Message #514879

[Black Streak]

Hello
  RCBS is a good pretty decent brand of reloading equipment.     The .223 FL (full length) reloading dies will come in a two peice set.   One is your resizing die and the other is your bullet seating die.   They must both be set up correctly or you wont get a very good outcome.    Your resizing die will punch out the primer and resize your neck and push the shoulder back.   Don't push the shoulder back much,  only a little.
  The 223 military brass holds slightly LESS powder than regular 223 brass.   The reloading manuels are referring to regular brass.    From my recolection it is about 1 or 2 grains less.  When you reload your military  .223 brass, consider your max load at least one grain less than the reloading manuel calls max load.     
Keep looking for a mentor in reloading hobby and it will shorten the learning curve a bunch.
    Fyi, compair a fired factory shell with your fired reload.   Compair the primers.   If your primer looks to be flattened compaired to the fired factory shell then your chamber pressure is to high which means you need to back off the powder charge a little.    If the bolt is hard to lift then you need to back off the charge even more.
         Any other questions just ask.    If you need help setting up your dies I can walk you through it.   Your reloading manuel might have a how to in it also.