I recently rebarreled my AR-15 upper. The barrel was made from a Douglas premium air gaged 1:7 blank, with a .223 wylde chamber. A new bolt was headspaced to the chamber. All work done by a reputable shop, but I decline to name them as I'm not looking to complain.
I have shot the rifle with a variety of ammunition, starting with Radway Green, to Federal 69gr, Black Hills red box 69gr, and my reloads. I’ve run about 150 rounds down the bore in two sessions.
One thing that does concern me is the throat. After shooting several of my reloads, I ejected a chambered round. I quickly saw the projectile was set back noticeably. I stopped shooting that box immediately, but it caused me to examine things closer. I had not put a lot of neck tension on those reloads, but they were seated no longer than commercial premium length. I never had a setback issue with my Colt HBAR upper, so I wanted to find if other rounds were getting set back.
I commenced to examine the Federal, Black Hills, Ultramax and Radway green ammunition after it had been chambered. On each round I was surprised to find the ogive marked, with one easily seen spiral traveling from the end of the ogive onto the body of the projectile. This spiral on the bullet jacket can be felt with a fingernail. In my opinion, all the bullets are riding on something when fully chambered.
Of greater concern is my reloads. They are made with LC brass, full length resized with a Redding die, and topped with a SMK 69gr to an OVL of 2.2490. They fall into a Wilson cartridge gauge perfectly, they chamber and eject in a Sig Sauer M400, and can be chambered by hand in a Colt HBAR upper, but are jammed when chambered in this current chamber so hard the bolt has to be drifted back to eject them! SS109/M855 bullets with an OVL length of 2.485 are hard to eject.
As I understand it, a Wylde chamber is a mid-spec between a 223 Rem and a milspec ... and most people report that they can load SMK’s to a magazine length loading, though I’d not go that far myself. Just to check my work, I talked this afternoon with an experienced benchrest shooter from my club who shoots a precision AR-15 rifle, and he measures his SMK reloads at 2.250.
I would like to know what you think is happening here.
I have shot the rifle with a variety of ammunition, starting with Radway Green, to Federal 69gr, Black Hills red box 69gr, and my reloads. I’ve run about 150 rounds down the bore in two sessions.
One thing that does concern me is the throat. After shooting several of my reloads, I ejected a chambered round. I quickly saw the projectile was set back noticeably. I stopped shooting that box immediately, but it caused me to examine things closer. I had not put a lot of neck tension on those reloads, but they were seated no longer than commercial premium length. I never had a setback issue with my Colt HBAR upper, so I wanted to find if other rounds were getting set back.
I commenced to examine the Federal, Black Hills, Ultramax and Radway green ammunition after it had been chambered. On each round I was surprised to find the ogive marked, with one easily seen spiral traveling from the end of the ogive onto the body of the projectile. This spiral on the bullet jacket can be felt with a fingernail. In my opinion, all the bullets are riding on something when fully chambered.
Of greater concern is my reloads. They are made with LC brass, full length resized with a Redding die, and topped with a SMK 69gr to an OVL of 2.2490. They fall into a Wilson cartridge gauge perfectly, they chamber and eject in a Sig Sauer M400, and can be chambered by hand in a Colt HBAR upper, but are jammed when chambered in this current chamber so hard the bolt has to be drifted back to eject them! SS109/M855 bullets with an OVL length of 2.485 are hard to eject.
As I understand it, a Wylde chamber is a mid-spec between a 223 Rem and a milspec ... and most people report that they can load SMK’s to a magazine length loading, though I’d not go that far myself. Just to check my work, I talked this afternoon with an experienced benchrest shooter from my club who shoots a precision AR-15 rifle, and he measures his SMK reloads at 2.250.
I would like to know what you think is happening here.
