223 not cycling correctly

[bottlerocket]

Lately I have been trying to put together some 223 rounds for a couple of ARs I own. I use a Lyman turret press, Lee case holders, Lyman measure and RCBS dies.

I have been re-sizing them, trimming, priming and then loading all in batches. Lately I have noticed issues with my ARs firing. Many times when I am shooting through a magazine of my reloads, it will cycle just fine but if I'm mid-way through a mag and want to stop, I'm not able to. If there is a round in the chamber, I can't pull the charging handle to get the bolt to come back our of battery to bring the round out. It will fire just fine and cycle the next round, but I can't get a live round out of the chamber without firing it or getting a small screwdriver and prying against the bolt carrier in the ejection port.

The rangemaster looked at the round and said it looked dirty (all of my rounds are perfectly clean, tumbled after loading) but the black smudges on the case he said suggested a dirty chamber was causing it. But since I've experienced this with both rifles, I doubt its a dirty chamber especially since I clean my guns after each use rather meticulously.

So I've basically narrowed it down to it being a problem with my reloading. What can I look at first to see what would cause this? I looked on midway at bullet comparitors and those things are $80 and up. Is there another option? I'm worried that I have a few hundred rounds of 223 here I'll have to disassemble and redo

Also I'm fairly certain I already have small base dies. My RCBS dies have "RCBS 223 REM SB...7" stamped on the resize die.

[dee]

Bullets seated into the lands will cause that problem. Get the Hornady measuring kit to measure off the bullets Ogive not the tip.

[bottlerocket]

Looks like its a problem with my shellholder being too thick. I have to sand it down slightly so my size die can get far enough onto the brass to position the shoulder correctly.

[dee]

Looks like its a problem with my shellholder being too thick. I have to sand it down slightly so my size die can get far enough onto the brass to position the shoulder correctly.

Curious to how you came to that conclusion? What you're describing there would cause the shoulder not getting bumped back far enough which would cause a difficult or no close of the bolt.

[GSXRK5]

I've had to grind my die down as well. Apparently they don't size all the way down. I believe cj had to do the same with his 223 dies. Also do you have a case gauge? I always throw my rounds through mine before and after I case trim them.

[Downs]

Are you trimming the cases before reloading them? Checking case length before hand?

[bottlerocket]

Are you trimming the cases before reloading them? Checking case length before hand?

Yes and yes. Trimming to min trim length listed in Hornady reload manual 8th ed. and case length is under max.

[bottlerocket]

Curious to how you came to that conclusion? What you're describing there would cause the shoulder not getting bumped back far enough which would cause a difficult or no close of the bolt.

Did some troubleshooting but there was actually something else causing the bolt not to open completely unrelated to the round and completely related to what I did to the rifle to troubleshoot. I took the firing pin out, just as a safety measure so that if I got a live round stuck in the chamber (I wanted to see if they gave me any issues with a clean bore) I didn't want to have to worry about a firing pin in the bolt if I had to tap it with a mallet or something. Apparently the round pin that the firing pin goes through was twisting causing the bolt to hang. Once I re installed the firing pin, the empty brass would extract fine.

Its starting to look like a problem with the roll crimp being too great and bulging the neck of the case. I'm going to wait till I head to the range tomorrow and cycle a few through and see if I can figure out what the problem is.

[CJ]

In all of your stages you never mentioned a case gauge. Sounds like you have excessive headspace in your cases.

[Downs]

Apparently the round pin that the firing pin goes through

Cam Pin. It's what makes the bolt rotate to lock or unlock.

[slowyellow]

I've had to grind my die down as well. Apparently they don't size all the way down. I believe cj had to do the same with his 223 dies. Also do you have a case gauge? I always throw my rounds through mine before and after I case trim them.

I've never heard of doing this. I'm getting all of the stuff together to start reloading 223 on my 650 so I'm pretty interested in this "issue". What brand of dies are you guys using?

[dee]

An excessive crimp could cause the problem if it's excessive enough to cause a bulge and the chamber is pretty tight.

[CJ]

I've never heard of doing this. I'm getting all of the stuff together to start reloading 223 on my 650 so I'm pretty interested in this "issue". What brand of dies are you guys using?

It's a known issue with Dillon .223 dies.

[slowyellow]

It's a known issue with Dillon .223 dies.

Well not by me, lol. Would you let that deter you from buying them? What did you have to do to them. And doesn't the power trimmer resize the die as well?

[GSXRK5]

Well not by me, lol. Would you let that deter you from buying them? What did you have to do to them. And doesn't the power trimmer resize the die as well?

I had to do the same with my Lee dies. When you size it you can see a small part at the bottom that doesn't get sized. Maybe some are different. I have an RCBS die set that I don't use because the decapper broke but I'm looking at an x-die set soon to not have to trim anymore.