Fire once and toss 'em. Not worth it. Loose primer pockets and cracked necks. Its a shame that even foreign brass such as Privi, Magtech and others are a lot better than Federal.

Fire once and toss 'em. Not worth it. Loose primer pockets and cracked necks. Its a shame that even foreign brass such as Privi, Magtech and others are a lot better than Federal.

That sucks.  Is that once fired from say 193?  Or the FGMM stuff too? 

I don't think I'll be reloading for .223 any time soon, but may start gradually picking up components.  I have a lot of once fired brass, but mostly 193. . .

I don't reload, but I've read that 5.56 cases are better for reloading than .223 in general, since the cases are thicker to handle the higher pressure.

Simply put, the 5.56 case has thicker brass walls to handle higher pressures and,
therefore, has less interior volume than the .223 case. This is especially important
to reloaders because the powder loads are affected by these different case capacities.

https://blog.capitalcartridge.com/2018/09/21/reloading-the-223-5-56/

I've always bought 5.56 and saved the brass in case I start reloading or sell it.

Just finished processing some once fired various 223 headstamps.   Some findings I can share:

FC 223 and WOLF 223 are in my reload once and toss group.  Some of the Wolf .223 cases seem to show stress marks (like a circumferential 1/16" band of shallow craze cracking) in the area where the head meets the body, potentially leading to case head sep.  I've watched these stress marks get more pronounced with each firing, from once fired, to 1st reload, to 2nd reload which is when I tossed it).  I established moving forward these get only one reload.

The FC 223 primer pockets get loose way faster than anything else.  One batch of FC 223, 1st reload had some tiny neck cracks, 2nd reload had way more necks cracking and primer pockets too loose and I tossed it.  Tried annealing on another once fired batch and the neck cracks seemed greatly reduced,  but the primer pockets were still loose. 

Aguila 223 cases had a very very strong primer crimp, a lot more force needed to swage it then 5.56 LC crimps. I don't have longevity tests done for these yet.

Fire once and toss 'em. Not worth it. Loose primer pockets and cracked necks. Its a shame that even foreign brass such as Privi, Magtech and others are a lot better than Federal.

Yup

That sucks.  Is that once fired from say 193?  Or the FGMM stuff too? 

I don't think I'll be reloading for .223 any time soon, but may start gradually picking up components.  I have a lot of once fired brass, but mostly 193. . .

Been a known issue for some time.  FGMM too.  Brass from federal is one time use.

Been a known issue for some time.  FGMM too.  Brass from federal is one time use.

I don’t reload for .223, but I have a bunch of buddies that use my Fed .223 and 5.56 brass for .300 Blk. I haven’t heard them complaining...

I’ve switched to Lapua for .308. I had gotten through a few firings on FGMM brass and did notice primer pockets giving out at a decently high rate tho.

I don’t reload for .223, but I have a bunch of buddies that use my Fed .223 and 5.56 brass for .300 Blk. I haven’t heard them complaining...

I’ve switched to Lapua for .308. I had gotten through a few firings on FGMM brass and did notice primer pockets giving out at a decently high rate tho.

Just passing on what I've both read and have experienced.  Prepping brass is a time consuming process and being able to reuse the brass multiple times is a great plus.  Good call on using Lapua.

Just passing on what I've both read and have experienced.  Prepping brass is a time consuming process and being able to reuse the brass multiple times is a great plus.  Good call on using Lapua.

Ya. Many have told me reloading for “blaster” .223 not really worth it, but that was before latest ammo craze. Much of my once fired brass is Fed 5.56, so even worse with brass prep. Then even more worse if they fail after one firing.

I’m liking the Lapua brass so far. I expect to ruin a bunch of brass along the way, especially with annealing, so I bought a little extra.

Some of the Wolf .223 cases seem to show stress marks (like a circumferential 1/16" band of shallow craze cracking) in the area where the head meets the body, potentially leading to case head sep. 

I found those same 'wrinkle' marks on once fired Wolf .223 after cleaning them, I was alarmed and thought about chuckling them, then I opened a new box and found those flaws are from the factory before they are even fired. Dont know if bad alloy or poor tooling in their manufacturing equipment. they arent from putting them thru a rifle.