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223 reloading question

Retired shooter

Gold $$ Contributor
Hello All

I am not a total newbie at reloading, however first time using longer / heavier bulletts. Trying to assemble some longer range ammo for a range trip with my son. No competition, just some long range steel.
Rifle. RR R3 competition 18 in stainless full floating fluted barrel. 1/7. Twist .223 / .556 Wlyde chamber. Magazine fed.
Lake city brass ( because that is what I had) 1.750 case length.
Hornady 73 gr.ELD Match. 1.063 in long.

When checking with a Hornady OAL gauge and the threaded 223 case I come up with a dim. of 2.412 in OAL to jam. Bullet. 654 thou. Out of case. Roughly .401 thou in case.

Magazine feed length overall supposedly 2.260 . So now if I am thinking correctly we need to shorten the OAL by .150 thou to feed from a mag. Seems to me to be major bullet jump. ( how much jump for AR style rifle) ?

Will be using H335 powder. 24 / 25 grains . ( because that is what I have ) With roughly .550 thou bullet in case am I getting close to compressed or dangerous load pressure

From one old dude, you more experienced old dudes explain to me what I am doing wrong or thinking incorrect. If I made a major mistake somewhere , maybe someone will have a good chuckle

Thank in advance
 
You're going to have a good bit of jump if you take them down to AR magazine length.I'd say with 24 grains of powder and the amount of bullet you're going to have in the case,you're gonna have a very full house.Others may have different experience,but my 223's definitely don't shoot as well with a heavily compressed charge.An 18 inch barrel won't turn very high velocity numbers anyway,so I'd stay on the lighter side of the charge weight.AR's usually have fairly long throats but still shoot ok with a lot of jump.
 
That bullet at magazine length is in the Hornady factory match ammo line. Published velocity of 2790. Developed for AR matches. I think you can work up to that velocity with H335, and stay below 23 gr. Blc2 or exterminator would also be options that are available if h335 doesn't work with you rifle.
 
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You are not doing anything wrong. You could get some STAINLESS ASC 223 magazines and if the bullet allows load to 2.316 nominal.

Greg
 
Thank all of you Guys.
Greg Am I correct in thinking the stainless mag will feed the longer length properly, and plus allow the extra length to reduce the amount of bullet jump, and less chance of overpressure. That would reduce jump by about .050 thou. and give an additional .050 thou inside the case

How much jump does the standard A R have. ?

Thanks again to all
 
Thank all of you Guys.
Greg Am I correct in thinking the stainless mag will feed the longer length properly, and plus allow the extra length to reduce the amount of bullet jump, and less chance of overpressure. That would reduce jump by about .050 thou. and give an additional .050 thou inside the case

How much jump does the standard A R have. ?

Thanks again to all

Yes be sure to get the STAINLESS 223 version. It is longer compared to their standard size mil-spec. In your case you are in no danger of loading into the lands though in some chambers remember the closer you get the pressures start to rise. Think upon it as a upside down bell curve. Too short COL and pressures go up because of lower case capacity. Pressure drops as you load longer and then as you get closer to the lands the pressures will rise. I fight this with custom cambers in my wildcats but most OEM barrels never come close to letting you get in this bind. I have maybe a dozen 223/556 AR's I have yet to have one that let me hit lands at any mag length.
 
there is a spec for a 223 rem chamber, BUT a real WLYDE CHAMBER is by design a very long throat.
it was designed to allow an sie 80 gr bullet at 2.45 or so to be single loaded for long range shooting.
the angle of the throat allows other shorter bullets to shoot very well at a 2moa 10 ring at 200/300 yards.
so go with mag length ( go shorter for tips the vary) and see how they shoot.
 
Stay away from 25 gr of H335. That’s around the max safe load in summer temperatures with a 55 gr bullet. I suspect you should stay below 24grs.
 
Stay away from 25 gr of H335. That’s around the max safe load in summer temperatures with a 55 gr bullet. I suspect you should stay below 24grs.
Greg - Joshb & Doom
This is going to be basically a load and go trip. No where around here to shoot at any distance, for any experimentation, or data. Max shooting here at house maybe 50-60 yds.

So from all I have read, I think I will start about the middle of the min- max loads , and check on the ASC stainless mags for more OAL, and a little less jump,and hope for no feeding issues.

This should be very interesting

Thanks.
Bill
 
there is a spec for a 223 rem chamber, BUT a real WLYDE CHAMBER is by design a very long throat.
it was designed to allow an sie 80 gr bullet at 2.45 or so to be single loaded for long range shooting.
the angle of the throat allows other shorter bullets to shoot very well at a 2moa 10 ring at 200/300 yards.
so go with mag length ( go shorter for tips the vary) and see how they shoot.
Funny, all I have read of the wylde chamber says it was designed to accommodate .223 and 5.56 rounds safely in the same chamber. That the free bore fits the 80's so well is just a happy coincidence.
 

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