I am slowing diving into the world of reloading rifle rounds, specifically 223 for my AR.

After depriming a bunch of cases tonight, I measured some of them to see what the length was.

Some of these pieces of brass were measuring like 1.735 - 1.740. My target trim length was 1.750.

What do I do with these? I can't really use them can I?

I appreciate the feedback in advance.

-carl

Too long is an issue, too short(in those lengths) is not. Load em up.

Typically you would run them through the sizing process before checking the length since sizing can stretch them a bit.

Good point. I always resize/deprime in the same die so I missed that he said he only deprimed. Are you resizing before measuring length?

"Too short" as you describe will leave you with less neck to grip the bullet.

With less neck tension, you'd certainly want to crimp them to prevent the bullet from moving (in either direction) before you want it to.

The Lee Factory Crimp die is great for that, and works well regardless of the case length. It's the last press operation after seating.

 

(1.740 sounds like X-die trim length. Unusual that a reloader who took the effort to use an x-die would leave his brass lay unless, for example, the necks were splitting or the primer pockets were getting loose in that batch of brass. Just IMHO)

Resize before measuring. It is nice to have them all the same length when reloading. I use a range of plus or minus .003 for plinking loads. Federal brass is known for being shorter than others, still useable, they'll stretch.

I measured befoe resizing.. let me run these thru the resizer and report back. Thanks.

I measured befoe resizing.. let me run these thru the resizer and report back. Thanks.