.223 COAL and Ogive

[Sooner Joel]

Long time reader, first time poster! Thanks for all the great info! Here’s my situation… I’ve been reloading .223 for awhile but just recently purchased a Hornady gauge to determine correct bullet seating depth. My gun is a Stag 6L, and the barrel is 5.56 rather than 223. Much to my surprise, it looks like I need an overall length of 2.366 to be touching the lands with a 69 gr SMK! Does this seem right!? I’ve been loading them around 2.230 because I had purchased some that worked okay in my rifle. There’s no way I can load near 2.366 due to the mag length and really case length! Does this have to do more with a 5.56 vs 223? Thanks for any comment...

 

[spot69221]

Re: .223 COAL and Ogive

Just a long throat, normal in many factory rifles. If it shoots good then no sweat.

 

[JeffinTX]

Re: .223 COAL and Ogive

spec for 5.56nato has a longer throat and higher pressure than SAMMI .223 (which is opposite of .308W which has higher max pressure spec than 7.62x51 nato)

don't worry about jumping SMK 69s they are designed for mag length loading and will jump just fine. set them at 2.255 COAL to be sure that it will fit in the mag (2.260) as there will be some variance in the tips of the bullets. Generally, 24-25gn of Varget/RL15 and SMK69 at mag length is a given, and if the gun doesn;t shoot that well, its usually not the load.

 

[EWP]

Re: .223 COAL and Ogive

Seating bullets to the lands is for bolt rifles only, that or heavy VLD's being single loaded in an AR.

With standard bullets in an AR the mag length is what will decide the OAL of your rounds, pay no attention to how far off the lands are.

 

[Sooner Joel]

Re: .223 COAL and Ogive

Hey, thanks for the info. The rile shoots good (by my standards anyway) I'm just trying to get it to shoot great. I'll go with 2.255 and work with the powder. Thanks again....