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Kasteel

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About Kasteel

  • Birthday 05/27/1971

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    Idaho Falls
  • Real Name
    Dan Anderson

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Looks for Match (2/11)

  1. Also, when you say all the rounds function fine, I'm assuming you include manual extraction of an unfired round?
  2. Overthinking? Really? Please explain. "2. All the cases were sized to minimum with the die making hard contact with the shell holder and the press set to cam over or maximum shoulder bump." Maximum? Minimum? Ok. SAAMI max/min? For which chamber? What, exactly, is the measurement to which you refer? "3. After these case were fired in my AR rifles a Hornady cartridge case headspace gauge was used to measure "fired" case length. These lengths were compared to unfired military 5.56 Lake City cases and commercial .223 cases." And these measurements were . . . . ? This would be fantastic info. "4. After experimenting with resized lengths I decided to use the Redding competition shell holder .004 taller than a standard shell holder. The resized cases are .001 to .002 longer than the average new case length when resized and function 100% in all my AR15 rifles. This means I have .004 to .005 head clearance in all the chambers and there is no stretching and thinning in the web area of the case." And average case length was?? Chamber measurements?? You are in danger of actually contributing some very useful information. Please hold forth sir. Seriously, you've got some good stuff there. And, as to the original question: how much shoulder bump is too much? Anything? Anyone?
  3. Yes. Now we're getting some big brains (i.e. bigger than mine) in on this act. I'll get to answering some questions to the best of my limited ability on my days off starting tomorrow evening. For now, I'm just loving the BE forums. For now Kamikaze: as far as the issue goes, I'm really being a bit OCD in the view of lots of reasonable folks. The rounds that measure greater than 1.457" will function just fine under most circumstances. As long as you don't need to manually extract an unfired round from a cold chamber, you might never even know there was an issue. The one "practical" issue I've run across is firing ammo that is 1.458+" (probably 1.46+") in a 14.5" DD mid-length barrel. In this rifle, the bolt failed (on occasion) to travel sufficiently far to the rear to pick up another round, resulting in a failure to feed. The added "oomph" necessary for the BCG to extract the insufficiently shoulder-bumped cartridge might account for this. Might. I have, to my dismay, proven that I am an idiot. Or a Murphy magnet. More to follow.
  4. Yeah. Well, a case gauge can present problems of its own: http://www.brianenos.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=179160&hl= I can see a place for the use of both tools in conjunction--in this situation, to determine whether a shoulder has been bumped back too far.
  5. By the way, if possible, I'd love to know the actual base to shoulder measurement in the case you checked
  6. I'm soooo glad I'm not the only one who experiences weirdness. I'll look forward to your update--and thanks for you input!!
  7. After some experimenting, I'm finding that rounds with the shoulder bumped back to 1.457" are good to go: they extract manually without undue resistance. I experienced more resistance the less I bumped the shoulder back. Rounds at 1.458"-1.459" stuck a bit, but would generally extract without need to "mortar" the gun. Starting at about 1.460" resistance was bad, and required mortaring and a solid thump to extract the round. So, for me, 1.457" is max. My question: does anyone know where the minimum is, beyond which unreliable ignition a possiblity? Are there any other issues that may occur with too much shoulder bump?
  8. I loaded 25.0 grains of TAC under 75 gr. BTHP bulk bullets from Wideners, which I heard were of Prvi Partizan manufacture. I got 2707 fps (measured over an Ohler chronograph) out of an 18" barrel. Accuracy was just under 1" at 100 yards from a Black Hole Weaponry barrel. 24.3 grains of TAC under a 77 gr. SMK gave me .75" groups out of my 16" LaRue. Average velocity was 2541. Standard deviation was 18 fps. Used Lake City primed cases from a contractor pull down. That load is .5 grains under the max Ramshot listed on their site for 5.56 NATO loads.
  9. Some measurements for reference: Some of my own 55 gr. FMJ reloads using a couple of my guns to check for smooth chambering and extraction: 1.450"-1.457" The variance is probably due to adjusting die to get a length that worked. Wolf 55 gr. Steel Case 1.453"-1.454" (measured five rounds) Remington 55 gr. FMJ 1.458"-1.4585" (measured five rounds) Remington 45 gr. JHP 1.4565"-1.458" (measured five rounds)
  10. I've had excellent luck with Ramshot TAC: almost always within 0.1 grain per throw in my 5.56 and .223 loads in a Super 1050. It's very tough to find as well, but TAC should perform well almost anywhere you'd use Varget. I contacted the company about temperature sensitivity, and was informed that although TAC was one of the best in the ball powder world, it wouldn't be as temperature insensitive as a superior extruded powder, like Varget. Also, if you pause in the loading process for any length of time, I'd re-throw the first charge after resuming. That first charge will be as much as a full grain heavier once the powder in the hopper has had long enough to settle!
  11. I think that method would also yield a bit better accuracy, all things being equal, but haven't done or seen any testing on it.
  12. As I understand it, your method is the preferred method to use when you are attempting to minimize work-hardening and wear and tear (by over working) brass you will shoot primarily in one rifle. Sound method. I'm aiming more to ensure reliable function in a variety of rifles.
  13. In cruising around the Internet, my likely candidates for min/max cartridge measurement for headspace: One guy sized brass for his Wylde chamber at 1.420" The smallest chamber headspace measurement I found, for the Wylde chamber: 1.4316 (base to shoulder). The largest base to shoulder measurement was for the Clymer NATO chamber at 1.4380". Several posts suggesting that minimum .223 cartridge headspace dimension is 1.4596" and max is 1.4666-.0070" As mentioned above, my no-exception-smooth-functioning cases measured 1.440" and my measurement of the Federal factory ammo was 1.457".
  14. So, I recently took delivery of a Hornady Lock-N-Load Headspace Guage set to help me out with measuring the headspace of my 5.56 and .223 reloads more precisely. My goal: take once-fired cases from an unknown group of rifles (say military or civilian ranges) and process the cases such that they will safely and reliably chamber, fire, function and extract (manually when necessary) from any appropriately chambered firearm (usually AR-type), always assuming the firearm is within spec. I spent a couple of days looking at various dimensional drawings of .223 and 5.56 chambers and cartridges to get familiar with specs. I also spent some time getting used to the Hornady gauge measuring once-fired cases, resized cases that that tended to stick in some chambers due to (apparently) incorrectly adjusted dies, and resized cases that ran through chambers well. I also took measurements of some factory ammo (Federal 69gr. BTHP Match .223) for comparison. Here are some of my measurements: Cases from the "problem" group that will chamber and fire, but will stick pretty badly upon attempts to manually extract a round from the chamber: 1.460" Cases that chamber and extract from multiple guns smoothly: 1.440" Federal factory ammo: 1.457" My question: exactly what is the accepted headspace standard for ammunition that has sufficient headspace as to ensure easy chambering and manual extraction of an unfired round when necessary, but not so much so as to prevent the firing pin from getting a solid hit on the primer? In other words what is the max/min cartridge case dimension that I should be looking to measure?
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