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Posted: 12/24/2011 3:09:28 PM EDT
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Has anyone used the 55gr SP bullets labeled "Dogtown" that Midway is selling? I bought a bunch, reloaded a small batch to OAL of 2.200", and finally hit the range today. The bolt wouldn't close on any of them. Bullet diameter measures fine, but I'm assuming the ogive of these is too steep. (I picked this OAL since Hornady makes a very similar-looking 55gr SP that calls for 2.200.)
I can probably get away with seating them slightly deeper, making sure to use a very conservative starting load, but was wondering if anyone else has successfully loaded and fired these in a 5.56 chamber. What OAL did you end up with? Thanks! |
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I doubt the bullet is touching the lands. I would look at over crimping, or not resizing the case fully. If you have a case gauge now would be a great time to use it. If not take a sharpie and mark the bullet and try chambering a round. If the marker came off in spots that is where it touched the lands.
I went through about 500 of the dogtown bullets in my AR, no problems. |
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Quoted:
I would be more interested in seeing a nice clean clear pic(s) of your loaded cases, especially here the body turns to the shoulder... I suspect you crimp to tight and the shoulder is bowed. This , BTDT, years ago had 2K that were hit and miss with 1 rifle  teaches you to do things a little different 
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Quoted:
Has anyone used the 55gr SP bullets labeled "Dogtown" that Midway is selling? I bought a bunch, reloaded a small batch to OAL of 2.200", and finally hit the range today. The bolt wouldn't close on any of them. Bullet diameter measures fine, but I'm assuming the ogive of these is too steep. (I picked this OAL since Hornady makes a very similar-looking 55gr SP that calls for 2.200.) I can probably get away with seating them slightly deeper, making sure to use a very conservative starting load, but was wondering if anyone else has successfully loaded and fired these in a 5.56 chamber. What OAL did you end up with? Thanks! Before you blame the bullets, which I doubt is the problem, did you try to chamber a sized case? What I'm getting at is I'm guessing you case is improperly sized. As in not sized enough. Take one of your loads and pull the bullet and dump the powder out and see if the case chambers. Report back. A clear pic of one of your rounds would also help in troubleshooting. |
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Thanks to all for your suggestions. As it turns out, I had compressed the shoulder slightly during seating. I think this was caused by (1) too much crimp (I was actually trying for zero crimp, but somehow the die was adjusted wrong from a previous reloading session), and (2) not enough chamfering, since I remember serious difficulty getting the bullets to stand up at all in the case mouths. I reloaded the rounds today and all of them seemed to chamber fine.
The thing that bugs me is having to chamfer the living crap out of the cases to get the bullets to stick in them long enough to make it into the sizing die. I used about 6 turns of a Forster hand chamfering tool, and with that I could just get the bullets to stick if I "screwed" them in with some force. I don't like thinning the case mouth that much, since I don't want the necks to split prematurely. I found a lot of posts on other forums about this, and most of them suggest either some kind of voodoo trick (holding the case and bullet with your two hands, and operating the ram with your tail) to get the flat-base combo into the seater die, or they suggest buying xyz brand of die. My die is an RCBS and I don't see a need to buy a whole new die just for this. Anyone have any opinions on how much chamfering can/should be done for flat-base bullets? Is it maybe more of a problem since I'm using military brass, which is thicker-walled? |
| If your case necks are tight, tis time to measure the neck expander in the full length resizing die. I have a dillon full length resizing die. The expander measures .223". The case necks usually snap back elastically to .222" inside diameter after pulling them out of the die and over the expander. If your expander measures less than .223" I recommend searching for a larger/different expander. |
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You don't need to debur the mouth that much and its not voodoo you just hold the bullet on the case as you raise the ram and as the bullet enters the die you move your fingers. Basic reloading nothing mysterious about it. This. Hold on and guide bullet by hand into seating die. That's the standard way. You are thinking pistol rounds with having the bullet stand in case with belling. Not a technique used in rifle cases. |
| Flat base rifle rounds won't sit on top of a standard rifle case. You will need to guide them into the die like was said above. Other options would be to see how much neck tension you have and if it is too much reduce it. Go to a boat tail bullet. Try the M die. That is what I use on my case prep tool head. If you are loading single stage its probably not worth the extra trip through the press, just take your time and don't crush your fingers trying to go too fast. |
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