I have a lot of reloading experience for pistols and bolt rifles but am about to take on the .223 in an AR-15. I will be using 52-55 gr. varmint/target bullets. My concern is reports of the AR-15 action cycling causing the bullets to move while cycling in the action. Is there someone here that loads these lighter bullets in an AR? Have you experienced bullets shifting? Are you using some form of crimp. Your thoughts are welcome.
AR-15/.223 bullet seating questions
- Thread starter Jeff A
- Start date
BikeEffects,
A) Yes, they move. B) No, it's not a big deal, and C) it's also in the opposite direction than most people assume. Bullets are almost always "pulled" by ARs upon chambering, not set in deeper during feeding. What you've got there is the world's biggest, heaviest and most expensive kinetic bullet puller every time that bolt closes. I've tested mil-spec ammo and even found those bullets to pull slightly under chambering, if only by .001" or .002". Other bullets can (and do) pull considerably more than this. It also doesn't normally cause any problems, so long as you've got adequate neck tension. As I've seen this occur with even crimped and asphalt sealed ammo, and not had any problems with it in my own competition ammo, I don't bother with a crimp of any kind, and normally recommend against them. Bullets pulling are just a fact of life with these guns, they don't seem to manifest any sort of problems, so don't get too wrapped up in this. Trust me, the guns will still shoot just fine, no problem. If you're actually concerned about deep seating a round during feeding, I'd want to take a better look at the feed ramps, or the gun's chamber itself. Something's not quite right there.
A) Yes, they move. B) No, it's not a big deal, and C) it's also in the opposite direction than most people assume. Bullets are almost always "pulled" by ARs upon chambering, not set in deeper during feeding. What you've got there is the world's biggest, heaviest and most expensive kinetic bullet puller every time that bolt closes. I've tested mil-spec ammo and even found those bullets to pull slightly under chambering, if only by .001" or .002". Other bullets can (and do) pull considerably more than this. It also doesn't normally cause any problems, so long as you've got adequate neck tension. As I've seen this occur with even crimped and asphalt sealed ammo, and not had any problems with it in my own competition ammo, I don't bother with a crimp of any kind, and normally recommend against them. Bullets pulling are just a fact of life with these guns, they don't seem to manifest any sort of problems, so don't get too wrapped up in this. Trust me, the guns will still shoot just fine, no problem. If you're actually concerned about deep seating a round during feeding, I'd want to take a better look at the feed ramps, or the gun's chamber itself. Something's not quite right there.
jonbearman
I live in new york state,how unfortunate !
I use 2 types of crimpers,one is the lee factory crimp and the other is a lyman taper crimp.Both work real well.The only time I have problems with bullets moving is with other people doing a rapid fire exposition after which I melt down on them.I keep one ar for the inexperienced and the other 5 for me..
Ive had great luck with the lee factory crimper and accuracy but with some load work i found a round that doesnt need the crimp for accuracy and with limited testing I havent had any bullet movement.
Get a lightened BCG, a lighter buffer spring, and an adjustable gas block and you will reduce this problem down to almost nothing. You will also see a greatly reduced muzzle flip from the inertia of the BCG slamming back. When I first heard people talk about this problem I went to the range with my ar and opened the gas block up to full pressure so that I could get my ar to slam the BCG as hard as it could. With some fairly hot load, for a .223, and no crimp I couldn't see any noticable difference. I loaded 30 in the mag, fired 29 rapidly and ejected the 30th and measured it. No noticable difference, maybe .0005 but that might have been my calipers. I did this test twice and had the same results. I don't worry about it now.
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