I mentioned a few days ago that I purchased 400 cases of once fired IVI brass. The website has it listed as IVI - Brass - Military Primed Brass - 223 Remington/ 5.56 - Bulk 200/Bag

x-reload.com

I thought for $76/200 that it would be unprocessed, despite how it was listed. I was wrong. This is a bargain! It is fully processed. Cleaned, trimmed AND primed.

A courier showed up at my door on Friday with it. Here are some pictures. It is trimmed to 1.740 inches. The case mouths vary from .219 to .222, but that's no biggie. They were primed by machine by the look of it. A few case mouths are dinged, but nothing that impairs functioning. Primer type unknown. Still, .50 each, which includes taxes, delivery and primers is a bargain.

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X- Reload is now out of primed 223 cases.

I went to order some more, after receiving the first order, and got the last bag of 200. These will be made into 6x45mm cases. The other order of 400 will be for my 223s.

Keep your eyes peeled for stock!

A couple of those in your pic appear to have “high” primers. Might want to give ‘em a push.

Last .223 brass I bought was a few years ago, $45 for new LC in bags of 250. Primers were $.03 a pop then, and I didn’t want them crimped. My how things have changed!

Not long ago I bought a bunch of Fiocchi ammo loaded with VMaxes. Shoots really well in my Hawkeye, and was $.60 a round. Won’t be loading any for a while. Fiocchi has been one of the brands that have been regularly available, priced right, and made in ‘Merica. Been shooting a bunch of their shotshells, 9s, and the .223.

Checking primed cases is always a good idea! And a great reason for reloaders to buy an inexpensive 'on press' priming tool. You can eyeball them, or quickly run each through the priming tool. They are faster than a hand held in that application, although personal preference usually wins when picking reloading stuff.

You guys down south have a lot more from which to choose than we have up here. I remember when I was still in the service, and before 9/11, I would go into gun shops, and mail back supplies, so I didn't have to carry them. No loaded ammunition, because that was illegal to send through the mail, but gun parts, a few scopes, and lots of cases and bullets got sent home.

When we used to fly out of Miramar, we would frequent two types of stores - gun shops (in gun friendly California) and classic automobile parts supply stores. Most of us overspent there, but it was worth it!

I still have one of the hand tools from a Lee Target loader for .473 heads. That’s do it easily. Also have a couple of the old Lee priming tools laying around and scads of the shellholders.

The Lee bench-mounted tool is what I’ve been using of late for my regular priming. You have to keep an eye on the little tab that sticks through the separator thingy because if it slips out the primers won’t feed, but I really like the leverage and feel. Other thumb-powered tools make grandpa’s hand sore after a while.👨🏼‍🦳

I use one of these. I agree about the thumb powered tools being hard on the hands!