IVI 5.56 brass in 223

tyson22250 · Apr 12, 2020

Have a whole bunch of IVI 5.56 brass prepped As it was free And plan to shoot it in a 223.. Usually use winchester or remington head stamp. This brass weighs more then remington and has less h20 volume . In my remington brass I shoot a lot of benchmark stocks 25.5gr with 50-52 gr bullets. How much lower should I go with this IVI brass as a starting point?

mjcmichigan · Apr 13, 2020

Maybe a Quick Load report with the smaller case volume would be a good idea. You are right to try to get a datapoint first. Sorry, I haven’t bought QL yet. You might have to move this to the QL thread.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

1Shot · Apr 13, 2020

Look really close at the head stamp on your cases, I bet it is IMI not IVI. Drop back one grain and work back up toward your load in .2 grs at a time checking for pressure. You will probably not reach your load before you see pressure. Drop back to the load before you saw pressure and check for accuracy is what I would do.

It has been a while back but I was given 8 lbs of AA2200 which was labeled DATA Powder back then. It had load date for 223. I found the heaviest case out of what I had, which I had a BUNCH of once fired range picked up cases. I then checked the H2o capacity between it and others. The cases that had the least capacity that I checked was NORMA which I did not have many and just set them aside for something else. IMI was the next with LC just behind them. I worked up my load using IMI cases and then tried it with the others just making up blasting in case SHTF ammo using IMI 55 gr FMJ bullets that I purchased from a supplier that I got CHEAP. With this mix of cases my Bushmaster AR-A2 would average 2" at 100 yards for 10 shots with open sights off a bench. Plenty good enough for intended purpose.

I also discovered why I could get those IMI 55gr FMJ bullets so cheap, less than $20 a thousand out the door.
I was watching a TV program on I believe it was the History Chanel. It was talking about the Army of Israel and their weapons. It stated that a certain bullet that they were using was causing abnormally wicked wounds in folks and were called on the carpet by NATO or some "ruling" body for using them. These were the bullets. I took a few gallon jugs of water and set them up at 100 yards and shot at the first one. It blew up the first jug in a mist of water. When I went to check I found that the first jug which front and sides were ripped apart still had a little water in the bottom and in this I could see little flakes of bullet which looked like you had taken a file and filed a bullet leaving these flakes. There was not a "bullet" exit that I could find on the back part of the jug. I proceeded to do this shoot 4 more times with the other 4 jugs. Same results. This bullet has a VERY thin jacket and it just comes apart when it hits something with a more violent reaction than US military 55 fmj which usually brakes up at the cannular when it starts to yaw or tumble.