Going through and prepping a bunch of my 223 brass. Came across a bunch of FC headstamped brass that has been once fired, deprimed, FL sized, and measures anywhere from 1.739-1.746. Had a bag of about 80 pieces that I fired myself and picked up. Out of these 80 I had 24 pieces that were over minimum of 1.750.
These were all Federal factory Barnes 55gr Triple Shock loads.
Anyways the point of this post is... Is it safe to go ahead and load these? I've always discarded under-spec brass but hate to throw away this many pieces. Thanks, Jeff

I would say if your are crimping then they need to be the same length. If not I would load as usual.

I do crimp all of my 223 because some of them will be fired in an AR, but it's the Lee Fact Crimp Die which doesnt require an exact match on case lengths. (at least that's my understanding). So do any of you have experience firing loads that are this much short of minimum? I guess I have fired them this short because these were fact loads I fired through my rifles, and they obviously didn't shrink when I fired em. Guess maybe I'm being too cautious.

Load them up, will not have to trim as soon when they are that little bit short. The Lee Factory crimp die is more forgiving than the other crimping dies on case length but visually inspect for proper crimp.

Ok, guess I'll load them and go bang. On another note, a high percentage of the cases also have the flash hole punched off center...way off center. Oh well, I won't be buying any FC brass after this.

I don't crimp my 223 rounds for this reason. The different case lengths will vary the crimp and change up the pressure and neck tension and effect the consistancy of the rounds. As long as you have enough neck tension on the bullet from pushing back into the case from a good FL sizing, you will be fine.

Load them. As long as you have enough neck tension to hold the bullet and prevent setback when it hits the feed ramp you should be fine. I once did not tighten the set screw on my trimmer enough and went 5 thousands below trim length on several rounds before I caught it. They were all fine.

Keep an eye on the primer pockets.
I bought some fired once mixed brass and there were approximately 50 with FC headstamps.
They seem to be softer brass and I had a few with loose primer pockets.
When you prime them, feel for consistent resistance and if one feels easy, crush the mouth of that piece of brass with pliers...it's toast!
We only use them for low velocity plinking ammo now.

As always, your mileage may vary...

should be fine ,, i see factory brass at 1.743 straight out the boxes ,, i trim all mine too 1.750 and i use a lee setup ,,, been thinking about a small base die and trimming to 1.740

Shoot them a few times and they will be long enough in a short time. Go with a Full Length resizing die so the bullet is tight in the neck and all should be well. If you decide to chunk the brass I will take it since I am only 20 miles away.

Federal..bleh.

As Vern1 said....keep an eye on the primer pockets. I'd hand load 1 at a time, not in an auto press so I could feel the seating of the primer.

Chances are they will be loose.