Well I went camping and shooting this weekend and used my reloads while shooting my AR and I was getting class 3 malfuntions. Bolt was not reseting and a round was getting gumed up in the chamber. Live round not the previous case. The round following the first round.
I cleaned the AR before the class started.
Took an A1 out as well and it did that after 7 rounds.
Basically my reloads are getting stuck in the chamber being gumed up quick too. It is a Sabre 5.56 AR upper.
Do I not have enough powder in the rounds I am thinking. I switched out BCGs and the same thing happened.
I thought it was the BCGs but I guess I was wrong.
I finished the class with Wolf.
Load is:
55 grain Federal Bullet
23.3 grains of Ramshot powder
COL: is 2.250
Primer is FED 205
I was thinking of loading up some rounds from the same batch of brass with 24.4-24.8 grains to see if it is truely not enough powder and I might be getting more blowback.
The chambers are black with gum and there were some brass shavings. Maybe too much lube maybe I need to get a new sizing die.
Ideas or suggestions would be helpful.
Rifle Sabre Defense Upper/RRA Lower
BCG is a COLT BCG
It is a midlength
If we’re talking about Ramshot TAC, 23.3 grains sounds pretty weak. Several of us here run 24.5 grains on top of Hornady bulk 55 gr FMJBTs for an excellent, mild, and VERY accurate practice load.
The other thing to look at is your headspace on your brass. You might not be getting your brass squeezed down far enough. If you don’t have a headspace guage, GET ONE. I can’t imagine trying to load semi auto rifle ammo without one.
This is what happened to me also. What I found out and I could be wrong but it cured my problem. Most loading dies are .223 remington and a sabre which is what I have also is 5.56 and the 223 is a couple of thousands longer so it won’t chamber all the way in. I had the die screwed all the way down to the shell holder and it still was too long so I am fortunate to have a small hobby lathe. It would not cut the hard die so I used a dremel tool and a small grinding wheel and spun the die in the lathe and ground about .008 off of the bottom of the die. This gave me a little more room to screw the die down. I also trim my cases to 1.740 and they work fine. I also got a Dillon case gage in .223 and double check my loaded shells. I haven’t had a problem since and I’ve loaded about 5000 shells since I shortened the die.This is what cured my problem and is only a suggestion maybe someone else can confirm this before you try it.The dies I use are the RCBS X Dies which some one else suggested.
Headspace on a .223 and a 5.56 are identical. So are max case lengths.
If you had to grind .008 off of your die before cartridges would chamber, I’d be looking to see if your chamber is cut short. You might want to try and see if your chamber will accept a GO gauge. If it does, you’re OK, but if it doesn’t, I’d send the barrel back to Sabre and get a new one.
Or, if you have a Stoney Point tool (now Hornady), try measuring some fired cases and see how they measure WRT headspace. If below minimums, your chamber is tight.
If the chamber checks out OK, then the problem was with your die.
A common problem when firing 5.56 mil-spec ammo in an AR15 with a SAAMI-spec .223 chamber, is that once in a while a spent primer will fall out of a case as it is extracted. Sometimes the primers fall clear and there’s no problem, other times they will go under the trigger and get wedged, rendereing the rifle inoperable. I’ve seen some extreme cases of this where the hammer and trigger were actually hard to get out. I’ve seen them get wedged between the charging handle and the inside of the receiver, with the bolt out of battery, so that the gun had to have the stock removed so the bolt could be removed to clear the primer. It is not unknown for the primer anvil get stuck on the tubular portion of the carrier key! Popped primers are due in part to the tighter, shorter freebore and shorter, more abrupt throat of the .223 chamber, causing a pressure spike with the hotter, mil- spec ammo. This reamer will address these areas as well as making sure the neck diameter is not too tight or short, without changing headspace. It does not cut the shoulder or anything behind it; it stops off on the shoulder. Of course, whatever rifle you’re shooting, you could just look at what’s stamped on the barrel-- it might say .223, or it might say 5.56, or it might say nothing. You could call the manufacturer and ask them what chamber you have, but even if you get to talk to somebody who understands the question, they likely don’t really know. They may tell you what you want to hear, but truth is, not many AR15 manufacturers make their own barrels. They buy them from someone else, so they don’t really, truly know what chamber you have. Some of them will flat decline to discuss it with you.
This is what Michiguns Ltd-AR-15 Tools says about .223 and 5.56 being identical and they sell a reamer to make your .223 a 5.56 so they must not be identical.
Joe
The OP reports he’s shooting a SD upper. Those are considered GTG. They should be 5.56.
On the off chance it isn’t, I offered some troubleshooting tips for his reloads (as well as your situation).
The problem could be:
(1) His chamber. Possible, but not likely.
(2) His reloading die. The same.
