Comments on: How Hard is Your Brass? 5.56 and .223 Rem Base Hardness Tests

By: Andrew065

Andrew065 — Sun, 15 Jan 2023 00:09:05 +0000

Del;

Annealed 70/30 cartridge brass has a plastic yield strength of about 11K psi, fully work hardened it has a yield of around 65k psi. Which would you prefer holding back that chamber pressure? Remember, the last .2 inches of case in the AR 223/556 is not supported by steel- so the case head/web is what keeps things together.

Annealed necks release the bullet uniformly at around 11k psi, and are soft enough to expand at those pressures to seal the neck end of the chamber, keeping everything moving towards the muzzle. Hard case heads also help keep the prier pocket tighter longer. One of the shortcomings of federal 223 is that it is almost not reloadable after one firing- primer pockets are too loose and web expansion makes resizing a problematic task too.

By: Del

Del — Wed, 16 Dec 2020 21:25:53 +0000

It’s the recommended neck hardness I’m concerned about. The base is useless for it’s supported by the breach. Neck hardness controls the velocity of the projectile. As well as the longevity of the ammo. This is why annealers are used.

By: Robert

Robert — Wed, 30 Jan 2019 12:06:07 +0000

Its great what you have done, but really answers nothing. The results hardly even qualify as anecdotal. New or used brass, once fired our multiple reloads. Is the hardness different throughout the length of the casing our just at the base in the picture? One case of a test shows absolutely nothing. What if these are all outliers? What we end up with is just another log on the fire.

By: brians356

brians356 — Sun, 27 Dec 2015 19:23:33 +0000

Were all the cases unfired (new)?

By: tylerw02

tylerw02 — Mon, 12 May 2014 14:48:39 +0000

I’d like to see actual numbers on the Federal. I’ve used Federal in .308 for years. I get five or six firings out of it for my semi-autos. For bolt-actions, I just use the Federal .308 for subsonic ammunition.

By: NightOwl

NightOwl — Sun, 11 May 2014 01:31:13 +0000

Thank you catshooter & Paul for that info.
Much appreciated!

Catshooter – assuming the Lapua was the newer ‘blue box’ stuff. Is that correct?

I’ve never used Rem myself based solely on the experiences of my more experienced friends who all say the same thing that dimensionally it can be very good, but the heads just don’t hold up with pockets loosening up pretty quickly. It may however, vary depending on the cartridge in question as I have three other friends who all have a fair amount of experience with the Ultra Mag series of cases, and they have all said that they were very pleasantly surprised with what they each saw independently. They felt that the cases were surprisingly stout & produced excellent accuracy.
I did personally spec-out some friend’s ShortActionUltraMagBrass & found that to be dimensionally excellent, but I never followed up to ask how it shot though.

I’ve also heard similar complaints over the years about Norma brass regarding primer pocket life despite being dimensionally excellent. Heard rumors well over a year ago that Norma was addressing this issue with a new process or new machine that would work-harden the heads some more during production. Can anybody verify or discredit this rumor for me?

Thanks again, fellas.

By: Guy

Guy — Sun, 11 May 2014 01:03:23 +0000

Mark, I think you were doing good getting two loadings out of the Federal! It is terrible.

By: Varminator

Varminator — Sat, 10 May 2014 20:33:43 +0000

Thanks Catshooter,
Great job!
There was a time in the past when I would by five gallon buckets of .223 range brass and separate the LC and the Federals and not use the rest(mostly Remingtons). For many years now I haven’t used hardly anything except LC and Lapua. About a year ago I reloaded some once fired Federal cases for a friend and that second load which was not excessive trashed the brass. What happened to Federal?
Mark

By: Rifle1

Rifle1 — Sat, 10 May 2014 17:35:51 +0000

It is not comprehensive, but it mirrors my testing (except for the Lapua case) when I was working with a brass manufacturer. At the time, all that was avail. for Lapua was the old stuff,… and like Federal, not worth mentioning. Thank goodness the step up in Lapua quality on their current 223 case. The Lake City stuff is run by a program with pretty tight std’s,… has been for a while and will continue to be for some time. Good observations from Catshooter in my opinion.

By: Guy

Guy — Sat, 10 May 2014 13:46:28 +0000

He`s pretty much right on the money. The LC is the best choice and no it shouldn’t be compared to steel cases. The scale actually shows brass life and can be used for that purpose.