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Problems with Montana Gold 223 Bullets?


blairmckenzie1

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Just got back from Multigun Nationals. Found out while I was there that there is something wrong with my ammo. My load is mixed brass, a Montana Gold 55gr FMJ and 24gr of TAC and a Wolff magnum primer. I had basically had bullets coming apart and splattering all over targets. There are some small marks on my comp (surefire). Has anyone else had this problem? Some folks at the match thought I may be over crimping and breaking the jacket. I have never been an "over-crimper" and have pulled a few of these bullet and haven't seen any evidence of over crimping. I havent been able to get through to MG with all the craziness going on. Any advice? I still have about 3000 of these bullets left over so hopefully I can make them work.

Thanks for the help

Blair

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I shoot them over 27.5 of BLC2 at about 3000 fps, they work great. even out to 400 yards , I thought the price was less than Hornady when you buy 3500 a time I only found the Hornady in 100 packs. ? I will look harder.

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Well can probably rule out throat or gas port erosion then. I'd pull the comp off and look at the chamber and crown. Shoot a few with no comp and see what happens and then go form there.

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...it's the bullets, probably certain lots, and Montana Gold seems to be aware of the problem.

My friend was shooting them just before the Noveske COMG Championship, loaded with a mild load of TAC, I believe.

They were coming apart both at the muzzle and further down range, both in his rifle and another shooter's rifle. At one point I was hit by frags coming out of the comp on the other shooters rifle.

The same load, loaded by the shooter, with Hornady 55 gr FMJ, showed no problems.

My friend called Montana Gold and was told they would replace them when they could get around to it (due to being extremely busy).

I was there, I saw it. ; )

ericm

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...it's the bullets, probably certain lots, and Montana Gold seems to be aware of the problem.

My friend was shooting them just before the Noveske COMG Championship, loaded with a mild load of TAC, I believe.

They were coming apart both at the muzzle and further down range, both in his rifle and another shooter's rifle. At one point I was hit by frags coming out of the comp on the other shooters rifle.

The same load, loaded by the shooter, with Hornady 55 gr FMJ, showed no problems.

My friend called Montana Gold and was told they would replace them when they could get around to it (due to being extremely busy).

I was there, I saw it. ; )

ericm

Do you know what the manufacturing/shipping dates were for the bad lots?

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I'm sorry, I don't know bad lot # / shipping dates.

I think my friend got a coupon at RM3G 2012 and sent it in, so around last half of 2012 when he got them.

The best bet is to call Montana Gold and press them for details.

ericm

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...it's the bullets, probably certain lots, and Montana Gold seems to be aware of the problem.

My friend was shooting them just before the Noveske COMG Championship, loaded with a mild load of TAC, I believe.

They were coming apart both at the muzzle and further down range, both in his rifle and another shooter's rifle. At one point I was hit by frags coming out of the comp on the other shooters rifle.

The same load, loaded by the shooter, with Hornady 55 gr FMJ, showed no problems.

My friend called Montana Gold and was told they would replace them when they could get around to it (due to being extremely busy).

I was there, I saw it. ; )

ericm

Do you know what the manufacturing/shipping dates were for the bad lots?

I ordered mine around Oct/Nov 2012

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when I get off work and have time I might expand more, basically same story. Comp strike or two, keyhole at my last match, bad accuracy with flyers that miss the target.

Last weekend I shot my 75 Hornady reload and still perfect.

Edited by Forgetful
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A fellow shooter in my club recently had the exact same problem with MGs. He has a lot of reloading experience with no previous issues so he was pretty baffled and also trying to make adjustments to his crimp and so forth. I'll point him to this thread.

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Sounds like the same problem I'm having

============================

I have a good buddy who had, what appears to be, a series of baffle strikes at a recent carbine match. Up to this point, rifle had about 200 rounds through it. Battlecomp was brand new. Rifle is a factory Noveske MK18, M249 barrel, 1:7 twist. Ammo are reloads: 24.5 tac, 55gr montana gold, tula SMRM primers. Here are the results:
battlecompfailure005.jpg
battlecompfailure002.jpg
Another buddy and I were shooting the same ammo, both 16" BCM BFH rifles, both with Battlecomps. Both shot great (infact, I took 3rd overall). I verified after the match that my Battlecomp was free of strikes and it looked like new.
I have shot that ammo since then on the range with a chrono, but no rifle matches. Well, I took a look tonight and this is what I found:
img4369800x600.jpg
img4370800x600.jpg
img4368800x600.jpg
It had to have happened during chrono. I see a ton of people using this load and I couldn't find a single other instance. I worked this load up with both my 16" BCM and my 18" Loki and 24.5 was most accurate. I was hoping that this would be my go to round for 3-gun for anything shy of 200 yards.
What do you guys think? I need some help on this one. Doesn't sound like this is that common of an incurrance. Yet it seems to have happened to both us of. Common denominator: 55gr through 1:7 barrels.
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This makes me glad Montana Gold was out of bullets. However, I've been shooting the 52gr Nosler Spitzers over 24.5gr of TAC with no issues, but then again I have a Rolling Thunder Comp on a 20" 1/9 twist barrel.

Sorry to kill your hope PV does not have Hornady .223 bullets in 55gr, just grabbed the credit card and went there to clean them out, too late.

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Sorry to kill your hope PV does not have Hornady .223 bullets in 55gr, just grabbed the credit card and went there to clean them out, too late.

They did. ;)

FYI, MG changed their 55gr die back in October 2012. I'm still waiting for Norm to reply back on replacement.

Then I hope they do replaced the defective bullets. I've called and left voicemails. No return phone call yet. I'll try again today.
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I bought two boxes of the 55 gr FMJ from MG, the markings show they were inspected 11-12-12 and the lot number appears to be 06128 42255 7, is there any indication of when the bullets with issues were produced, shipped or what lot numbers they were?

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Norm at MG got back to me, basically he's gonna replace the bullets as soon as they are sure the problem is fixed.

This would seem to indicate no MG .223 55gr is good to go at this point, versus some individual bad batches, would it not?

I've been monitoring MG lately exactly for .223 projectiles...but the above makes it sound like it's worth holding off until some confirmation or announcement is made.. ??

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