It's been a while since I even touched my reloading bench, so this is gonna be a STUPID question. Two of my buddies are going to start reloading .223 and I've offered to help them with question and general guidance. The one and only time I've reloaded .223, I only made a batch of 50 test rounds...they turned out pretty good, quite honestly.

Because I've forgotten what I knew, here's the stupid question...Is it necessary to flare the neck of .223 brass to accept a bullet like it is for pistol brass?

TIA!

For my RCBS small base die set the neck is expanded when you size it. The expander is set to be just enough to accept your bullet. As you set it you can try placing a bullet into the mouth to confirm it is correct. Have fun.

Ahh...I have the RCBS AR Series Small Base Sizer Die set and didn't realize/forgot there's a case mouth expander as part of the resizing die. Thanks for the info!!!

ETA: your post prompted me to go have a look at the instructions for RCBS Reloading Dies. Sure enough...there it is...the case mouth expander is part of the decapping rod that's inserted into the sizing die. Since I decap separately with the Lee Universal Decapper, I had forgotten about the decapping rod in the sizing die. Thanks again!

The bottle neck is expanded slightly, but the primary purpose is ensuring it's round and no edge tucked.

It does enable smooth insertion of the projectile.

Follow up with appropriate crimp.

This neck thing depends on your bullet selection.
General rule ball , no ,lead tip hunting , yes.

I've loaded untold tens of thousands of .223 cartridges over the decades, using RCBS dies at first, then various makers until finalizing on Redding dies.

I have never seen a die set for a .223 (or any other bottleneck rifle cartridge flare the neck to accept a bullet.

The die sets I had all had an expander button whose purpose was to bring back the ID of the neck to something like .002 inch smaller than the nominal OD of the appropriate bullet.

Because a non-bushing die squeezes the neck more than required, the expander ball brings it back to just short of the OD of the bullet. It will not flare the neck or the mouth like what is done for handgun cartridges. In fact, it is important for something like a .223 to have some neck tension, to help the combustion of the powder be more uniform.

Some people like to taper crimp their .223 ammo, I've never seen the need to do that.

Depending on the case, the inside rim of the case mouth can be sharp or have tiny burrs on it, and that can shave jacket material off the bullet. For my match ammo I chamfer the inside case mouth just slightly before charging and seating to mitigate that, but for plinking/blasting ammo I don't bother. I do use a taper crimp on .45ACP cases that are belled for bullet seating, to remove the bell. But for .223 I don't bother crimping.

Thanks all!!

NikonUser...YES!! FLARE the case mouth. That's the term I was slipping up on. So the resizing process then, does more of what guppy was describing...serves the purpose to properly reform the case mouth.

Expert308...my case prep process includes a step to deburr and chamfer the case mouth.

In the test rounds I created some moons ago, I used the Lee Factory Crimp Die, which seemed to get good reviews.

quote:

Originally posted by erj_pilot:
In the test rounds I created some moons ago, I used the Lee Factory Crimp Die, which seemed to get good reviews.

I have one of those that I've been experimenting to see if it will improve velocity consistency, but I haven't used it enough to tell yet. I think that in theory it should, to some degree. For my match ammo I used a bushing sizer which should, again in theory, have about the same effect. But for plinking ammo where cases tend to be mixed I use a regular sizing die and I'm hoping that's where the Lee crimp die will help.

Not saying one needs a ‘boat-tail’ bullet, but they do slide into the case easier.

I normally only ‘champher/debur’ case mouths if I trimmed the case. This is for high count reloading, like prairie dogging ammo.

If loading for more ‘precision rifle’ use, one can add more steps to ‘case prep’.

Quick answer: No.

Inside changer factory brass before first reload. Changer and deburr all brass after trimming.

Extra credit: I have never crimped 5.56 rounds, including for autos.

quote:

Originally posted by erj_pilot:
Thanks all!!

NikonUser...YES!! FLARE the case mouth. That's the term I was slipping up on. So the resizing process then, does more of what guppy was describing...serves the purpose to properly reform the case mouth.

Expert308...my case prep process includes a step to deburr and chamfer the case mouth.

In the test rounds I created some moons ago, I used the Lee Factory Crimp Die, which seemed to get good reviews.

No rifle die that I have ever used flares the case mouth; that's a handgun cartridge die thing.
I'm not clear on what sns3guppy is talking about either.

As I explained earlier, a non-bushing rifle die will reduce the neck of the case more than is needed to accommodate differences in case brands and so on, and then the expander ball or button on the stem will expand the neck back to where it needs to be in order to accept a bullet. Is is usually about .002 or .003 ID under the nominal diameter of the bullet. For a .223 cartridgem the diameter of the bullet is .224 and the inner diameter of the case neck will be something like .222 or .221. The difference in size if what we refer to as "neck tension", it's what holds a bullet tight. If you neck tension is not uniform, you can get a more consistent ignition if you use a taper crimp to help standardize the grip on the bullet.

The match ammo I assemble is not crimped as I use a bushing die and no expander ball on cases that are from the same lot and have been checked.

I trim all my cases at every loading using my Giraud trimmer which chamfers and deburrs during the same operation.

It is true that it is much easier to seat a boat tail bullet compared to a flat base bullet, but even the FB bullet has a slight bevel in it. However, I have squeezed my fingers more than once seating flat base bullets, and I only ever use BT bullets in rifles anymore.

In order to flare a bottle neck rifle cartridge, a neck flaring die is required, such as the Hornady M die, Lee universal neck flaring die, or NOE flaring inserts for the Lee universal.

I use one on rifle cartridges that I load with lead rounds. Jacketed rounds don't require a flare like lead because it won't shave the outside edges of the bullet.