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.223 brass hard to eject


joeyroush

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Ok guys, I am having a problem that I just can't figure out.  I have loaded several thousand rounds of .223 with no issues.  All of a sudden, I am having problems.  My brass prep is as follows: Wash with water and a bit of Lyman cartridge cleaner on a Lyman Cyclone.  I then dry with the Lyman Case dryer.  I then size and trim with my Dillon XL650 and RT1500.  I then do a quick rinse in the Cyclone to remove the case lube.  I then chamfer and debur and finally do a quick swage with the DIllon super swager 600.  I drop all of my cases in a Lyman case checker and they all fit no problem.   After I load them, they don't quite fit flush in the case gauge, but only stick up ever so slightly.  These will run through my gun no problem.  This last batch i ran stuck up a little more than normal in the case gauge so I decided to try and cycle a few through my gun.  I found that they would chamber but it is really difficult to get them to eject by racking the charging handle.  I took them out to the range and shot 50-100 rounds without any problems ejecting.  I may be making a problem out of nothing, but I shoot competition and don't want to have any extraction failures in a match.  Can yall think of anything that is going on here?  I also have two different rounds that have almost identical specs all the way across.  One chambers and ejects with ease, the other is super hard to eject.

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You mentioned "chamfer and deburr", but do you trim the case length?  Possibly they have elongated such that the case mouth is contacting the rifling.

 

Not fitting flush in the gauge could indicate this.  Otherwise, not fitting the gauge can indicate the shoulder is not being set back enough during sizing, or that the case body is not being sized enough.

 

If the case length is as it should be, it is also possible that the neck has thickened because of brass flow, the same thing that elongates the cases.

 

This is assuming the cases have been reloaded more than once, though elongation can happen in one firing in some guns.

 

As a thought.

 

Guy

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I've been having the same problem, almost …

 

Some brands will shoot without problem, but I have difficulty extracting the last round, manually.

 

It happened first with some reloads, but then also happened with one brand of factory ammo

(not reloaded ammo, but factory ammo).

 

Lot times, I have to "mortar" them out to show clear    :( 

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Ok, here is a little more info. I can take a fully prepped case that fits perfectly into the case gauge and chamber it. It ejects with ease. As soon and I load it, it becomes super hard to eject. Something is happeneing during the seating stage, but I can’t figure it out.  I’ve measure the case for overall length, diameter at the mouth, diameter right before the shoulder, right after the shoulder and then again back by the rim and all of these measure within spec. It’s so weird!

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Had all these problems earlier this summer. I ignored it when it was just one rifle but eventually it started in all my rifles. I kept shooting while adjusting my loading process and then sticky cases turned into stuck cases. Turns out my size die was shot. I didn't even know that could happen.

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I have a small base for that I can try, but I don’t understand why the case will gauge correctly before I seat the bullet and then afterwards it doesn’t. I’ve tried a Dillon FL sizing die and also a Lee die that does the same thing. I’m honestly about to pull my hair out!

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How much difference between the neck diameter before seating the bullet and after seating the bullet?  The case neck diameter should enlarge.

 

The only things the seating die should be able to affect are the neck diameter, and whether or not the case is crimping.  I take it you are not crimping, but could the case be being crimped inadvertently?  Without a cannelure to crimp into (again, assuming - that the bullet is not cannelured, it could collapse the neck into the shoulder and create a slight bulge at the juncture of the shoulder and case body.  It sounds like you've measured there as well, though, so if there is no change in that dimension before and afte4r seating, it suggests that is not the issue.

 

Since we ruled out case length, the only things that should affect extraction of an unfired round include the bullet contacting the rifling, the neck diameter, the shoulder diameter or the body diameter.  If the shoulder were not being pushed back enough, it would normally be a problem chambering, not extracting.  Bullet diameter will also affect the final neck diameter should the bullets happen to be oversize.

 

You might try blackening a cartridge and looking for contact points after chambering.

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You stated the cases are sticking above the top of the case gauge, this means the cases are not having the shoulder bumped back far enough.

 

These longer cases chamber "BUT" your are compressing the case shoulder causing it to bulge and bind when you try to eject the cartridge. Meaning the case shoulder location is longer in headspace length than the chamber and being a crush fit in the chamber.

 

In a semi-auto the case body diameter after sizing should be .003 to .005 smaller in diameter than a fired case. This allows the case body to spring back from the chamber walls and extract reliably. And the shoulder bump should be between .003 and .006 to ensure chambering and extraction.

 

Below a very good book on reloading the AR15 and shooting tips.

 

Handloading for Competition Making the Target Bigger. by Glen D. Zediker

https://www.amazon.com/Handloading-Competition-Making-Target-Bigger/dp/096269259X/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1541031058&sr=1-1&keywords=Handloading+for+Competition+Making+the+Target+Bigger&dpID=41024QhhD7L&preST=_SX218_BO1,204,203,200_QL40_&dpSrc=srch

 

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On 10/30/2018 at 11:54 PM, joeyroush said:

After I load them, they don't quite fit flush in the case gauge, but only stick up ever so slightly. 

They are failing your case gauge.You have a sizing issue.With range pickup brass I size twice.

Brass springs back after you size it depending on the chamber it was fired it may not size correctly every time.

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I notice that after the prep stage the case alone in the case gauge sits deeper than after it’s a finished cartridge. So I set my dies so the bare case is actually below the minimum step in the case gauge. But after it’s a fully loaded round it is flush with the lower step. Seems to work fine.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

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