What are we doing wrong?

[pcfixer]

Were loading up some .223 ammo. At the moment were using 55gr hornady z-max. Its got the cannulare(sp) on it and its not boat tail. Even with other rounds we have this problem....we test cycle some rounds and some are really hard to eject. This happened with 55gr sierra hp's, 60gr nosler ballistic tips as well. However, last weekend i cycled all that we reloaded, the stuff that gave me trouble i sorted to the side and took to the range for testing. Firing it gave me no problems what so ever. Cycled fine, ejected fine, loaded fine.

We are thinking too much crimp but according to the directions we barely have any crimp.

Are we missing something here? Doing something wrong?

These are being fired out of ar15's.

From the information you have described:
Two things could cause this. One is the overall length of the brass
before loading, check with a caliper...all of them. trim to lenght specs.
second is the full length resize of case, some brass stick upon loading into
the chamber.. possible, but I think #1 issue is overall length of brass.
JMHO.

 

[lensman]

Don't overdo it

In two different AR's, I've found that any reload that fits in the magazine will feed and fire with no problems. None of my cartridges have ever been crimped and I've never found a case (no pun intended) where the bullet has moved because of recoil. I just select a powder that's appropriate for the bullet weight from the powder manufacturer's website and work up the most accurate load (smallest group at the intended use range) that chrongraphs below the velocity listed for a max load. Obviously, I also watch for signs of excessive pressure in the extracted cases.

Have you chronographed the loads that work vs. those that have failed to extract. Looking for excessive pressure causing the cases to "stick" in the chamber.

Just a thought.

 

[atblis]

Have you chronographed the loads that work vs. those that have failed to extract. Looking for excessive pressure causing the cases to "stick" in the chamber.

If I read his description right, he was talking about hand cycling them, so they weren't being fired.

 

[04RWon]

We dont have a chrono. Friday night we loaded some up with the new ar15 dies. Hornady 55gr fmj's with 23.5gr h322 powder. We set the crimp just as the directions stated. All seemed fine. We did find a few bullets that looked like they werent trimmed enough or trimmed too much, this was visually done by eyeing up the cannuler. We hand cycled some of the questionable one and most worked fine, however some did give small issues but nothing serious. Im sure they will fire as every one before has and done fine. Were starting to get it down, thanks for the help

 

[atblis]

The cannelures are not guaranteed to be in the same place. Winchesters are particularly bad. The Hornadys are historically very consistent about that though.

 

[Bolts Rock]

Besides the cannelure being off a little from bullet to bullet the cases must be the exact same length after sizing or it will affect where the cannelure sits in relation to the case mouth. Are you using a roll crimp, taper crimp or Lee factory crimp?

FWIW- small base dies are almost never needed in rifles with SAAMI spec chambers and then only on minimum tolerance chambers. They are never needed for 5.56 or Wylde chambers.

 

[maverick0379]

Do yourself the biggest favor on earth and buy a set of the RCBS small base x-dies. I was using the Lee full length sizing die and the loaded rounds sometimes would get stuck in the chamber of my AR. The x-die solved this problem and an added bonus is you don't have to trim your brass anymore after you resize the case once.