223 not chambering

Take this with a grain of salt:

I've only been reloading for about five years now, but I've been reloading .223 rem since the very beginning, and reloading Hornady V-Max and Nosler 60 grain varmint rounds for the last four years, and in my inexpert opinion, your rounds are too long. What I mean is, that just looking at your photos, my first thought was, "those bullets aren't seated deep enough." And if I can see that the bullets are too long in a photo, then they're probably too long by a good bit.

If I were you I'd go back and check to make sure you're measuring your cartridges' lengths correctly, or if there might be a problem with your calipers before considering anything else.

Like I said, I'm no expert, so take my suggestion with a grain of salt, but that was my first thought.

Oh, and i seat my 60 grainers to approximately 2.245-2.255
 
The rather brutal straight-shank-to-curved-ogive transition of Hornady bullets can give no end end of nasty surprises in some rifles.
(My Model-70 30-06 was one, and initially I'd thought I'd lost my mind. )

Seat to Hornady manufacturer's OAL of 2.250 for VMAX (or even a tad less) as req'd for a a non-interference bolt closure.
 
Last edited:
You can make a dummy round , first by sizing the case to where it chambers without resistance , then seat a bullet long slowly chamber the dummy round , it won't chamber , put back in your seating die and lower the die alittle at a time until it Chambers without resistance that would be your zero setting for ogive measurement . From there you can jump or jam your rounds . My Remington on the stock barrel I had so much free bore the bullet was almost at the end of the case neck before it hits the lands . When I had it rebarreled the new barrel had very little free bore. Good the know your chamber measurements for sizing your cases an seating your bullets . The feel method may not be exact but very close . Good starting point . At least you will know all your reloads will chamber safely . I don't think it's a tight chamber , just have to know the lengths.
 
I've only been at this a couple of years, and luckily haven’t had any issues with .223, but I did have a small problem with 9mm which may be similar to your problem.
My first few hundred rounds of 9mm performed as expected, so I was quite disappointed when one day some wouldn't chamber. Two factors contributed, I reckon. First, I was using a CZ clone, which I found out tend to have tight chambers, and second, I started using Hornady XTP's instead of plated round nose. The XTP's seem to suffer from the ogive issue that some here have mentioned (I'm no ogive expert), but since I wasn't loading to max, I was comfortable seating them a little deeper until they chambered. All was good again after that.

The XTP bullets seem to be just a smidge wider closer to the tip, which apparently was causing them to hit the lands when seated at the published OAL.
 
Knowing the distance from your bolt face to the start of the rifling you can seat any bullet to that measurement or shorter with no chambering problems as long as your prepping your brass also .
 
I seated deeper and still problem exists. I went down to 2.200" and even 2.180". Had to give that extra push. At this depth... The marks seem to run vertical on the projectile.
 
Something else is going on.
Have you got (can you get) a Hornady Overall Length Gauge (along w/ matching cartridge case) ?

(OBTW: You aren't crimping while seating, are you ?)







BREAK BREAK:
- Run a bullet (just bullet) up into chamber until it stops and hold it there with the eraser end of a pencil in from the breech

- Run a cleaning rod (blunt/square end) down the bore until it runs up against the bullet.

- Mark the rod square at muzzle.

- Remove bullet, close bolt, run the cleaning rod down the bore again until it stops at bolt face.

- Mark the rod at muzzle.

- What's the distance between the two marks?




.
 
Last edited:
"I seated deeper and still problem exists. I went down to 2.200" and even 2.180". Had to give that extra push. At this depth... The marks seem to run vertical on the projectile."

I don't have any suggestions as to the "marks" on the bullets but just have to ask. Does your seater die have a crimp bevel? If so, are you absolutely sure this isn't contacting the case mouth during seating?
If it makes contact, there's a possibility you're producing an imperceptible bulge in the case shoulder that's causing your chamber hang-up.
 
