.223 Size Problems

[Ah Pook]

Guessing this is the correct forum. Mods, feel free to move.

Went shooting last week. More FTFs than I've ever seen. The bolt was not seating on every other round.

Got a chance to tear apart the BCG today. Cleaned, lubed and tried again with some mags from last week. Same thing. Tried a different (known good) BCG. Same thing. Different AR. Same thing.

Switched to some Remington ammo and no more feeding problems.

Pulled out the calipers and measured some brass. About half the brass tested was "wide" at the base.

These rounds are from an ammo can that was purchased, many moons ago, at a gun show. It was advertised as mil surp but on closer inspection has numerous head stamps. Reloads.

The center round is one of the offending rounds. PPU mil surp on the left and Remington on the right.


Thought about resizing the loaded rounds but too much can go wrong. Looks like some quality time with a bullet puller.

[Great-Kazoo]

Pull, resize, save powder. I'd measure 1-3 for consistency, then 10 , divide the total weight of them to see if there's a consistent charge weight.

[Irving]

Pull, resize, save powder. I'd measure 1-3 for consistency, then 10 , divide the total weight of them to see if there's a consistent charge weight.

What he said. You can tell that the sizer die didn't go all the way down.

[Ah Pook]

Yep. I was going to weigh powder on about the first dozen to get an idea of the charge. Then random after that.

[Hoser]

Get a Redding body die. Run them through that.

[ChadAmberg]

Get a Redding body die. Run them through that.

The Redding body die makes it look like you can resize without pulling the bullet? Just run them through as is?

[Hoser]

The Redding body die makes it look like you can resize without pulling the bullet? Just run them through as is?

Yup It touches the body, base and shoulder. Does not touch the neck/bullet. On my 1050 it is the last die to touch a loaded round.

Of course all the usual disclaimers apply when it comes to running loaded ammo through a die.

[Ah Pook]

Thanks! I take a look at that.

[legaleagle]

Of course the concerns with resizing the loaded ammo applies. You may create another problem. Another thought, I would pull one apart and weigh the bullet. See what weight it is and also measure the length of the bullet against other known round of equal weight that functioned properly. You may have a longer bullet than expected, which could be resting on the lands and grooves giving the appearance of long brass. I would also check OAL against known specs too rule out any issues. This is a long shot, but worth ruling out. Next, if the reloaded ammo was trimmed too, the resizing now will lengthen it as you are reducing the OD of the case and that brass has to go somewhere, but the question is by how much. I have seen up to .013 increase in length after resizing a measured case, which effects the shoulder and neck. If not resizing the shoulder for proper head space, this could put your shoulder where the round head spaces too long. As well, you could be forcing the bullet into the cone too far and getting pressure issues as the chamber is acting as a crimp on the neck or with the bullet on the lands and grooves you will generate more pressure to get it moving. Not saying you shouldn't resize as suggested, but I would make sure the round drops into a chamber freely and that the bolt is not pounding the round forward to engage. You may be able to do this with the rifle by dropping into chamber and then removing extractor from bolt to see if the bolt rotates into place by hand. If the bolt will not close, either the shoulder or the neck or both are too long. In either event, you would need to disassemble, resize, trim and reassemble.

If you resize, you will want a full length resizer, which is generally needed in semi auto and lever guns. You might also consider a small base die which reduces the OD another .001-.002 to facilitate feeding.

[RANGERRON72]

Couple of things that we do in Service rifle shooting..........one is a chamber gauge and drop every finished round in to insure the reload drops in easily. Second, small base dies. Just resized the case back to minimum (smallest) SAAMI specs........

Coupled with the advice above you should be good to go. I reload 2-3K of 5.56 / 223 rounds per year and haven't had an alibi in a match in 5 years............FWIW.