.223 in AR-15 touching lands even when loaded to short OAL

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wherermykeys

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I just finished making up a dummy .223 round without powder or primer to gauge what OAL I should be loading to. I'm assuming that I should be loading so it chambers just off the lands right? My problem is that the bullet touches the lands right up until the OAL is so short, the bullet falls into the case when chambered. Am I doing something wrong? I made another round with a fresh bullet and loaded to 2.185, after I extract the round, I can see marks on the bullet that looks like they're coming from the lands. This does mean it's touching the lands right?

It's a 55 grain Hornady FMJ.
Brass is trimmed to 1.750
Full length resized
 
Are you placing the round in the chamber by hand or cycling through the mag? could be marking the bullet when cycling. Try black marker on the bullet, carefully place bullet in the chamber,close the bolt and open slowly and remove the round. Just an idea.
 
The round should drop into the chamber freely right? I still feel resistance when I try to do this. I can put an empty case into the chamber and it stops on the shoulder but it feels different with the complete round.

This is my first time reloading rifle cartridges. With my handgun stuff, I just set the OAL so it drops into the chamber and comes to a stop on the rim of the casing. Should I be aiming for this with rifle cartridges too? I would have thought it should just drop in and headspace on the shoulder right?
 
What make rifle, barrel, chamber?
If you are loading a round with a 55 gr. fmj with an oal of 2.185", and that bullets ogive is touching the lands there is something out of sorts with your chamber.
 
Just lightly resize a round that has been fired in your rifle, insert a bullet, but leave it longer than usual. Load into chamber, close bolt completely, and extract slowly. That is your total chamber length and bullet touching lands. Set your bullet a little deeper and your good to go.
 
iceman2 said:
Are you placing the round in the chamber by hand or cycling through the mag? could be marking the bullet when cycling. Try black marker on the bullet, carefully place bullet in the chamber,close the bolt and open slowly and remove the round. Just an idea.
Click to expand...

good observation! probably marks from the feed ramps.
 
beltfed said:
What make rifle, barrel, chamber?
If you are loading a round with a 55 gr. fmj with an oal of 2.185", and that bullets ogive is touching the lands there is something out of sorts with your chamber.
Click to expand...

Thats what im thinking. if an empty shell sits on the shoulder in the chamber, but you have to push a loaded round in forcefully even when loaded to min OAL... theres something rotten going on there.

Importantly, how old is the gun? Have you fired it before? have you successfully loaded and shot other batches of ammo with different bullets? You could get some nasty pressure and exploding mag syndrome there...

I suggest you don't shoot it until you sort that out... sounds to me like maybe the throad wasn't reamed or something? But then again these things 90% of the time turn out to be something really simple like a caliper out of calibration or crap stuck in/on a part. A good tear down and full inspection is in order, if not a trip to a gunsmith.
 
I'm such a tool. The marks on the bullet were from the extracting of the round as the bolt rotated and the bullet was dragging over the feed ramps making it look like a spiral pattern on it.

I sized one to the same length as the factory rounds I've been shooting and it chambers fine. It's a little short at 2.208 but I'll stick with this for now as I know for sure the gun shoots and cycles fine at this length.

Thanks everyone and happy new year!
 
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