How deep can you go until it chambers ? Just set up 3 dummy rounds , seating the first one deeper each time until it chambers without any or very little resistance , by that time that dummy is pretty marked up go to the second , when it chambers check for marks and make minor adjustments until your satisfied , third is your dummy round . VMax have a hard taper , I shoot Sierra 168 MK in my 308 tried 100 A Max , good bullet but seated deeper . With my barrel and almost no free bore I can't follow the listed OAL. The listing for my bullet combination is 2.800 OAL is with some free bore . I would be jamming my rounds at that measurement . 2.775 is where I'm seating with a .002 jump , and that's with a Sierra , the A Max would be deeper . I don't look at the OAL anymore . Only ogive
 
I read all the responses but didn’t see if the OP had tried to chamber a resized case (no seated bullet). If the case will chamber, then the problem lies with the seating process. I’ll guessand say that he’s rolling and bulging the case shoulder as he seats the bullet and crimps. No crimp necessary, so adjust the Die.

One other possibility, and one I experienced, is that the chamber neck is too tight. I doubt that it’s his problem unless it’s a new barrel. In my problem, I had new Lapua brass, which had rather thick neck walls, and I had a new barrel with a very tight match chamber. A sized case would chamber, but seat a bullet and it would not chamber. I borrowed a factory round and it would chamber. Starting then, and with measuring help from my mic, I realized what the problem was. I had the chamber neck opened up a bit. Problem solved.

So, first step is to chamber a resized case.
 
Hounddawg,

Post 1, 3rd sentence:

ninosdemente said:
When trimmed they are all around 1.743", I checked to see if they chambered and they did.
Click to expand...


Ninosdemente,

This get's curiouser and curiouser. Looked again at that scuff and it looks severe. I also agree they look further out than they should at the factory recommended COL. Take a look at the image of the Black Hills round using that bullet and I think you will see the difference.

You are measuring OAL from the base of the bullet to the very tip of the bullet, right? Not by using Hornady's so-called OAL gauge, which actually does not measure OAL at all, but rather measures from the cartridge case base to a place on the bullet ogive. If you believed that number was OAL, your actual OAL would be much longer.

attachment.php
 
Looks like the brass is going too far into the seating die. I see over crimp signs. If seating deeper did not solve the problem try not crimping at all.

Take the seating die out of the press. Put an empty sized case that has been trimmed in the shell holder. Run it to the top of the stroke. Back the seating stem out completely. Screw the seating die down until you feel it touch the case mouth. Back it out one full turn, and another half turn for good measure. Now Put a loaded round into the die, and screw the seating stem down until it stops. You can adjust down from there.

See if that will fix the problem. I had the same problem with .221 Rem Fireball when I started with that round.
 
Thanks UncleNick. I think I need to work on my reading comprehension.

if the case chambers w/o the bullet out but won't with the bullet in that narrows it down
 
Rifle is Savage 12FV and was purchased new about two months ago.

Yes, tried chambering a trimmed case without projectile and did chamber as it should. Reason why I seated deeper was to see if the round would chamber. Just trying to narrow down the possible mistake I did along the way. As still new to this... just trying to learn from my big mistake.

A side note, kind of curious as I already loaded 20 30-06 and the finished round did chamber correctly. I know it is a different round but the steps are mainly the same correct?
 
I was afraid that Hornady tool might have been the cause of you seating out too far. It would be a useful diagnostic tool, but not essential.

Since Black Hills loads that bullet, I called them. The tech I spoke to suggested 2.240" as a starting point; even shorter than Hornady recommends. Hodgdon has a good number of loads for this bullet, but they used 2.250", same as Hornady recommends.

You can get a more exact number for yourself using the cleaning rod method Mehavey described. You can also decide it might be a good idea to own a dummy round and just put one bullet in a resized case and seat it deeper and deeper until it fits. If this doesn't happen before the shoulder of the bullet (see my drawing above) is below level with the mouth of the case, then you need to have the chamber inspected because something seems to be abnormal.

As mentioned previously, don't crimp. Not before you've established the right seating depth. After that, you can experiment with it, but you're not likely to be parachuting these into a combat zone or feeding them into a machine gun, so the extra bullet hold probably serves no practical purpose, and crimping can bulge the sides of the neck and the body out.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top