223 Lake City brass wont chamber!?

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lezmark

lezmark

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I bought a 1000 of these once fired. I sized them all and trimmed the very few that needed it. I seated the Xtreme 55 grain as deep as i could and still catch part of the cannelure and it was 2.24 OAL. They will not fully chamber and fire in my M&P or my Savage bolt action. My Ruger mini 14 had an occasional problem but mostly they worked. I tried some factory and there were no problems. My first thought was maybe I was too long, but when i got home I measured the factory and it was about the same 2.240. I tried pushing a few bullets deeper to 2.181 and they still would not feed here at home in my Savage. What am I missing? HELP!!!
 
My guess they were fired in a machine gun or a gun with a military 5.56 NATO chamber.

Some will say your sizing die is not adjusted properly.

I'd recommend trying a small base sizing die.
 
OK I will,

Your cases are not sized correctly, you need to adjust your sizing die as probably the shoulder is not were it should be.

A case gauge like the Wilson is helpful here. Not everyone agrees as you can measure with calipers but a gauge sure makes life easier.:)

Otherwise it is trial and error on adjust you sizing die up or down a tad.
 
Aaarg... it must be the sizing - I just tried a new Winchester brass and it worked fine. Like a dummy, I loaded up a bunch and I hate to have to pull them all...
 
Life is a learning experience.:) We have all messed up somewhere some how.;)
 
If you set your fl size die(no need for small base ime) to 'bounce off' your shell holder and they don't chamber correctly after trimmed, I'd be returning that die.
 
Well, it is beyond me how i did it but it seems i didnt seat my sizing die low enough. Since i hand prime and still have a few hundred primed and ready to load, I removed the decap pin and ran a few through the sizer again. I tested them versus the other "sized" brass. They chambered fine in my Savage. I guess I will just use up the ones I already loaded in my Mini 14. Wont make that mistake again!
 
As an FYI to the OP and others:

When you said you sized a thousand yet only a few needed trimmed, that told me you weren't really sizing them correctly.

I have to trim nearly every case after one firing & fl sizing from semi auto ARs.
I've even been known to go a tick under 1.750" to avoid it ;)
 
Before you pull all of those bullets get a Trim Die. I have one from RCBS. You can send the round through the Trim Die and it will resize the brass with the bullet in it if the brass is not too deformed. Keep in mind it does not resize it much. You might not get all of the rounds to chamber but my bet is you will get most of them to chamber. An other issue may be you crushed a shoulder on the brass. If you loaded flat based bullets and your neck tension was tight, it can crush the shoulder. It's very difficult to see sometimes. I agree, get a case gauge and check any that you think are out of tolerance.

http://www.midwayusa.com/product/109469/rcbs-trim-die-223-remington

http://www.midwayusa.com/product/456614/le-wilson-case-length-headspace-gage-223-remington

kwg
 
Get a case gauge and skip the small base die. With one exception I use a standard size die. Set up your size die per instructions,size case then try it in your bolt gun if it doesn't fit turn the die down 1/8 of a turn till it chambers. Then take that case and make it a dummy round and see if it chambers in your AR. If it doesn't pull the bullet and repeat the previous steps. That should hold you till you get a case gauge.
 
My case gauge proved to me I needed a small base die. I got one. Problems solved.

Why are some so against small base dies? They work.

My old die wouldn't size the body of the case down enough, not just the shoulder.
 
Many times the problems can be solved by better adjustment of the dies. We should check all those things before using a bigger hammer. Save it for when you know you really need it.

And even a SBD can be adjusted wrong.
 
In 45 years of reloading I used a small base die for only 1 rifle,an ancient Remington 742 in 308. Everything else a combination of standard die and a case guage and that's for my AR 15s.
 
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