Heniv77

It works! Got my first proper dummy’s last night with the bushing die. Yes, ordered .245 and .247. Luckily the .247 provided perfect neck tension around 2-3 thou with the Geco brass. Curious if I will like the bushing die better than the FL die I have on order. (Both Redding) The bullet deforms when pushed at hard surface before being pushed into the case and same oal after chambering. Now onto the ladders with a few really nice bullets to find the best nodes. thank you all!

Thank you all for the input! Myster solved, my sizing die is off center, have ordered a Redding Premium FL set instead as my vendor in CZ is on holiday and the warranty process will drag out. Have to wait to the end of the week to get them though, so wanted something faster. Sucks that it cost me so much time, brass and bullets to identify the problem. I do have a friend, unfortunately not a machinist. He did have a .223 sizing die I could borrow, got it yesterday. It is a Redding S type die he bought second hand and never used it himself. Unfortunately there were no bushing or expander inside, so basically a body sizing only die and very hard to get a bullet interested to stay in that wide neck. Have bushings on order, best case they can show up tomorrow. To be continued..

The do indeed wobble and do not roll smoothly I assume the sizer should make them concentric. Video of prepped brass: https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/2k7f0kiqedgtx7kynkb4s/IMG_8456.MOV?rlkey=bxs8inmtghrk6k3qlyeirh7vq&dl=0 Video of shot, decapped & cleaned brass before sizer, some wobble but less as it looks to me: https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/bixyo3c70vvhkb37vd5t3/IMG_8458.mov?rlkey=zljvknpb91gvnw8gdlywrxt96&dl=0 I tried 2 different headstamps, German and Italian brass, both presents the same issue. The Rl1100 & blue Armanov toolhead works well for my 9mm brass prep and the tool head is tight. Sure .223 is a longer case so bad alignment in those parts should be more visible in the longer rifle case. Are we thinking a bad sizing die is the likely cause, or something else? I guess I can order a grey heavy Dillon tool head for my .223 brass prep as it looks sturdier and the forces involved in my reloading likely is highest in the .223 brass prep. Anyone else in here had problems with this setup: https://www.armanov.com/shop/quick-change-toolhead-assembly-for-dillon-super-1050-and-dillon-rl-1100-371?category=14#attr=551

Yes, the prepped case plunks nicely in both case gauge and chamber. The problem shows itself as soon as the bullet is seated. Thanks, I have not considered that the bullet itself can interfere, as I shot Hornadys factory load with the same bullet and they worked great. The oal of the factory load is just shy of 57mm so I tried loading that short as well, it did not help unfortunately. Did try to paint my cases with a sharpie but could not see where they hit. Will try painting the bullet as well and try a different paint. I had some dummy’s that actually plunked, come to think of it. They had many passes through the sizing die as part of the initial setup. Maybe it should try sizing multiple times, as I think my shoulder looks crooked in the pic above, and several passes might size the whole circumference, if they actually are not sized uniformly. I did order Redding size and seating dies but they will take some time to get here, and not sure they will help.

Thank you, yes, backed out the seating die body so it’s several turns away from reaching the case mouth. I have to use the micrometer all the way down to achieve proper oal after trying that. Unfortunately, it did not help.

At wits end. Brand new to rifle reloading so my idea was to adapt my 9mm reloading process to .223. I have refined my 9mm process over the years to make it easy to succeed. With .223, not so much! The problem is that my dummy’s protrudes from the Armanov case gauge after I seat the bullet. Testing in my rifles it’s also slightly hard to eject the dummy from the chamber, corresponding to an out of spec round. The brass gauges fine after sizing and all following steps in the process up until seating. Have spent a lot of time and tried everything I can think of. I harvest brass with a brass catcher attached to my AR. Geco and Fiocchi separately, its factory ammo. Decap with the rollsizer decapper. Ultrasound wash with dish washing detergent and citric acid. Dry thoroughly. Rollsize with the dc rollsizer, then brass prep. I use a RL1100 with the Armanov quick change tool head and floating lock rings. Tried some steps with regular lock rings also. During tool setup all dies are in the press, but will separate brass prep and reloading to separate rounds. lanolin diy case lube per 6.5 guys instructions. die setup: case feeder Lyman Pro sizing die pushing back the shoulder 4 thousands. Measure with a whiden bump gauge and calipers. Removed decapper and expander ball as the expander ball made the cases not fit the gauge after sizing. Then cases plunk nicely after sizing. Have tried sizing more up to 15 thousands and basically not pushing back the bump at all. Dillon backup expander and swage. Cut a piece of brass to see inside. If the hold down / expander pushes all the way down against the brass floor the case won’t fit the gauge, with the neck too wide, so backed it up a bit. Case plunks with that setting. Lyman M-die to expand for bullet seating. Have tried more flare for safe travels of the bullet to the seating station and currently just a 3 thousands flare to see if that helps. Case gauges fine after this step in a wide array of settings. mr bulletfeeder. 75 gr Hornady bthp. No issues and case still gauges fine. lyman pro bullet seating die. Seating the bullet to 57.2 to 57.3mm, with room to spare for the max oal of the pmags. After this step, the case will protude from the Armanov case gauge and dummy’s are hard to eject from the rifle. No matter what I have tried in all previous steps, same issue. tried crimping with the Lyman pro taper crimp and lee factory crimp, various amount of crimp does not help, as expected. not certain where the issue is, any ideas? Took to many measurements according to spec pic attached, all seems within spec. In the pic with two cases the one to the right is sized and the left not sized. To me, it looks like the sized case is not straight/concentric at the bump? It’s never hardware, always user error, I know, but it looks a bit off. any help appreciated!

