.223/5.56 Case Length Question

[Enfield47]

Total noob question here. After full length sizing and swaging my once fired .223/5.56 brass I noticed that almost all of the XM193 LC brass needed trimming but almost none of the Federal .223 brass did. Most of the Federal was measuring at 1.740 - 1.743. Will this be a problem once I start seating bullets?

[chknlyps2]

If you are crimping then they all need to be uniform in length, if you are just using neck tension to hold the bullet I would just load them up..... If mine are longer than 1.750 they go in the trim pile, shorter and they get loaded. I don't crimp rifle rounds.

[Enfield47]

These will be shot out of an AR. Do I need to crimp? I'm hoping neck tension will be sufficient.

Is it a good, bad or indifferent sign that the Federal cases didn't stretch during full length sizing?

[troysland]

If you are crimping then they all need to be uniform in length, if you are just using neck tension to hold the bullet I would just load them up..... If mine are longer than 1.750 they go in the trim pile, shorter and they get loaded. I don't crimp rifle rounds.

I do the same thing. Federal is known to be about 1.740-1.748 after being fired one time. No need to worry. Only thing that bothers me are the primer crimps on federal brass. I've loaded thousands of .223 and always use a range of 1.740 to 1.751. I also use a range of overall length of 2.24-2.26 for 55,60, & 62gr bullets.
No need to crimp, the neck tension from full length resizing keeps the projectile firmly seated.

[Enfield47]

Excellent, thanks for the help!