[jjfuller1]

so ive pumped out about 300 reloads of .223 shot about 240 of em. this morning my wife encountered my first mistake. from what i can gather she inserted a round, it failed to fire and was stuck in the chamber. she cleared that and inserted another round. this round jammed going into the chamber. holding the bolt partially open. at this point the bolt wouldnt move either direction. took a pair of pliers and some muscle to get the round ejected. the first round that misfired had the bullet pushed the shell. and thus there was powder in the chamber area. this is why i think caused the second jam.
notice there is also no primer strike on the round that got pushed in.

target is after the jam my wifes 30 rnds at 50yds

do you think this means my crimp is not tight enough?
or could the OAL have been too long?
and why when the second one jammed. would it take that much force to move the BCG to the rear?

[anm2_man]

I don't think its a overall Length problem. If they went into the magazine with no problem, the length is good. But it does look like a non existent crimp on the round in the picture. My next question is "Who put the dent in that second round ?" I'm not an AR expert, but I do reload a lot of .223. If the dent was in the case before it was attempted to be chambered, its a non issue, but something put the dent in it and it took some force to do that. Next question to you is "Was all of the brass correctly trimmed to size before reloading ?" If these two rounds are shorter than all of the others, then there is the reason why they are not crimped.

[masterPsmith]

When loading for any semi-auto rifle, it is a must to have the bullet crimped. The condition you encountered can be catastrophic as you will see below. When I load .223/5.56 for my Mini or an AR, they are loaded using a slightly undersize (.001") expander ball and using a taper crimp for a tight bullet grip. The photo below shows what can happen and did happen to one of my customer's AR about 18 years ago. The same condition, except the round fully chambered and fired. It exploded the upper, ballooned the lower and exploded the magazine. He did receive several minor injuries and was lucky that was all.

Jim............

I knew I kept the upper parts all these years for a reason !!!!!!!!!!!!

[W. C. Quantrill]

I think right here is why I dont shoot reloads in the AR or the Mini. After using the pencil on the Big Chief Tablet, I came out with the idea that I could buy imported ammo at a lesser cost than the components to reload,,,and so I have been leaving the empties lay where they fall.

[robocop10mm]

A firm crimp is important for many self loading rifles. You seem to have NO crimp.

Yes W.C. you can buy cheap import ammo for less than you can buy quality components. If all you want to do is shoot cheap ammo, go ahead. If you want quality ammo for about the same money, Handload. My "cheap" plinking load will shoot sub MOA all day long. Not even "good" milsurp or "white box" ammo will do that.

[W. C. Quantrill]

I have a complete reloading bench with 4 dedicated presses and all the "stuff". My cheap import ammo does just fine, I do a lot of shooting, but it does not require sub MOA, MOA works just fine for what I need. I reload a lot of ammo as you must guess, but I dont reload 5.56, nor do I reload 9mm. It is more economical to use the import for those 2 cartridges. I do reload for my business rifles though. They are used long range, and must kill on the first shot. My M700 will shoot sub MOA with my reloads. I just dont need sub moa for day in and day out coyotes!!!!!!

[jjfuller1]

Originally Posted by anm2_man

I don't think its a overall Length problem. If they went into the magazine with no problem, the length is good. But it does look like a non existent crimp on the round in the picture. My next question is "Who put the dent in that second round ?" I'm not an AR expert, but I do reload a lot of .223. If the dent was in the case before it was attempted to be chambered, its a non issue, but something put the dent in it and it took some force to do that. Next question to you is "Was all of the brass correctly trimmed to size before reloading ?" If these two rounds are shorter than all of the others, then there is the reason why they are not crimped.

Trimmed no. Measured yes. All the brass was under the trim length so I didn't trim

[jjfuller1]

Originally Posted by robocop10mm

A firm crimp is important for many self loading rifles. You seem to have NO crimp.

Yes W.C. you can buy cheap import ammo for less than you can buy quality components. If all you want to do is shoot cheap ammo, go ahead. If you want quality ammo for about the same money, Handload. My "cheap" plinking load will shoot sub MOA all day long. Not even "good" milsurp or "white box" ammo will do that.

I will play with my crimp adjustments the next time at the bench

[jjfuller1]

Thanks guys

[robocop10mm]

Originally Posted by jjfuller1

Trimmed no. Measured yes. All the brass was under the trim length so I didn't trim

One of the problems with this is inconsistent length. Even though they are under max length, differing lengths cause inconsistent crimps. I trim all .223 cases to "trim length" and set the Lee Factory Crimp Die to make a consistent crimp.