Home Forums Hunting & Shooting AR and Tactical Rifles Loading for AR-15

I ordered small base dies and one that would crimp. My gunsmith suggested crimping. I ordered a RCBS die. Can someone walk thru that process for me to educate myself before starting and making a mess. I load alot but have never crimped anything. My experience is with bolt actions. Thanks!!

I've been reloading for 40 years. Mostly bolt guns and some handgun. I got my AR about 2 years ago and I reload for it. I use standard size 223 dies and standard seaters. The biggest thing I look for is making sure the finished round fits the magazine. And I don't use bullets with cannalures. And I don't crimp. This has all worked quite well when loading for my run of the mill BushMaster.

Sako...thanks! I love your Quote on your response page. How right the "Word" is.

Don't use small base, it isn't needed and overworkst the brass on the 223 in an AR15.

Also as noted, I"ve never crimped a round of 223 competition ammo in my life... that was appx 14 years of shooting at +/- 20,000 rounds of reloads a year...

Since I have more than one semi auto in 5.56 I use small base dies, but if you are only loading for one rifle they should not be necessary. I got tired of trying to keep brass seperated for individual rifles; it did not work too well for me.

These guys ahead of me are quite correct, crimping is not needed for these rifles so if I were you I'd not borrow trouble doing it. You can still use the seater die with the crimp feature, just keep the die body about 1/4 of an inch higher in the press than you normally would and set your lock ring there.

I loaded at one time for close to 10 different ARs.... never used a small base ever. Just kept track of the chambers of each and set the dies as needed. Small base to make em work in multiple chambers is a waste of brass life when its so easy to do it right.

Can't say I've noticed trouble with shortened brass life because of small base die use. What I have noticed is that stuck cartridges are really annoying and for me it's right not to overcomplicate things.

Do you get 25 loadings or so out of a set of brass?

Of course if you don't want to monkey with things and just oversize em till they work fine in everything, thats your call too, just saying it doesn't take an engineer to figure out how to run 223s on regular dies and size it correctly for each weapon, so that you won't see a stuck shell. Heck a buddy of mine in highpower competition neck sizes his brass a lot.. never seen him with a stuck case either.

I don't use small base dies and I DO crimp. I have several Mini's and AR's and I want the reloads to work in all of them. One of the Mini's (not a factory barrel) and one of the AR's has a real tight chamber and crimping seems to fix loading problems.
kwg

Anyone load for a 308 AR? Should regular, not the small base, dies be fine?

If crimping seems to fix loading problems, you have other problems that crimping is masking

my buddy loads for 308 AR10... never crimped a round there either.

What about small base sizing die, no?

Nope, no small base sizing die either. Ran the same setup for many years in our M14s too with great results.

Plus one there.

Rochchuck said:
If crimping seems to fix loading problems, you have other problems that crimping is masking

Yea, mixed brass. Some necks are thicker than others and crimping takes them all down to the same diameter. All I know is, it works. kwg

I've shot a lot of mixed brass over the years as practice ammo, I still have yet to crimp.

And FWIW the neck thickness, well sizing sizes the outside of the neck, it would have to be one heck of a thick neck that when seating the same diameter bullet, that it would make enough difference to matter on the loaded round. That combined with one hell of a tight neck in the throat area of the chamber.

AND to top it off crimping only affects a very short stretch of the neck.

You have other issues.

AR 15....Sierra 77 grain MatchKing HPBT
First loading - factory primed brass. No sizing. No Crimp.
Second loading - Neck sized. Redding NK die. No crimp.
Third loading - F/L size, ReddingF/L die. No Crimp.
Pete

PS- I usually don't get beyond the first as I bag the brass and sell it as once-fired.
Haven't bought a factory case in a while. I wonder what the cost is nowadays.
P

why are we crimping 5.56 hunting ammunition again for a 5.56 chambered rifle? I load them the same for two rifles so now I am depressed cause I have now learned that everything that has been working is not supposed to work. Folks know so much more than me it amazes me.

I use a Lee crimp die, I have seen bullet setback and am of the opinion that setback is what causes kabooms. It doesn't take much and does not affect accuracy, that my shooting can tell anyway.

Can anyone name a factory 223/5,56 loading that is not crimped?

Now I've said before, if you are certain of neck tension then it's not needed but unless you anneal every 3rd firing, a case that is once fired will have more tension than one that has been fired 5 times, just the nature of brass.