Modified C.O.L. for Hornady 55gr BT FMJ

[Mohave-Tec]

The Hornady manual calls for a 2.260 maximum COL for a Hornady 55gr BT FMJ for a 223. I've had serious feeding issues with this load. Then I bought a box on 55gr WalMart WB and checked that they are loaded to only 2.20 COL (they do have a flatter nose than the Hornady) but shoot very well in my AR.
Do you guys have improved feeding with a cartridge loaded at maximum recommended length or even just off the lands or do you tend to load short for your AR to improve on feeding issues. Why do you think either was the answer for you? Keep in mind the the magazine does not appear to be part of the equation either way.
Also, do you think loading hotter or weaker improves feed reliability?
Thanks all.

 

[2 Horse]

Horandy's load data says coal is 2.220, the mouth of your case should be in the middle of the crimp grove. The 2.260 is max that will work in the mags

 

[rg1]

Hornady recommends seating their .223 55 gr. FMJ's to 2.200". They work well with no issues seated from 2.200-2.230". I seat to 2.220" which puts the cannelure at the case mouth which allows me to properly crimp. Hornady's 55 FMJ does have a blunter tip than some 55 FMJ bullets and the oal will be shorter than others with a sharper pointed tip. Military and some other 55 FMJ's with a sharply pointed tip should be seated to 2.250". You'll not see any accuracy improvements in an AR by seating longer out to the maximum magazine length. The bullet still has a long jump to the rifling seated long. Now in a bolt action .223 Rem the distance to the lands is shorter. In my .223 bolt action an overall length of 2.246" will let the Hornady 55 FMJ touch the lands and longer will not allow the bolt to close. Seat the Hornady 55 FMJ from 2.200-2.230" for best results. To get the Hornady 55 FMJ to touch the lands in two popular brand AR's overall length would be 2.370" in one and 2.390" in the other. At that length they obviously won't fit in a magazine and the bullet is practically falling out of the case neck. So don't worry about seating closer to the lands in a standard AR.

 

[Mohave-Tec]

Well well well. Long ago I created a spread sheet with my favorite loads. I appears I have the wrong COl on my spread sheet. MY AR and both my bolts love my 60gr VMAX. Maybe I'll start making my range ammo correctly. Lets try that. (as he walks away with head hung low.......)

 

[Rule3]

Also are you full sizing and trimming your brass to the same trim to length?

 

[Walkalong]

Maybe I'll start making my range ammo correctly.

Don't kick yourself too hard. I just double checked a load that showed great promise and found I had written the powder measure setting down wrong. I had to pull a couple of rounds to figure out if I had written the powder charge down wrong or the setting. :banghead:

Arghh. But at least I had a couple left over to pull, and now I know what it was.

 

[steve4102]

OAL is always bullet and firearm specific, not manual specific.. First and foremost it must fit-feed-fire, without that the load is useless.

Some manuals don't even list the OAL tested it is that unimportant.

 

[Mohave-Tec]

Rule 3, no. I full length size but don't trim. For range ammo/FMJ I cull rounds of 1.744 to 1.754 as they will stretch to 1.75-1.76 when full length sized. For range ammo this is good enough and I don't have to trim, chamfer or debur saving me a lot of time making range 223 ammo. I use BT bullets and I dry tumble so I don't have to lube the inside of the case mouths.
Now for my defense and target rounds I run .02 off the lands specific for each of my rifles. Every case is trimmed and crimped accordingly if crimped at all.

 

[Mohave-Tec]

Walkalong, you can say not to kick myself too hard but I have over 1600 rounds of range ammo to recheck for COL. As a matter of fact, while I'm thinking about it, I think I'll just chuck up a seating die in a single stage and just run them all. It will be just as fast as measuring them all.

 

[gahunter12]

I load all of my .223 ammo to 2.228" for my ARs. I have 100% reliability with this OAL.

