I recently acquired about 700 free brass 5.56 cases. After research I seem to have a lot of military cases. Some of them are domestic cases like lake ciry and wcc. Most of them have ocj headstamps that I believe are china norinco 5.56 cases. Are these Chinese cases ok to reload? Im just getting into reloading .223 so im just wondering what im getting into. Do these Chinese cases have crimped primers like domestic cases? Im not sure if the work of removing the crimps is worth it. Any help is appreciated.

Never loaded the .223, but I have tried reloading 9mm and .45. In both cases, I found the primer pockets to be oversized after the first firing, an ended up throwing them all away.

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Pisgah

Never encountered the OCJ headstamp, but if it's boxer primed and otherwise in good condition, I would have no concern about reloading it simply because it was made in China.

After all, we routinely reload ammunition with cases made in Canada, Brazil, Philippines, Korea, Czech Republic, Russia, Turkey and Serbia, why not China?

Keep in mind, this is once-fired (maybe more) brass, so you know it held up to the pressure of being shot the first time.

Your Lake City brass is probably crimped, you'll need to learn to take it out if using real military once fired brass! There are several threads here on the subject!

By the way, pitch the ChiCom brass! Sell it a brass scrap. Every time I have used their "reloadable" brass, there is something that is out of spec, and it messes up my systematic progressive reloading! It was so bad in the 80's, they sold M-1 Carbine ammo with a LC 54 headstamp; that was Berdan primer that was mercury based and corrosive!

Ivan

Without a picture it is probably:

CJ brass, the o may be a year

It is Norinco brass

You will need to determine if it is crimped or not.

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Still Running Against the Wind

I also think it has a CJ headstamp. Some years ago I had several boxes of Norinco 5.56 ammo, which I shot up and then reloaded the cases. I don't remember having any problems with them, and I probably still have them in one of my empty brass cans. I had some Norinco 9mm ammo also, similarly, no reloading problems I can remember.

I don't reload however, their ammo was always good to go. Shoot good, accurate (not match), no issues.

Sent from my XT1650 using Tapatalk

It would seem appropriate to point out that not all brass is the same. The formulation of brass, how it is formed, case specs, ductility, annealing if any -- all of these can vary from manufacturer to manufacturer. It's one of the factors that always makes reloading pick-up brass at least a little iffy. What you should always do is closely inspect the brass in question -- and have some idea what you're looking for. In the case of Norinco brass I have encountered in the past, it looked good -- but after one firing the primer pockets were so loose you could seat primers with your thumb -- not a good thing.

Learn where and how to look for cracks and incipient case head separation; learn what dimensions to measure, and how; learn to recognize oversized primer pockets; learn what crimped primer pockets look like and how to iron out the crimp. Pick-up brass can certainly provide an economical alternative for the reloader, but not knowing what you are really dealing with can end up costing you more than new brass would have.

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Pisgah

Ok thanks guys. I got my lee die set in today. I run a couple of the cj head stamps through the sizing and deprime die. They do not appear to be crimped. There was a slight chamfer around the top of the primer pocket. I also deprimed a wolf gold 223 brass case and it was crimped. I thought only military brass was crimped. Which 223 can be bought without the crimp? I don't think I want to spend the time on removing crimps unless it comes down to not being able find ammo to buy.

It's not difficult to remove the crimp with either a swaging punch or a reamer. I use mainly the latter (a Lyman primer pocket reamer), it takes just a few seconds each to do. And it needs to be done only once. You can do it while watching TV.

I'll answer your question with a question: Do you know of anything from China that is worth a having?

CJ brass I've seen are always much heavier than commercial cases or LC brass which usually means less internal volume. I wouldn't load them close to maximum charges. Also like mentioned I found primer pockets extremely loose and scrapped many and if they weren't loose the first loading they were after I loaded them once. Also ran into a few cases that split the necks on my first firing. I really wouldn't waste my good components on the Chinese brass. Brass isn't that expensive but bullets, powder, and primer costs add up. Sell it at a recycler and buy better brass would be my advice.

Yes you are correct about the cj cases being heavy walled. I loaded 3 rounds up with 24 grains of h335 and 55gr fmjbt. They all went bang and cycled through my sport 2. The cases looked ok except for getting nicked up by the extractor when ejecting. They might not be good candidates for multiple reloads im not sure. They were free at least. Probably over half of them are domestic military brass that i can use if I remove the crimps. I normally shoot steel case tula and wolf but wanted to have these to reload if we got into another ammo shortage.

Broke a decapping pin on one of those. I think that was some kind of communist plot. . It worked.

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That's just somebody talkin.

Oh yes! Their SKSs and AKs and 1911 45s are now getting
the respect they deserve. Their 7.62x39 ammo was much
better than most of today's imported ammo. Their 124 gr
9mm FMJ ammo was better than most imported stuff and the
later version was equal to or better than most Nato 9mm
ammo. I have chronographed several different lots of 124 gr
FMJ from the early 90s that ran over 1200 fps out of my
BRN HP.