To crimp, or not to crimp? Reloading 223 ammo for AR15's.

[old11bravo]

To crimp, or not to crimp, that is the question.

I just started loading my own 223 tonight and it is intended for use with my semi-auto AR rifles. I have 100 rounds ready to go. I have not crimped any of them.

Is crimping my 223 really necessary?

I've been loading 224 Valkyrie and 308 for a few months now and have sent hundreds of these rounds down range successfully without any crimping. If it works for the 224 Valkyrie and 308 in semi-auto rifles, why wouldn't I achieve the same results with my non crimped 223?

What philosophy do you subscribe to and why?

[mustangfreek]

I read into everything when I first started also, bullet setback, pressures etc..btw you should check some of your loads after clambering a few times. Just to know what your loads are doing.

If it has a cannelure , I’m putting a Crimp on it. How much. You will have to test for your rifles.

To me after testing I would put a small crimp on all my 55/62 gr range fodder/556 loads.

My more precision like rds I did not usually. Although I did with some Nosler 77’s that had no cannelure.

Of course I’m talking ARs, no way would I on a bolt gun.

[BoilerUp]

I use a "light to medium" crimp using a Lee Factory Crimp Die on pretty much everything for a semi-auto. Haven't done any real accuracy testing with and without to see how much difference it makes, though.

[alamo5000]

I am a very light to light crimper.

[Former11B]

I don’t crimp anything rifle.

Neck tension does enough for me

[mustangfreek]

X2 in the Lee factory crimp.

Load some with no crimp, a light crimp and a heavier one..

Rack some in and out the chamber.. You obviously want no bullet setback.

[mustangfreek]

I don’t crimp anything rifle.

Neck tension does enough for me

I use to play that game, but in a semi auto I want a slight crimp. As I set some brass aside a while ago, and after about the 5-7 firings the neck tension wasn’t enough.. that’s when annealing comes into play

[Former11B]

I use to play that game, but in a semi auto I want a slight crimp. As I set some brass aside a while ago, and after about the 5-7 firings the neck tension wasn’t enough.. that’s when annealing comes into play

I’ve been loading for my ARs for about 8 years now. Can’t say it’ll never be an issue but so far...no.


With the 224 Valkyrie brass I have been using, I really wanted to test the limits of it. At about six firings, I started getting some split necks. Now at 9 firings, this Federal brass that has survived is running into the primer pockets wearing out. I’ll probablg fire it once more and cull them all afterwards.

I DO want to anneal my 224 brass, simply to keep all of the case necks in good shape so the weak point will be the primer pockets.

223 I haven’t had an issue with, but after 3-5 firings of the LC brass I use (depends on overall condition), it gets relegated to “blasting ammo” status. I guess the factory annealing keeps it going strong long enough for me to get what I want out of it, but even after many more loadings with 55gr FMJ....no crimp, no problem

[BoilerUp]

Bullet type will matter, too. I loaded some Nosler 64gr bonded a while back which have an exposed lead flat nose and even with a light crimp I had a few that were the last round in the mag get pushed back into the case and jam on me when they hit the feed ramp. Not sure if it is a mag issue but need to increase my crimp for those bullets nonetheless.

[mustangfreek]

Yep, different profiles will need a crimp at times.

Just takes some screwing around to figure it out

[Molon]

To crimp, or not to crimp, that is the question.

I just started loading my own 223 tonight and it is intended for use with my semi-auto AR rifles. I have 100 rounds ready to go. I have not crimped any of them.

Is crimping my 223 really necessary?

Crimping match-grade bullets can degrade their accuracy/precision. The grahpic below is based on the average extreme spread of three 10-shot groups fired in a row from one of my precision AR-15s (for each of the circles represented in the graphic.)





...

[fledge]

Good info. Thanks, Molon.

[Uffdaphil]

I hope Molon is significantly younger than me so I can die before his posts cease.