(3) His reloading recipe. Given the probability that his chamber is a 5.56, I’d load right up to max from Ramshot relaoding guide and see whether or not things work. Data worked up in .223 SAAMI test barrels shouldn’t cause any problems in 5.56 chambers. Charges that are too low can sometimes burn very dirty and gum things up, especially with ball powder. That might be a situation where you have to up the powder charge to hit the pressure threshold for clean burning. Just a thought.
I run 24 grains of exterminator behind a 55 grain mil surplus or 55 grain Hornady FMJ without issues. I also use CCI Military spec primers. I also run 24 grains of TAC behind surplus ss 109 62 grainers without issues.
I loaded 60 last night without a crimp to see if the crimp could be the cause of it.
I never had an issue with my reloads without a crimp. Just started doing it on this big batch this past Feb because well I was getting ready to move and it would be a few months until I got to set up and reload for my Rifles.
I am going to take my bushy 20 inch out as well and see if I can do it to that rifle with my crimped reloads.
With a cannelure…you want to crimp, but a "Taper Crimp’ not a “Rolled Crimp”. Are you seating and taper crimping in 2 different operations??? Your seater roll crimp feature should not even touch the sides of the case mouth. If it does, back the seater die down until it doesn’t and us just your seater plug to achieve the proper seating depth.
Shooting non taper crimped loads in a Semi auto (any semi auto) is not a good practice as “Set Back” on chambering can occur and lead to dangerous pressures.
One thing that might be noteworthy enough to add on this thread would be the benefits of using a small base sizer die when loading for autoloaders. Especially if the casings have been fired more than once. The small base die ensures that the web of the casing gets sized back into proper specs and can eliminate casings getting stuck during the feed cycle. They do work the brass a little more and may reduce useful case life somewhat…but in the long run they are worth the initial investment.
Something else to think about is a post cleaning of the reloaded ammo. In my experiences Die wax and case lube can gum up and cause sticky extraction.
I have had good results using Hogdon BL-C(2) Powders in the .223/5.56.
Burns relatively clean and flows through my Redding BR Powder measure like water.
This is good advice although I haven’t had to go to a small base sizer.
However…I totally agree with cleaning after the reloading process. Even the factories do it.
I vibratory tumble my finished loads for 10 minutes’ and then lay them on a towel, fold the towel over a few times and gently shake from left to right in the towel for 50 strokes to remove any residue from the tumbler. Over 50,000 rounds without a problem.
There are those that will say this is dangerous, but they haven’t talked to Winchester and Federal like I have. Both factories vibrate their loads for cleaning after the initial loading process.
They will also say that has a negative effect on the powder. To that I say…“No more than all the vibration the rounds get from here to Iraq”!
Smokeless Powder is much more robust and resilient than many give it credit for.
It sounds to me like you are not completely sizing the brass and the cases are a little long. Make sure your die is tight against the shellholder. On my RCBS die I had to take a little off the top of the shellholder with some sandpaper to get the brass completely sized. It would not chamber in my Rem 700 or AR until I did this.
A case gauge is your friend: Link
You can use it to measure your brass before you load it.
I tumble, lube, size, and deprime my cases then wash them in a liquid brass cleaner from this recipe:
1 gallon of water
1/2 cup of white vinegar
2 tbsp of lemon juice
1 tbsp of powdered laundry detergent. You may want to add more or less depending on the lube you are using.
After they are dry, I run them through the tumbler again and the brass comes out like shiny new. I inspect the cases and check the primer flash holes then I put the brass in ziploc bags ready to be loaded.
The issue with RCBS Dies not properly sizing is the reason I quit using RCBS back in the days when I was deeply into Varmint Rifles and Benchrest.
I switched over to Redding Dies, Presses and Powder Measures and have never looked back or been disappointed with them at all.
Other than the Wilson Hand Dies I used in my Bench guns…I have been buying and using Redding Products which have proven to be of excellent quality and have provided great accuracy with my reloads.
They cost a litle more but are worth the extra few dollars in the long run.
The washing is not a necessary step and I may be sounding a little anal but I really like the results.
The issue I have had with that is on random cases the dust in the media tends to stick to some of the lube and leaves black spots on the cases. For some reason it doesn’t do it on all the cases, maybe 1 out of 5. If I run fresh clean media the problem is not as bad.
The other reason I like to wash them after sizing is that it helps clean the carbon out of the primer pockets. The tumbling after that hits the pockets again.
I see. So you do get some more carbon out of the brass.
Someone made the point here that… Tumbling the brass with all the lube on it shortens the life of your media. I think there’s something to that. When the media gets heavy and has absorbed a bunch of case lube it loses its speed. It literally moves slower in the tumbler which kills the efficiency of the cleaning process.
I could see this quite dramatically when I changed out my last batch of media. The old stuff wasn’t cleaning worth a crap. I could literally see a significant improvement in media flow with the new, clean stuff.
