One of the (many) great things about American Eagle .223 is that it’s loaded into virgin brass cases that can be reloaded several times.
However, reloading is an exact procedure, part art and part science, that requires you to be very precise in your resizing and loading data.
Before you can even get into that, though, you need to manually and visually inspect your brass to make sure what you’re working with can be safely reloaded in the first place.
Here’s what to look for.
What to Look for
Regardless of whether you sweep up all your brass up off the range floor, use a brass catcher to keep your brass clean, or manually place each spent case back in the box after shooting, inspecting is a step you can’t afford to skip.
This is because case inspection will help prevent you from encountering dangerous scenarios that would arise if you attempted to reload damaged or compromised cases.
First, if you shoot aluminum or steel-cased ammo, discard these. They are not intended to be reloadable. Fortunately this doesn’t apply to us since we are talking about American Eagle .223, which is brass-cased.
The first thing you’ll want to do is go through each case individually and inspect for signs of damage to the case. Look for deformed necks, cracked cases, bulges, and dents. It doesn’t matter where these are on the casing - if they’re present, discard the cases.
If you see any black streaks on the side of the cartridge casing, this may indicate that the casing did not perform as intended and represents an area where high-pressure gas may have leaked out and left a streak of fouling on the casing. If you see this, inspect more closely, and if in doubt, discard the casing.
After your first inspection, you can tumble and clean the casings, after which point you should inspect them again, looking for the exact same thing. Get rid of any cases that show any signs of physical damage, you don’t want these mixed in inadvertently with the cases you’re going to reload.
Anywhere you see splits or cracks in the casings, discard them. These casings cannot be safely reloaded and are likely to fail completely if reloaded, which can result in damage to your firearm, injury to you, or both.
Deformations around the neck of the cartridge, or bulges in the cartridge casing, are also cause for concern. These represent weak areas of the brass where it has bulged or deformed during firing. Loading these will put you at a higher risk of case failure, which, as stated, can be destructive to your firearm, dangerous to you, or both.
Once you have inspected the casings twice (and tumbled and cleaned them) it’s time to get more thorough with your inspection. Turn your attention now to the primer pocket.
Make sure this area is not damaged, and that it is easy to punch out the old primer. Also, this note doesn’t apply to American Eagle .223, but it does apply to 5.56, so for what it’s worth, these are typically Berdan-primed and difficult to reload, so you should discard them.
If the casings pass these inspections, you can move forward with resizing and reloading.
Note: this is not a complete guide on what to look for before reloading. Always consult your handloading manual for specific instructions.
Why Reload American Eagle .223 in the First Place?
There are enough good reasons to get into reloading that an entire article could be dedicated to the topic. However, we’ll just offer a quick defense of why you should get into the practice if you’ve been thinking about it.
- If you shoot, you’re already going to have some spent cases at the end of it. It’s either throw them away or recover some of the value by reloading.
- Reloading may be able to help you save a few dollars on the sport of shooting.
- If ammo is still scarce in your area but you can get bullets, brass, primers and powder, you can load your own.
- Reloading gives you total control over cartridge performance. This is why some competitors, especially long-range shooters, load their own rounds.
- Reloading will get you more personally involved in the shooting sports and can be highly educational.
- Not reloading could be seen as wasteful, especially if you shoot American Eagle .223 rounds (or other ammo) manufactured with reloadable, virgin-brass cases.
These are just a few of the great reasons to get into reloading, and perhaps you have a few of your own. Either way, it’s a practice worth getting familiar with, even if you don’t always recycle your fired brass.
Stock Up on .223 Bulk Ammo Here
Before you can reload, you need to have the constituent components. We can help with that. Stock up on American Eagle .223 or .223 bulk ammo here so your ammo cans are always full.
While you’re here, make sure you check out other other bulk ammo deals as well as our police trade-in specials. Bookmark the page and check back periodically because you never know what you might find there, and once it’s gone, it’s gone.