Just installed the SD3G yesterday, soldering iron on JP trigger pin- and safety- screws made disassembly effortless, so thanks for that. Went with the black trigger spring (lighter trigger pull weight). Some observations compared to the stock JP trigger. The SD3G has more pretravel, less perceived pull weight at the break, significantly more positive reset force and more hammer spring force. This is compared to a 10k+ rounds stock trigger, so I guess the old hammer spring might be worn (zero issues with misfires with old trigger). Will practice a few months with it before I decide how I like it. Also on the fence about the pins per above, as ECL does specifically does not take pins with screws. Installed with the provided pins but might try the JP pins, input appreciated. Also installed a Triggertech 45 degree safety, liked the idea with a ball point detent but did not like the massive slop side to side and "pretravel". Does not seem to like JP-5 tolerance or something so trying a Radian Talon instead, 45 deg seems nice. Any other 45 deg safety you prefer? Replaced various parts before Nationals and had a strange malf at an unloaded start. Dropped the bolt with the right side button (on a mag with 5 rounds or so less than max capacity) and the rifle did not go into battery. I had replaced the extractor and the extractor spring but not the SCS spring. It seems like there was not enough force to make the extractor claw go past the case rim? Zero issues other than that. Just changed back to the old extractor and will try that for now. Both extractors and the hole in the bolt head is/was clean. Do I need a new SCS spring? There might be correlation with my flawless performance of the 60 block and 134 to 138 pf ammo here potentially. Any input appreciated.

Strange! I know at least 4 others here in Sweden running the 60 lock with no issues with way lower pf ammo than that. My 136PF load might be on the edge though. Is there a difference between the rifles we get over here vs the ones provided in the US?

Maybe there is a difference somewhere in the config of SCS or something? I have a rifle from the second batch, with the new firing pin installed by the factory, and I only changed the locks. Will grab some photos of my SCS and post. So far no ammo I have tested has failed to cycle perfectly with the 60 lock. 10k plus rounds. I have not been running any ammo that would be sub 125 PF if tested in a handgun and mostly stuff that chronos at 140-145ish in my JP-5. Fiocchi 124gr FMJ factory ammo at around 150pf bottoms out the SCS with a hard slam at the end and feels terrible to shoot, so I considered getting a 50 lock for that load as I use it to harvest brass.

Thanks, will test more before deciding on 60/70 lock for that load. 28.00mm OAL (1.102) Agreed, really accurate as well.

I am currently testing a 133-139 pf load (125gr HAP) with my 60 lock. Tried about 250 rounds so far with around 2 meters of brass throw distance and lock back on empty mag every time (10 plus times). Intentionally did not clean the rifle before these tests so around a 1000 rounds since last cleaning before testing. I have shot about 10k rounds with the 60 lock at 144-149 pf 123gr previously and the difference with the new load is mind blowing. I understand where the .22 analogies is coming from and it now feels similar to how I remember my unreliable but super soft MPX. Time will tell if this is reliable every time, but brass throw seems comforting. Will test with 70 lock also.

Congrats to the win in the rain!! You opted for Umbra instead of Spectra for Production Optics, can you please elaborate on why it was the best choice for you? How long cartridge OAL does it accept? Any reliability concerns? (My previous MPX-experience ruined my trusty nature forever :-) I shoot Glock and love the simplicity and reliability of striker fired plastic, but the KMRs sure feel amazing so I am considering making the switch to DA/SA. Any thoughts on that is highly appreciated as well.