Been reloading pistol cartridges for about 2 yrs without too many issues. Just got my first DPMS AR15 and wanted to venture into the 223 reload underworld.
I have a Redding Turret single stage press that has served me well. I have new RCBS 223 dies. I took once fired brass (remmington in this case). I don't have a brass trimmer yet so I measured them. They all measure around 1.750 to 1.755.
I full length resized them and loaded with H335 (started with24 g) and then put winchester 55 g FMJBT and ran it through the other die (forgot what that is called). I put the crimp into the groove on the bullet.
They came out looking nice. I started with an OAL of about 2.220 or so.
Just for the heck of it (I know people are going to have issues with this...but I did it safely) I loaded a mag and tried to cycle them through the gun.
Unfortunately just about every other round stuck in the barrel and I could not eject it despite pulling extremely hard on the charging handle. The bolt seizes up. I eventually needed to put a screwdriver througth the ejection port and force back the bolt to get it out. OOCH! Happened pretty reproducibly
I then shortened the rounds all the way down to 2.100 OAL without change. I then kept increasing the crimp until it started buckeling the brass...again without change.
I took factory PMC 55 gr loads and took measurements. OAL 2.250 and they all cycled fine.
It almost seems that they are not properly resized but I have the resizing die turned all the way down and I also took spot measurements of the cases and they seem to be pretty close (say +/- .003) at all spots checked.
Obviously since the factory rounds feed and eject fine, it must be something I'm doing to myself
Please help out a 223 brother!
I have a Redding Turret single stage press that has served me well. I have new RCBS 223 dies. I took once fired brass (remmington in this case). I don't have a brass trimmer yet so I measured them. They all measure around 1.750 to 1.755.
I full length resized them and loaded with H335 (started with24 g) and then put winchester 55 g FMJBT and ran it through the other die (forgot what that is called). I put the crimp into the groove on the bullet.
They came out looking nice. I started with an OAL of about 2.220 or so.
Just for the heck of it (I know people are going to have issues with this...but I did it safely) I loaded a mag and tried to cycle them through the gun.
Unfortunately just about every other round stuck in the barrel and I could not eject it despite pulling extremely hard on the charging handle. The bolt seizes up. I eventually needed to put a screwdriver througth the ejection port and force back the bolt to get it out. OOCH! Happened pretty reproducibly
I then shortened the rounds all the way down to 2.100 OAL without change. I then kept increasing the crimp until it started buckeling the brass...again without change.
I took factory PMC 55 gr loads and took measurements. OAL 2.250 and they all cycled fine.
It almost seems that they are not properly resized but I have the resizing die turned all the way down and I also took spot measurements of the cases and they seem to be pretty close (say +/- .003) at all spots checked.
Obviously since the factory rounds feed and eject fine, it must be something I'm doing to myself
Please help out a 223 brother!
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