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1/19/2005 12:13:56 PM EDT
Now I haven't actually tried this so somebody may have to properly educate me, but I am told that once .223 brass is put through an AR-15 it gets "dinged" and is unsuitable and/or dangerous to reload.  I just got a 6.8 SPC upper and was wondering if it 6.8 brass can be reloaded after if it has been shot in an AR-15.  Of course, if I was fed a line - I would like to know that too.

1/19/2005 12:28:52 PM EDT
[#1]
Have you looked at the tacked 6.8 thread above?  If you can't find specific answers IM or email Zak_Smith as he has done some extensive work on the 6.8 SPC.
1/19/2005 12:38:11 PM EDT
[#2]

but I am told that once .223 brass is put through an AR-15 it gets "dinged" and is unsuitable and/or dangerous to reload.

If I told someone that, I would tell the person to be sure to give all that dinged up brass to me, I would make sure they were properly reloaded uh...disposed of...

In other words, he was either lying through his teeth, or he didn't know what he is talking about!  A few dings don't hurt a thing, crushed brass is no good but a few dings don't hurt at all.

You might check out the Reloading Forum, it's under the General Tab.

www.ar15.com/forums/forum.html?b=1&f=9
1/19/2005 12:38:36 PM EDT
[#3]
With autoloading rifles, it's always possible that some brass will get mangled enough that you don't want to reload it again.. things like having the neck smashed or being dented in on one side.  This isn't a problem in most uppers; when it happens it can generally be corrected by adjusting the way the gun is cycling and ejecting.

Besides that, each time a cartridge is fired, its brass case expands to fit the chamber.   When you resize the cases, it is squeezed back to the right dimensions.  This extra lateral stretch will then show up as case length growth and the case will have to be trimmed.    Just like any other rifle reloading, case life can be as low as one or two firing for a hot load in a oversized chamber, or over 10 loadings (with more favorable conditions).

-z
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