Hot loaded factory ammo

[kyotekiller25]

I bought a box of the cheap factory frontier 55g fmj to get my AR15 223 wylde with a 20" krieger 7.7 twist on paper with the new 5-25x strike eagle scope I just put on. Box says 3240fps, so you can imagine my thoughts when I was getting 3475-3500fps. Popped 1 primer out of 10 rounds, and had a severe gas leak on another. I quit shooting after the 10th round and the popped primer. Anybody else ever ran into this issue? Velocity was measured with the Garmin. I also tried another factory load, federal 53g vmax clocked in at 3381fps average for 10 rounds, box says 3400fps. Brass all looked good on those, nothing over pressure. Then I followed up with my handloads of 25.6g Benchmark with a 53g vmax. Velocity was 3310 for 10 rounds. Nothing shot great, matter of fact the factory federal 53g vmax shot the best at 1.25" for 5 rounds at 100 yards. The frontier 55g fmjs were like 2.5" and my 53g vmax/Benchmark were like 2"

 

[10XSHOOTER]

Frontier ammo at one time was loaded with Lake City brass, Tough as Hell.
New Frontier is loaded with Hornady brass. Not Tough as Hell

 

[kyotekiller25]

That's true, but not the reason why Im seeing 250 FPS over the box in a 20" AR...

 

[1shot]

Ya better send that stuff to me. I'll shoot it in my 8" AR, that will slow them down! LOL

 

[SeabeeKen]

A quick run of GRT without specific data shows your load slightly over pressure. As for the Hornady stuff, you might want to call them

 

[243winxb]

However, it is not safe to shoot “5.56,” “5.56 NATO,” or “5.56x45mm” ammunition in a barrel marked as being chambered in 223 Remington for a number of reasons. The main reason being that a barrel marked as chambered in 223 Remington will have a shorter throat into the rifling than a “5.56” barrel which may cause increased pressure if the “5.56” ammunition is fired in it. This can result in serious injury or death to the user and/or bystanders, as well as damage to the firearm.

SAAMI Looks like a barrel/chamber problem?

AR15 223 wylde with a 20" krieger 7.7 twist

Sierra did have different load data for bolt & Ar15 5.56/223.

https://www.accurateshooter.com/cartridge-guides/223rem/

 

[243winxb]

AI Overview

A limited number of Frontier 5.56 rounds were recalled in 2019/2020 due to potential over-pressure issues, particularly with a specific batch.


https://ar15barrels.com/

 

[Walt Krafft]

Some lots of 223/5.56 have had that problem for years. I would just move on to other ammo. Poop happens.

 

[kyotekiller25]

I think I'll call them and give them the lot #. I did see some things about kaboom with frontier 55g ammo few years back. I guess you can't expect much from $8 box of ammo...Not going to worry about $4 and 10 rounds.

 

[kyotekiller25]

Sierra did have different load data for bolt & Ar15 5.56/223.

https://www.accurateshooter.com/cartridge-guides/223rem/

There's no issues shooting 5.56 in a 223 Wylde chamber, that's not the issue here. That is the perk of the wylde chamber, being able to shoot 223 or 5.56.

 

[243winxb]

Thfere's no issues shooting 5.56 in a 223 Wylde chamber, that's not the issue here

But it just happened.

 

[kyotekiller25]

I'm the OP...It's not a chamber issue. Does anyone else think firing 5.56 in a 223 Wylde chamber is the issue? Seems to me like it's an ammo issue. When factory loads are running 200-250fps faster than what they should, that's the problem. And after a bit of research on this ammo, it's had A LOT of recalls for being over pressure, and destroying rifles in the past.

 

[243winxb]

Don't be next. https://bulletin.accurateshooter.com/2020/01/black-rifle-blow-ups-shocking-ar-15-kaboom-collection/

My M16 was made for 5.56. The chamber is even longer then 223.

 

[kyotekiller25]

I'm not shooting anymore of it, that's for sure. Definitely won't be buying anymore of it either. I just bought a cheap box to get it on paper before I used my handloads to get it dialed in.

I tried calling Hornady, but looks like they're closed on the weekends. Have to give them a call Monday and let them know about this lot. I'm not going to worry about being reimbursed for 10 shells worth $4. Not worth my time, hassle, and definitely not my rifle or my life...But it still needs to be brought to their attention because something really bad still could've happened with the 10 rounds I did shoot. Lucky all that happened was 1 popped primer and 1 gas leak.

 

[searcher]

I have a factory-barrel Ruger M77 in .257 Roberts that can't shoot certain brands of factory ammo, which I tried following getting those types of results with what I didn't think were very hot hand loads. Because I ran into pressure issues with my handloads, I was curious to try some factory stuff in that rifle just to see how it did in comparison. The rifle shoots just fine with lower-powered handloads and some factory ammo. The particular barrel just shoots everything at higher velocity than most rifles and won't tolerate some.

 

[dantiff2]

Definitely get a hold of Hornady and don’t shoot any more of those! First thing they are going to ask is how many rounds are on the rifle and have you confirmed with a bore scope that there is no carbon build up in the throat or lead in the barrel. According to their podcast, most if not all over pressure issues end up being rifle issues and not the ammo. I’m sure they’ll want a sample from you though to test.
Dan

 

[6.5 forever]

I seen the title and I thought for sure it was about Hornady 7PRC ammo.

 

[kyotekiller25]

Has around 600-700 rounds through it. But it's been cleaned several times. No carbon ring. If it had a carbon ring, the other 2 ammo I shot would have been sky high also, not just the Frontier, which seems to be the problematic type....

 

[Cloudrepair]

I've had some 7mm-08 superformance that was to hot also blown primers and to much expansion in the head of the brass.
Also hornady ammo

 

[dantiff2]

Has around 600-700 rounds through it. But it's been cleaned several times. No carbon ring. If it had a carbon ring, the other 2 ammo I shot would have been sky high also, not just the Frontier, which seems to be the problematic type....

^agreed^ however, Hornady does seem to be on the hotter side of all factory ammo and 99% of all over pressure issues that I read about on Reddit is always Hornady factory ammo. Alas, when they get it in their facility and try it in "their" test barrels it shows sammi specs. There are a a few cases where the ammo in question was a problem but that's rare.
Dan