AR-15 223 Reloading

[CoryTDF]

Hello all,

I have a question about reloading 223 ammo. I have a Remington R-15 VTR and i'm having trouble with my reloads. I shot 20 rounds today and had 7 misfires. I'm having trouble with the bolt going all the way forward. It will fire a few rounds and then i'll pull the trigger and all i hear is "click". If I ram the forward assist i can get some of the rounds to fire, but i shouldn't even have to mess with that.   I am using rcbs standard 223 dies, Hornady brass, Nosler 55grain ballistic tip boat tail bullets, and 24 grains of Hodgden benchmark powder. I have no complaints about the load it has produced close to half inch groups "when they fire!"

 Has anybody had a similar problem? How did you fix it? If anybody has any advice for me that would be great.

Thanks,

[Gutpile]

Check over at predatormasters.com there's a thousand threads about AR's and reloading.  There have been a few threads about this same problem on the R-15 I don't recall the solutions though.

Good luck.

[Ray]

Make sure it is lubed a little.

Cannot commment on that particular load. Just a thought.

[jmkuhlman]

Well there could be a few issues.  I just read that a batch of R-15 firing pins are short and out of spec.

However, your bolt is not going home and that would lead me to believe it is a lube problem or a case issue.  Did you set you resizing die all the way down?  When I first starting reloading, I didn't seat it all the way down and some my 7MM loads would not allow me to lock down the bolt.  I had to force some and this was an issue.  You could also be exceeding the case length.  Are you within spec on case length and max length?

     

[littlebuf]

it would be hard to go over on max length since the round wouldnt fit in the magazine. i have the r-15 my reloads just barely fit in the mag and i dont full length size just neck size. i would make sure you have a good lube. i use tetra gun oil and rem oil, no problems

[Ray]

I think he was talking about case length as opposed to OAL. Although I have never experienced a problem with long case length in regards to misfires and difficulty in getting the round into the chamber before. Not saying I know anything special. Just saying they are not the same.

[CoryTDF]

Thanks for the suggestions guys!

Yeah i have lubed the gun thoroughly. I have a lot of experience with the weapons system from my time in the military, but not much experience with reloading. My case length and overall length is within spec. according to the Speer manual that i have been using. jmkuhlman  I'll try to adjust my dies and see what that does. anybody know anything about having to use smaller dies. I don't know anything about it but i heard that i might have to get a different set of dies. I'm going to check out predatormasters.com

Thanks guys,

If you have anymore ideas feel free to send them my way I'm all ears.

[Ray]

Are there any markings on the rounds or brass which might indicate something is wrong with them in a certain spot?

Have you measured the problematic ammo and also the good ammo to look for any differences? Length,width anything...

Is the powder and load someone else's with the same rifle setup or is it something you picked out of a book on recommendation?

Is the load light in powder?

Have you tried a different powder with the same results?

How does it do with factory ammo nosler 55bt?

[Ray]

One more thing. Not necessarily an AR-15 thing...

One time I loaded up some ammo and it was having an issue with chambering. I later noticed that it was because somehow during the reloading process I had accidentally and slightly malformed the brass. It was not obvious at first until I took that ammo home and noticed it after looking closely.

[shoot-em-dead]

I'm very,very new to reloading but my Speer book says that the most common reason for misfires is the "high primer";the re loader fails to fully seat the primer in the case. When a primer is not fully seated, some of the force of the firing pin drives the primer deeper into the pocket and an additional 50% of energy may be required to activate the primer. This may explain the misfire but the action problem sounds like it needs to be lubed. I always try to keep some in my truck just for my 10-22. I have lubed it twice in the same day if I do a lot of shooting.

I just saw you posted you have a Speer book. If it is manual #14, the info is on page 35

[dontgetcrabs]

Sounds like you might need to up the powder level a bit. If you do not have enough pressure to cycle the action fully the bolt will not have enough inertia to close completely?

[CoryTDF]

Ok,
i went back over everything that went wrong. I was having trouble in about 4 of the 7 misfires with the round not seating all the way when i first released the bolt. I hit the bolt release and let it slam forward. and the bolt did not seat.  The other 3 misfires happened while firing my five shot groups. On all seven of the misfires the rifle went "click" and the when i checked the primers they were clean not even a cambering mark.The gun is lubed and i have fired about 100-120 rounds of factory Hornady V-Max 55 gr. with no problems. I am still trying to fish for information on predatormasters.com but it is a lot of info and I'm not finding anybody with my specific problem. If anybody knows a link that could help me out i am willing to take a look. Thanks keep it coming! I really want to reload so this is very frustrating1

[jmkuhlman]

Just checked out your load at 24 grains of Benchmark and you are fine in this aspect.  I'm checking around some other sites still.

[jmkuhlman]

Here is a helpful link, it appears to be a low charge or required case trimming.  What is your case length?  the charge should be good, but there are some steps you can take to insure this.


http://www.brianenos.com/forums/index.php?s=af9a1abdebad0554f6f0c9572ea90f15&showtopic=80294&pid=931481&st=0&#entry931481

[Ray]

I would look at powder charge and brass. You never specified the load details which I was getting at above. What is the min and max recommended powder charge for this load? You also did not say you measured and closely inspected the two different sets of brass looking for differences. It would not hurt to look at the primers too. Don't just gloss over the fine details because you might miss the problem.