 

[Mohave-Tec]

I am just flabbergasted. I think I'm the greatest reloader in the world. It is because of this that I was determined my reloads were perfect but my hand assembled $2400 AR was somehow defective. After 6 months of absolute scientific approaches to trouble shooting my beautiful AR I just found out every Hornady 55gr I have stashed is loaded to a 2.60 COL. Somebody shoot me please.

 

[moxie]

I seat case mouth to center of cannelure. This works out to ~2.240-2.250. No crimp.

Spray cases with One Shot. No need to lube inside of case mouths as a separate step. They slide right in but have perfect neck tension. Solid.

I notice no difference in feeding when loading hotter or slower. They all feed, fire and eject 100%.

 

[Rule3]

Rule 3, no. I full length size but don't trim. For range ammo/FMJ I cull rounds of 1.744 to 1.754 as they will stretch to 1.75-1.76 when full length sized. For range ammo this is good enough and I don't have to trim, chamfer or debur saving me a lot of time making range 223 ammo. I use BT bullets and I dry tumble so I don't have to lube the inside of the case mouths.
Now for my defense and target rounds I run .02 off the lands specific for each of my rifles. Every case is trimmed and crimped accordingly if crimped at all.

What I was try to get to was if you are using the 55 gr w/c and do not trim it will be near impossible to get the COL seated to the factory 2.200 if you seat to the center of the cannelure. Even trimmed my COL is a tad longer than 2.200 seating to the cannelure. Seating to the groove mine come out to 2.213 or so.

If your brass gets over 1.760 then it does need a trim.

Yes you can do as you mentioned and just seat the bullets deeper but the cannelure will be buried in the case neck.I don't know how much that effects things but I like to see the top edge of it.

 

[Mohave-Tec]

Unless you are specifically crimping to the cannelure then the cannelure means absolutely nothing. You do not have to make it a point the split the cannelure. If you are loading for chamber depth the cannelure may well be completely exposed from under the case rim.

 

[moxie]

You can seat it anywhere you want. Crimped or not. But I thought you were asking for advice? Now you are lecturing. Seating at the mid-cannelure is consistent with Hornady's data. Most consider the cannelure to be a good seating point. Most of us also size and trim. But you don't. Feel free to do it your way.

 

[Walkalong]

The bullet is designed to feed when seated to the cannelure. That doesn't mean it has to be, just saying. It isn't an accuracy bullet after all.

 

[Mohave-Tec]

Don't get too excited there moxie. My OP was answered with the second post. I made a mistake in loading this bullet to 2.60 COL. I knew better but wasn't paying attention to one (1) detail. 2 Horse quicklt slapped me back into submission and the reality didn't have anything to do with the cannelure. I wasn't lecturing anybody. It just seemed to me, after my problem was corrected, that somebody else could use some advice about the cannelure.
Like Walkalong said, the cannelure is meant to be loaded at the rim but if somebody chose to load for the chamber of their bolt, it is perfectly ok to ignore the cannelure and go with chamber depth instead. Of course I have never seen anybody choose to use a FMJ BT when they are so carefully gauging chamber depth. It's just not the bullet one would normally chose when loading for accuracy. It just seemed to me that some may think the cannelure just has to be split by the rim.
I use this Hornady bullet with the cannelure because the ojive is a little more concentric on this bullet than a lot of other cheap bulk bullets. I don't crimp this bullet so I don't even care that it has a cannelure. And it's a good thing that I don't care if it has a cannelure because my plinking rounds cases are anywhere from 1.75 to 1.76 long and a crimp could land anywhere along the crimp or not on the cannelure at all.
Other guys: point is, it is ok to use this bullet as you see fit even though it was designed for a crimp at the cannelure. It is not gospel that a crimp be on the cannelure or that there be a crimp at all on this bullet.

 

[cowtownup]

I seat these bullets and the extreme 55 grainers W/C at 2.240" OAL and have not had issue with neck tension or feeding in my PSA rifle... At that OAL, all of the cannelure is still above the case mouth... (I trim to 1.750)