berettaprofessor
Member
Some help, please. Yesterday, I was shooting some 224 Valk reloads for group. The reloads are FC brass, once previous fired, trimmed to 1.590, with a Berger 90 grain VLD bullet and OAL of 2.260 and had a very very light crimp. They were loaded in a 10 round 6.8 SPC metal AR-Stoner magazine. Out of 26 cases, 4 had the pictured nick at the neck rim; 3 minor, and the 4th one, on the right, was a ftf that when extracted, had the bullet significantly pushed down into the neck and this enormous nick (thank god it didn't fire). Sorry, I removed the bullet before the picture. The other three rounds fired and ejected normally and I found them later on inspection. These 4 rounds showed no signs of overcharge that I could detect and the other 22 brass cases of these reloads were pristine if maybe a little sooty around the neck.
My belief is that these nicks are occurring as the bullet is loaded from the magazine or being inserted into the chamber prior to firing, but I only say that because of the ftf in the bullet on the right.
I don't see any spurs in the magazine rim or in the chamber to explain them. The three brass on the left were 1.590" to 1.592" after firing, as were the other undamaged brass. The brass on the left was 1.608 after pulling the bullet and emptying the powder. Any ideas would be appreciated.
As a side note, for those shooting Hornady's 224 Valk Match 88 gran ELD, they are fairly hot. I tried 5 of them yesterday. Accuracy wasn't great and 2/5 rounds had ejector marks on them.
My belief is that these nicks are occurring as the bullet is loaded from the magazine or being inserted into the chamber prior to firing, but I only say that because of the ftf in the bullet on the right.
I don't see any spurs in the magazine rim or in the chamber to explain them. The three brass on the left were 1.590" to 1.592" after firing, as were the other undamaged brass. The brass on the left was 1.608 after pulling the bullet and emptying the powder. Any ideas would be appreciated.
As a side note, for those shooting Hornady's 224 Valk Match 88 gran ELD, they are fairly hot. I tried 5 of them yesterday. Accuracy wasn't great and 2/5 rounds had ejector marks on them.