AR-15 (I have to keep mortaring to get rounds out)

[Member 5605]

Thanks Bill, that's good to know. I'll check it out after a couple hundred more rounds and see if I have some more... "play" to speak of if not I may consider something different.

 

[Heywood]

just an fyi. Please do not ever lock a bolt carrier group forward on an ar without a firing pin. The cam pin can turn and completely lock the rifle, and I mean completely as ther is no way I know to fix it.

 

[Member 5605]

just an fyi. Please do not ever lock a bolt carrier group forward on an ar without a firing pin. The cam pin can turn and completely lock the rifle, and I mean completely as ther is no way I know to fix it.

I got lucky and mine didn't. I'm considering ordering an extra firing pin and cutting 1/4" off the end of it so it won't cause that issue. Would make it safe too..

Mark Wahlberg in Shooter comes to mind.

 

[U8395279]

Gun or hand load issue?

I'm confused. Earlier you said: " Same thing in other rifle as well."

Does that mean that you were able to duplicate the problem in a second rifle? If that is so, then obviously it is not the gun that is at fault.

What about factory ammo? Do you have any factory ammo that causes this problem?

.

 

[U201491]

Some scratches from magazine, and from ejecting, but nothing on the body suggest that it's sticking.

It does appear to be a matte color at the shoulder though, like it was pressed in hard there, but no real scratches there..

Bullet is fine, no marks from it contacting rifling. I'm loading to .223 lengths not 5.56, and the 5.56 emergency stash loaded and ejected fine with the longer leade.

Kiddo comes out of his bedroom and is like ... Um.. dad, why are you POUNDING on the floor?

No reason son... please ignore me I don't want to get frustrated.

View attachment 228639

What is that perpendicular line half way up on your case?

 

[Member 5605]

I'm confused. Earlier you said: " Same thing in other rifle as well."

Does that mean that you were able to duplicate the problem in a second rifle? If that is so, then obviously it is not the gun that is at fault.

What about factory ammo? Do you have any factory ammo that causes this problem?

.

Answer:

Thanks @rick benjamin for catching that.

Line on body:
Caused by my Lee deburring tool. I've since gotten rid of it. It would scratch the sides of the cases when I was using it.

Neck:
As to that I'm not sure. Probably a distortion in the lack of photography skills.


Since I don't quit easily I gave it one more college try and her are the results:

1. Pulled 10 bullets that didn't look right in the case gauge (like maybe they were too long by a hair)
2. Dumped powder into container
3. Set the die down another 1/4 turn (total of 1/2 turn according to RCBS instructions)
4. Removed decapper and re-ran 10 pieces of brass through the now lowered sizing die
5. Put bullets back in using same settings as before
6. Same crimp, same seat length
7. Loaded 10 into magazine.
8. Cycled all of them (manually) with no issues.
9. All 10 of the cases I redid fall at the MINIMUM headspace length and not the maximum.

So would you say the issue is resolved now?

I'm not so sure. I'll run another batch of 10 here shortly and see if I get the same results. If so it appears that the brass was tougher than the dies and press (in a manner of speaking). Required more bubblegum behind the lever. Even with them having been resized before I could still tell that I was making them move when working the press. There sure was some resistance.

Calipers show .005" (+/-.00075") that they were setback after second resizing. (1.775" vs 1.7695"

What is that perpendicular line half way up on your case?

Answer:

 

[U201491]

Do you have a fired case that came from that chamber?
Partly slide the fired case into the chamber, then hit the bolt release
When pulling the charging handle, does the fired case extract?
Compare the fired and reloaded case.
Your cartridge picture reveals a couple somethings
View attachment 228677
The top yellow line: don't know what that is.
Yellow line at the neck: Looks like when you resized, you set the shoulder back a bit.
Also looks like the bullet and neck are a bit distorted.

Yes, Like a strange possibility of a double taper ? It is odd. A smooth enough chamber and the black would not be rubbed off either. Ie; too perfect of a fit. If you get my drift.

At one point I used to polish everything, Chambers, Lap Bores, and I made many of my own sizing dies. There is a thing called too much precision that can introduce all kinds of problems.

Sometimes I think the Russians had a point in sloppy functions better, but it drives me nuts. I liked ultra precision. I did have some issues with a 243 when I did all the above and everything after that I loosened up and put a little "rough" into finishes. It smoothed out all the load and extraction issues. (pun intended)

 

[U201491]

Answer:




Answer:
View attachment 229832

Ahh ok...

 

[U8395279]

Answer:




Answer:
View attachment 229832

I was just looking for a straightforward answer as to whether you had duplicated the problem on a 2nd rifle or not, and whether factory ammo was having any issues.

I really don't have a clear picture at all of the situation.

.

 

[Member 5605]

Issue is resolved. Was happening in both rifles.

Brass wasn't being completely sized properly. the headspace was .0065" off.

 

[rick benjamin]

Excellent!

 

[308]

Issue is resolved. Was happening in both rifles.

Brass wasn't being completely sized properly. the headspace was .0065" off.

I had a similar problem with .308 reloads. They would work fine in the bolt gun but they constantly stuck in the M1A.