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I'm calling it "Crimped or Not Crimped?"

I'm sorting through my ~3000 .223/5.56 cases looking for the .mil stuff that needs the crimp removed. And I've run into an interesting question. Are some civilian .223 cases crimped, too? This is a pretty fair representation of the headstamps I've come across so far and my educated guesses and questions about their crimpy-ness.



Top, L to R:
NATO Lake City '04 (Crimped); Lake City '10 (Crimped); ATI '09 (Staked); Malaysian '83 (Crimped)

Bottom, L to R:
Federal .223 (Crimped?); Win .223 (Crimped?); Federal .223 (Crimped & Sealed?); Win .223 (NOT crimped), Remington .223 (NOT crimped)

Are my guesses correct? And, if so, those need to be de-crimped, too, right? Or is all of the FC and Win .223 crimped originally, and the one WIn case on the right a possible reload? All of the Remington is uncrimped so far.

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I have seen .223 and Milspec 5.56 with crimped cases. If it is a Remington head stamp they typically don't take kindly to having the crimp removed (they usually don't retain primers afterwards). I have also heard the same about some federal case, never experienced it myself w/ federal but lots of times with remington. Almost all my brass is milspec stuff or uncrimped .223.

I've run into plenty of civilian brass that's crimped. Usually it's the kind marketed towards law enforcement.

LivewireBlanco wrote:I've run into plenty of civilian brass that's crimped. Usually it's the kind marketed towards law enforcement.

Well, that would explain the crimped Winchester. I picked it up after a DPS qualification class. Some was Winchester Ranger .223 (there were some empty boxes in the trash cans), so I know it was LE branded.

Yep I have some Ranger brass, all crimped. Also lots of Speer brass crimped.