Fairly cheap .223

[Witchdoctor]

Hello all, looked at our list of Ammo prices and in the .223/.556 it seems to all be steel cased, which is fine for outdoors or ranges that allow it. Something I pick up now and then but haven't seen in a while is the Perfecta .223/55gr. at Wally World but been out for a while. But got some today, all brass, FMJ and range safe for $14.97 for a box of 50. Seems like for quite a while their ammo selection was hardly ever replenished but for about the past month or two the case has been fairly full ? Anyway just passing it along for those who may need the range safe stuff and it's not bad ammo.

[mogunner]

Gotta love reloading

[entropy]

I bought some Perfecta .223 for my Axis; it shot quite accurately, there are those who claim the brass isn't the best for reloading. I haven't reloaded it yet, so I can't accurately verify or refute that, but I will be reloading some this winter or spring.

[Witchdoctor]

I haven't started reloading yet but I intend to start with a basic kit and one or two sets of dies to get my hands wet. I am however that being said, very interested in trying to reload steel case surplus 762x54r...I want to come up with the best way to change out berdan primers to boxer, I know it can be done but want the most practical and safe way to do it.

[mogunner]

The flash holes on the Perfecta are off center which can tend to play hell with your decapping pin. I like the brass itself for plinking rounds, solved the problem by depriming with a lee universal depriming die set up in a cheap Lee C press. Raise the pin a bit in the resizing die so that the pin never hits the bottom of the case, the die only has to resize the brass instead of doing two processes. Another benefit is less possibility of a stuck case.

Most of your steel case is only good for one or two firings before it splits, sometimes it does it on the first time. Berdan primers are sometimes available from some of the online reloading suppliers. It's a pain to just use boxer primers in them but some have done it, however I can't attest to the safety of their methods. Some drill out the Berdan anvil, which I would thing would leave a huge flash hole. Some have glued in the boxer primers which are a tad bit smaller in circumference than the berdan, something that I wouldn't attempt myself.

I just bought Monarch brass loads from Academy, pretty much the cheapest brass cased you can find. It's PPU brass and if you don't go loading it up hot will last a long time. They have free shipping on orders over $25 too.

[Witchdoctor]

That's cool, reloading is new to me and am just gathering info, I saw a device on a video ol that looked like a primer remover of sorts, the guy placed it in his press and it pushed out the old berdan primer and cut the new boxer primer hole at the same time, looked kinda neat, thanks for the info on the longevity of the steel cases.

[Witchdoctor]

All this being said and new to it all, is the a starter kit type, brand that would be good to begin with and that is easy to get dies and such for same ?

[Junk Yard Dog]

Back in the 90's SARCO sold me this USAF surplus .22lr conversion kit for the AR. It was a piece of shit, wouldn't work unless I soaked it with oil, then it was fine except for the mess. I sold it for four times what I paid for it around ten years ago, but I bet someone is making one that actually works in a normal fashion. Probably expensive, but with the ammo savings shooting .22lr that could be recovered over time. Easy to use, you just swap it for the bolt assembly and the little magazines plug right into the basic AR mag, the spent cases eject right out the port and the T handle is still used to cock it. Cheapest way to shoot AR's, assuming that's what you are shooting that 5.56 in.

[Jbob]

I like the Lee loader and products for my small operation. Simple, very dependable and easy to use at good prices.
For most of my military loading I buy PPU ammo from Aim Surplus, use that and then save the casings. Like it's been said the casings are clean and work great for reloading.
I'd reload for a bolt or single shot rifle in the 223 cal but wouldn't waist my time if your using in a AR type rifle. I just buy bulk or good deal ammo for those.
http://www.aimsurplus.com/product.aspx? ... groupid=21

[entropy]

All this being said and new to it all, is the a starter kit type, brand that would be good to begin with and that is easy to get dies and such for same ?

You'll get as many different answers as posters on that subject!

I like RCBS, but it is expensive. My Dad gave me his RCBS Jr. 3 press, the one I learned to reload on about 15 years ago. He had decided not to reload anymore. That lasted about 2 years, then he bought a new RCBS set. Lee is your best value, however, and I have about half RCBS dies, and half Lee. Both work fine.

If you are only going to load a few calibers, RCBS' trim dies are a handy, albeit expensive, way to trim brass instead of pilot trimmers.

Lee's Factory Crimp Dies are more a gimmick than practical; if you roll or taper crimp correctly (depending on caliber) they are not needed.

[entropy]

I haven't started reloading yet but I intend to start with a basic kit and one or two sets of dies to get my hands wet. I am however that being said, very interested in trying to reload steel case surplus 762x54r...I want to come up with the best way to change out berdan primers to boxer, I know it can be done but want the most practical and safe way to do it.

If you do reload steel:

1. Only reload Boxer primed steel, or get the decapper and find Berdan primers. Do not attempt to "drill out" Berdan primed steel cases for Boxer primers. The anvil for Berdan primed cases is built into the case, and must be removed in order to use Boxer primers. Then there's the problem of the flash hole (s). Berdans have two, one on either side of the anvil. Boxers have one in the middle, sometime a little off center in Perfecta as has been noted.

2. Use a set of old dies you don't mind wrecking, because it is entirely possible, unless you....

3. Lube the hell out of the cases, and it could still stick anyway.


I reloaded some steel Wolf 9mm (boxer primed) with a Lee Loader kit as a feasibility study, and they routinely stuck in it. Fortunately, Lee Loaders are more open than press dies, and I could pound them out with a punch, but I wrecked more than a few cases, and it wasn't good for the die, either.

It would be much easier to get some Graf's, S&B, or Lapua 7.62x54R brass and reload that, which is exactly what I did when I decided to reload 7.62x54R (and 7.62x39) Just sayin'.....

[entropy]

Back in the 90's SARCO sold me this USAF surplus .22lr conversion kit for the AR. It was a piece of shit, wouldn't work unless I soaked it with oil, then it was fine except for the mess. I sold it for four times what I paid for it around ten years ago, but I bet someone is making one that actually works in a normal fashion. Probably expensive, but with the ammo savings shooting .22lr that could be recovered over time. Easy to use, you just swap it for the bolt assembly and the little magazines plug right into the basic AR mag, the spent cases eject right out the port and the T handle is still used to cock it. Cheapest way to shoot AR's, assuming that's what you are shooting that 5.56 in.

Ah, yes, the Atchisson Device. I first encountered them in the fall of 1981, when I was in ROTC. We shot M16A1's with Atchisson Devices in the basement range of the Armory at the the U of M. Your experience with them matches mine; they jammed constantly in semi-auto, (they actually worked better in full auto) they were messy as hell, sprayed blackened oil everywhere. They didn't sell well to the general civilian shooting public for the reasons I mentioned, particularly the jamming in semi. The full auto crowd liked them, and before dedicated uppers and guns like the S&W M&P 15-22 came out, used them often.

My Brother-in Law was in the Air Force, and that was the only way they shot their M16's, was with Atchisson devices; Basic Training and qualificattions.

[mogunner]

I learned on a Lee turret press and years later now see no reason to spend any more than what I did. It works, you can set up separate turrets for each caliber and just swap the whole thing out and be loading in seconds. I bought a Lee single press and set it up with the Lee Universal depriming die, that's all that one does.

The huge advantage of the Lee factory crimp die is that you crimp in a separate operation so no headache trying to get your bullet seated and crimp at the same time without over or under doing either of those operation. Seen tons of guys crush the neck of the case into the shoulder because their die crimped before the bullet was seated correctly. Just so much easier all around especially if you load different bullet weights.