a friend brought me some casings that's head-stamped "win 16 223 rem". I'm not sure if its BRASS or STEEL. It's boxer primed.. but.. it's also BLUE.. like someone died the brass.. BLUE..
any ideas?
is it magnetic? if not, then it isn't steel.
scratch the coating or find a scratch, it could be anodized aluminum if the underlying material is silver.
the only blue cased 223 I have seen has been plastic used in sim rounds or by DAG as practice rounds
It might be brass from Winchester training ammo for law enforcement. Check this link to see if that's what you've got
https://www.midwayusa.com/product/2900694199/winchester-le-training-ammunition-223-remington-62-grain-open-tip
I tested it with a magnet, no stick. I do keep some steel casings around for a sanity check of the magnet strength, i just can't seem to find them at the moment. anyway; great info! I threw some in the tumbler and it came out silver!
Turns out.. it's more of a purple overcoat than a blue (i'm colorblind so they look the same to me). and Yes. thats what they look like. the LE brass.
is the LE brass... worth reloading? Any complaints/comments on it?
The site says they are reloadable but in looking at the reviews, it's... questionable. The reason being is the way the crimp is formed. It's got a heavy 6 point crimp instead of a lighter round crimp. I went ahead and loaded some dummy rounds (no primer or powder) and it still shows the marks from the factory heavy crimp.
I'm going to try reloading a few times w/ extreme caution. Updates to follow (probably take a few weeks).
http://images2.powerreviews.com/media_popup.html?type=image&url=%2F%2Fres.cloudinary.com%2Fpowerreviews%2Fimage%2Fupload%2Ff_auto%2Cw_349%2Ch_768%2Fprod%2Fa7sl3oidmlvdky9gebmx.jpg
I'd load them up without worry. Assuming the purple didn't tumble off (I wet tumble with stainless) it would make it easier to find the brass. The heavy crimp may not be what you'd want on brass for long range ammo but for plinking or for mag dumps I wouldn't have a problem with it. I've loaded range brass that looks like it had been crimped similar to that with no problems
The blue was GONE w/in about 3 hours of tumbling (dry corncob mix). The head-stamp is still blue though! So i have a super shiny silver piece of nickle plated brass.. with blue head-stamp markings.
I typically use the 223 reloads for feeding groundhogs out of my AR but only out to about 550 yards. 80% of them are within 200 yards though. The crimp just.... looks strange. I crimp it after reload (full size) but i still see the marks from the heavy crimp they put on it. No biggy. I'll do a cold barrel compair and see how it goes. I suspect it'll be very similar like you said.
Heck, call me lazy but I wouldn't bother with a comparison. The groundhog won't notice the difference. Besides, I'll have a much bigger influence on the shot than the brass. I got my Rifleman patch with my ar using range pickup brass and it wouldn't surprise me if there was brass mixed in that looked like that. The case lengths were all over the place and probably 15 different headstamps. As long as the brass was within spec and safe to use, that's all I cared about not uniforomity. I used a Hornady 55 grain FMJ bullet and did the actual loading on my progressive press. A few weeks later I went to the range to shoot the last few I didn't shoot at Appleseed and was getting better groups at 100 yards with that batch of ammo than I was with same headstamp ammo with 52 grain BTHP match bullets.
First off, well done! I get what you're saying though. I have a friend in VA that says he can shoot sub MOA. Then.. i found out he's talking about shooting from a lead-sled with the rifle strapped down and put on target.
"the rifle can shoot better than i can" holds true to brass probably too. When i reload, i tend to do them in batches of the same kind of brass but honestly, i haven't found much of a difference in them. Kinda makes me wonder why Nosler charges 3-4x the price everyone else does for unfired "primium" brass...
Thanks! Honestly, the only reason the batch of 52 grain match ammo is all the same headstamp is because it came from a larger batch of brass I bought (a few years back when you couldn't find any free ones at the range) that was all lake city. I like to load in large batches. I'd rather shoot than load so I'm not anal about separating headstamps, ect. That would be different if I was pushing the envelope with max pressure loads but I generally hang out in the middle of the load data.