Home Forums Reloading Varmint Rifles 223 brass question

I have some once fired range brass that I've decided to use. What surprised me is how close the weights are. I grabbed 20 of them, cleaned them a little on the outside and decided to sort them by weight. Out of those 20 the weight was pretty consistent and max variation was .78 of a grain. I also have a box of new hornady brass so I decided to compare them. The first 20 I picked varied 2.28 grains. One actually was over 3 grains heavier than the lightest one so I took that one out. After resizing, trimming and uniforming the primer pockets of the once fired range brass, the weight varied closer to .7 grain. Is anyone familiar with this brand of brass?

Comes from your brothers to the north, Eh.
Industries Valcartier Inc. Canadian NATO brass.

Probably makes sense that he'd be picking up Canadian brass.

Thanks Darkker, they must have some good QC standards, I dont even have to sort them by weight. I also have about 400 cases of once fired nickle plated range brass that I've been using, the headstamp has "fc". Ive already got about 8 firings on some of them. They're not as consistent in weight but the price was right. Sometimes its good to hit the range after local RCMP have finished up:)

FC stands for Fu*#ing Crap, or Federal Cartridge....I forget which.

I have one live round of the IVI so I pulled the bullet to see what it is. Its a 77 gr boattail hollow point with 25 gr of very fine powder. Must be meant for longer range.

Cartridge, Caliber 5.56 mm, Special Ball, Long Range, Mk 262 Mod 0/1: 5.56×45mm 77-grain Open-Tipped Match/Hollow-Point Boat-Tail cartridge. Mod 0 features Sierra Matchking bullet, while Mod 1 features either Nosler or Sierra bullet.

Thanks for the info. I looked at pics of both and it looks like a nosler because of the crimping cannuler. The inside of the neck and the bullet are coated in some kind of a black sealant. Looks like I have stumbled into some decent brass for free. To bad I only have 45.

NATO brass (circle cross) is almost always pretty darn good stuff if a little heavier than "commercial" brass. Good for you, have fun scrounging.

Had pretty good luck myself with lc and some others..I load it for high volume shooting...

Looks like I was mistaken, I didnt see a canullure on the match king pics I looked at, but that looks like a winner. Thanks for the pic.