I ordered some (250 rounds) of .223 reloads from Freedom Munitions before I saw the other threads here. Once they arrived, I was pleased to find that they look pretty decent. But upon closer inspection, I realized that the cannelure was not visible, so I measured them. The OAL was anywhere between 2.182" and 2.200".
That seems way too deep for a 55 gr bullet. I seat mine at 2.24" OAL. I am wondering if you think this is a cause for concern. I am thinking of pulling the bullet and dumping the powder. Assuming the cases are a relatively proper length, just running a resizing button into the neck to open it up, then re-seat the bullet and taper-crimp it. This will also give me the opportunity to weigh each powder charge to verify consistency.
What do you folks think?
Sure, IM curious because i ordered 1k about a month ago. I have not shot any yet because time has not permitted.
I am a bit curious as well, but I hate to go to the trouble if it is not a concern. But, by the same token I hate to take them to the range if the depth might cause pressure issues or other problems just to liberate the brass for proper reloading.
They are local too me. I have shot about 1k of their remanf., thete is some concern since have have several ftf/fte and at least a dozen bolt override malfs. The owner of tnis company is same as Howell machine who has had qc/qa issues in the past. Most notable is the explosion at a plant in eastern europe few years back which killed/injured employees…improper handling of powder storage and dismantling of live rounds.
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Well, that is definitely a great reason for concern. I am familiar with some of that already, which is why I am a little fearful now of this ammo. Regardless of whether the bullets are seated too deep or not, I think now I would be better off pulling the bullets and verifying the powder before re-seating them. I would really hate to lose my BCM due to some poor QC/manufacturing practices.
On a side note the new stuff seems ok, or at least thr ammo I have used caused no issues, but in my exp. it was just the remanf. or their “blaster” which caused issues. This ammo was all used in Colt, BCM, DD, Noveske, and Vltor 5.56 chambered weapons.
The pistol ammo ran fine, at least .40 and .45 did without issue in duty and personal Glocks and M&P pistols.
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well shit! now I’m going to have to go sit down and measure each case to make sure I dont blow up my rifle. I’m not about to go shoot this stuff in my SCAR and destroy a $2500 dollar rifle
Thanks for the post OP, I will report back after I measure the 1k I bought
Depending on who manufactured the 55gr FMJ bullet, 2.200" could be a perfectly normal seating depth. Looking at my reloading records, I’ve reloaded 55gr FMJ from various manufacturers, and the seating depths have varied from 2.200" to 2.250".
There is no way in hell I’d be breaking down 250 rounds of commercially loaded ammo, neck sizing it, checking each powder charge, and then re-seating the bullet to an OAL I’m comfortable with. If I had to do that to feel comfortable with the ammo, I’d pony up some more cash and buy better ammo.
Sorry. Read SteadyUp’s post first though. I could very well be wrong.
I have been using Sierra’s manual for my info since the only full-fledged reloading manual I currently own is from 1979 and a “little” outdated.
After reading your post, I started looking at some other sources of information and saw that same OAL variations ranging from 2.20" to 2.25", so you seem to be right on. I did pull one bullet just to see what I could see. It was 55.2 gr FMJBT with a cannelure as advertised. The powder charge weighed 25.1 gr and was a ball powder resembling H335. The case was trimmed to 1.7325", a little shorted than I like to trim, but acceptable nonetheless.
Based on all of this, I guess I was concerned over nothing really and will shoot it at the range without worry.