Crimping 223?

[Beaver]

My new years resolution/ordeal is to finish reloading a very large metal bucket of .223 brass. Close to 3000. Most are military so I'm full length resizing, trimming, canfer/deburring, re-swaging primer pocket, tumbling, and priming. I'm in cohorts with my gun guru Stoney, who has his Dillon 450 set up and he is cranking them out. I've been using Nosler 55g BT's as that is all I could get for now. I'm using 24-25g of Benchmark, and CCI small rifle primers. I'm seating the bullet to fit into Mini-14 magazines. I want to switch to Rem 55g corelokt's from Midway. (I think they're corelokts). My question is: Should I crimp the bullets when they will knowingly go into an auto or just leave them be? Thanks in advance for your excellent answer. beaver

 

[Culina]

the way I play the game is: if the bullet has a cannelure I crimp, if it doesn't I do not.

 

[john traveler]

Kurac has it right.

Crimp into the cannelure if it has one.

Military rifle ammunition is crimped AND mouth sealed with asphaultum for two big reasons: weatherproofing and to prevent bullet movement from feeding impacts and recoil. Preventing bullet movement is a big step in making sure your ammunition is as reliable as it can be. If the bullet is pushed back into the case during feeding impacts, chamber pressures can go sky high, or allow a round to chamber with a bore obstruction. Either can be disatrous.

The common test for bullet security is to press the tip of the loaded round HARD against a bench or wood surface. If it moves, the bullet is not tight enough.

 

[Snowbandit]

I believe that all .223's used in an auto should be crimped. If the bullet you want to use doesn't have a cannelure you need to put one in before seating. Corbin makes a tool for cutting cannelures and probably others as well.

 

[WILDCATT]

crimp

Lees factory crimp will crimp any bullet.groove or not.I use it for rifle.

 

[hddeluxe]

I would definately crimp for a semiauto. As stated above, you don't want the bullet seating deeper in the case.

 

[sourdough44]

I load for my 223 ARs & do have a Lee FCD for the 223. I check bullet tension & have not been able to move the bullet trying to push it in, hard. For that reason I have not used the fcd yet & have never had a problem with bullets moving. I spend more time making sure they are properly resized to cycle in a semi-auto. My shooting has included 100's of rounds in a SD dogtown with AR's. It sounds like you have a handle on potential problems to watch out for.

One more thing; I have loaded some bullet/case combinations that need a crimp & other combos that don't. The strongest example is some 150 grn FMJ military 30cal bullets I was loading into 300WSM case. They were very loose. These same bullets snugged up just fine with no crimp needed in mil 30-06 cases, & even O.K. in commercial 30-06 cases. So it isn't always a yes or no answer, it may depend.

 

[Smithhound]

Measure the bullet diameter of your bullets, should be .223 (duh) then measure the expander ball of the die set you are using, optimally it should be .221, if not chuck it in a drill press and take some 220 grit sand paper and slowly/carefully take it down to .221, that should ensure proper case tension when bullets are seated. As SourDough stated, and I agree, all cartridges fired in a semi-auto should be crimped, if nothing else just slightly to remove any 'burr' on the outside of the mouth left by trimming that chamferring didn't catch.
I bought a taper crimp die and found it to be a fast piece of insurance against a round getting 'slammed' deeper. I've had it happen before but caught it as the round jammed.
Trim all cases to a uniform length, load as normal then adjust the taper crimp die to just 'bump' the case mouth a tad. It takes very little time even with several hundred rounds and to me just takes that much worry out of the equation.
Remember, it is your chin laying on the rear of the reciever when the gun goes off, how fond of it are you?
Some may think this advice to be overkill, but for the minimal time taken vs. the headache I feel it is worth it.
RD

 

[Jellybean]

...should be .223 (duh)

The .223 uses .224 bullets, just like the .222 and .222 magnum. Older .22 Hornets used .223 bullets and they are still available so make sure you buy the right ones.

 

[steve hammer]

This is a bit of drift, however it is about cannelures and .223. I purchased two different 55. gr. FMJ bullets last year and one had a significantly wider cannelure ;than the other like 50% perhaps. At first I didn't know why, but one thing I discovered was that I needn't be too concerned with trim to lengths as I could just stuff the ends of the brass down into the cannelure and they fed fine (using a Lee factory crimp die). Is this why some companies have wide cannelures? Is this totally safe? I discover a little gem of knowledge or just get way with poor practices?

 

[GSS]

I'm late to this party (thread), but will add that shooting several thousands of rounds in NRA Highpower competition, none/nada of mine ever saw a crimp, nor did any other competitor when loads were discussed. These were all thru AR-15's.
Maybe just lucky that there was never an issue, but crimping can add a variable to load performance, which I decided to avoid.
So as usual with reloading, more than one answer (opinion)...

 

[kennyb]

the way I play the game is: if the bullet has a cannelure I crimp, if it doesn't I do not.

+1...use the cannelure

 

[Cyrano]

I shoot mainly Sierra match bullets and have never crimped them. Don't have any troubles, either.

 

[8emem]

I discussed this subject with a couple of regional/national competitors from my gun club. They compete in the AR-15/.223 events and replace their match-grade barrels every 3000 rounds. They use a 2-die process. Full-length resizing and seating, that's it. They rely on case neck tension to retain the bullet seating depth and if that's not getting the job done, then something is wrong with the resizing. Absolutely no crimping is necessary or should be done according to them. They swear by Reloader 15 as the powder of choice.

 

[Skip Sackett]

This is what I do as well.

Lees factory crimp will crimp any bullet.groove or not.I use it for rifle.

Yep, this is what I do.