiots from walking on your brass,
But you have to wait until the range is cold to pick it up.

Plinking guns I normally tune to throw the brass backwards.
Plinkers usually have spectators, and hot brass keeps the idiots from flanking the shooter on his blind side.

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Application, Application, Application....

Are you loading for general shooting?
Are you loading for plinking?
Are you loading for hyper accuracy/shooting off a bench or rest?
Are you loading for long range?
Are you loading for an AR with 20" or longer barrel,
Or loading for a carbine (CAR)?
Is this a 'Tight' high quality rifle or a 'Clone' that might have loose tolerances?
Is it a Stoner design with direct gas impengment, or a gas piston/op rod version?

About the hard primer comment,
There is no way a PROPERLY made bolt/firing pin will allow the firing pin to strike the primer until the bolt is fully locked.
I've fired thousands of super soft bench rest primers through my ARs without one single slam fire.
It just can't happen unless the bolt tail is undersized or the firing pin is too long.
A simple firing pin Go/NoGo gauge will tell you very quickly if that is the case.

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I do a full length resize, THEN do the case gauge.
You can't tell a thing from a case gauge when you are sticking a bloated case in it.
Keep in mind that just thick case lube will give you a 'Long' gauge reading,
So a bloated case will really screw with indications.

If the case doesn't drop in the gauge on its own, you aren't reading the shoulder seat, and the head space indication will be wrong.
You want to read from the shoulder seat in the case gauge,
Not friction from the sides of the case.

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If you use Military brass, or FORIGN made brass,
Watch the primer pocket depth.
You will quickly find FORIGN made brass, and sometimes US made Mill brass has shallow primer pockets.
And sometimes under/over size primer pockets.
It's their rules, they get to make them any way they want to,
And they don't have any rules.
American made SAAMI specification brass is usually pretty uniform.

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I used to bench shoot, so I was anal retentitive about trimming to length.

With an AR that indexes/head spaces off the shoulder I've found it's not all that important to have a 'Perfect' length brass in an AR.

I usually check length when I run them through the case gauge,
When the brass has gone through two cycles,
Trim to minimum length, and rarely have to trim again.
The neck usually cracks before the case reaches maximum length again.

With a reasonable pressure load, and a light to medium crimp, I get between 5 to 8 loadings before the rim gets gouged up or the neck cracks.

Annealing the neck is a can of worms I don't get into with brass as common as .223, if it cracks, big deal, I toss it.
 
I found that an M8 metric ny-lok nut fits a .223 case perfectly, clears and sits on the datum about 2/3s of the way down. It even has a bevelled inner edge that sites nicely on the datum wall.

I measured 20 cases as recommended by Metal God and found 5 of them to have the same length to the datum. Used that as my shoulder set-back reference.

Took one of the "common length" cases above and I measured before, sized the case with the FL die set-up as Lee suggests: 0.1mm (0.004"). Another case I measured from that group and wound the die out a tiny fraction of a turn and got 0.762mm (I like that number for some reason!! ;) It also equated to 0.003").

Lock-ed up the die on a breech-lock adaptor and good to go. Shouldn't have to touch it again unless I clean it.

FL my first 50 last night before bed. A few more, then check the inner wall, case length, deburr and prime. Perhaps then I can think about charge weights and OAL!

Whoever said case prep takes a long time was right!!
 
I measured 20 cases as recommended by Metal God and found 5 of them to have the same length to the datum. Used that as my shoulder set-back reference.
Click to expand...

I'm a bit surprised and a bit concerned you only found 5 out of twenty that had the same datum length . I don't have my notes in front of me but I recall getting at least 10 maybe more that were the same length or with in .0005 .

What were some of the other common measurements ? If you were having + or - more then a thousandth . Meaning more then .002 difference from case to case . I'd start with the shorter cases first as a reference point

Also , I'd not prime a few and seat a bullet in them ( no powder no primer ) load in a mag and manually cycle them through the rifle to be sure the bolt will fully close on the round .

EDIT :

I went and checked my notes and measured 20 more cases . Now This actually came up with some interesting results .

My notes say I have an average datum to head measurement of 1.461 . This average was taken from once fired ( from my rifle ) Federal AE 5.56 with a head stamp of LC-13 . My notes say size cases to 1.4580 and no longer then 1.4590

I just measured 20 on those cases that now have been reloaded once and fired a total of two times .

Measurements as follows .
1.4585 x 5
1.4580 x 5
1.4600 x 4
1.4610 x 4
1.4590 x 1
1.4570 x 1

Now that to me is an interesting result and I'm not clear as to why I have 10 cases that for the most part still measuring the length I sized them to . The first thing that comes to mind is the reloads are a much weaker load then the factory NATO loads I first did the measurements from . I have shot the factory rounds through a chrono and they were around 3100fps . My reloads are around 2750fps . Maybe that pressure difference is not working the brass as much and intern not stretching the cases out as much .

I plan to do more test because I just had a thought . It is possible that some of the cases I just measured were from load development . Meaning some may have been charged with a minimum load and that's why they don't appear to be fully fire formed . I'm not sure because once the cases are fired they get thrown in to a bag that has all the same head stamp and have been fired same amount of times . Next time I'll separate the brass a little better with this test in mind .
 
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What were some of the other common measurements ?
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My measurements (in mm) were as follows:

37.56 x 1
37.59 x 3
37.60 x 2
37.61 x 2
37.62 x 5
37.63 x 1
37.64 x 2
37.65 x 1
37.66 x 2
37.70 x 1

They were all "Top Shot Competition" manufacturered by S&B to .223 Rem specs, not NATO.
 
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So I see you had a .005 swing and I had a .004 swing . Not to bad i guess . I did how ever just measure 20 once fired NATO rounds and they were in fact more consistent . 1.460 to 1.462 only 2 were 1.462 so the other 18 were with in .001 from one another . Now not conclusive , it would appear the higher pressure NATO round will give you a more consistent sample . It also gives me some relief that I am in fact bumping my shoulders back a safe amount .

Based on your numbers , you are using the 37.62mm measurement as a base . Looking at all the numbers . I'd likely use that number as well . Not sure that means anything :)
 
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Not sure that means anything
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Means I'm in good company!!

Thanks for all the tips: working for me so far! :cool:

Admittedly, my bullets have not arrived yet, but I still have plenty to keep me busy. First I'll prep 200 or so cases and see where to go from there. I think I'll try N135 first. It is a bit faster burning and as I have a carbine, I guess that is probably a better choice.

If that doesn't work, one place sells Hodgdon's and I think there is a powder called 335 or something that I remember seeing posted as a .223 option.

The N140 I'll save for the .308 bolt.
 
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