Seating to mag length/ Leade

[Tactical30]

I am new to reloading and have a question about seating to mag length for AR-15's.
I have a Hornady OAL gauge but do I need it to use it for AR's or can I just seat <span style="font-weight: bold">ANY</span> .223 bullet out to mag length not having to worry about freebore problems.
2 of my AR's (.223) have 5.56 NATO chambers which I have heard that specs for the 5.56x45mm NATO call for a longer leade/freebore than SAAMI defined for commercial .223 Remington. So I shouldnt have any problems.

Which a Shorter Leade raises pressures I would think. Military ammo is loaded to higher pressures than commercial ammo. So shooting 5.56mm Mil-spec ammo in SAAMI "minimum" .223 Remington chamber can jump pressure ? 15,000psi+ ?

My main question is:
Can I seat any .223 bullet in my AR-15 out to mag length not having to worry about freebore?

 

[Niles Coyote]

Re: Seating to mag length/ Leade

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: longrange30</div><div class="ubbcode-body">
My main question is:
Can I seat any .223 bullet in my AR-15 out to mag length not having to worry about freebore? </div></div>

Short answer.... NO


that is unless you wish do failure drills.

 

[918v]

Re: Seating to mag length/ Leade

You can load any .224" bullet designed to be shot from mag length to mag length for use in SAAMI spec chambers. Certain bullets are designed to be single fed, i.e. 75-80gr A-Max, 80-90gr SMK, Berger heavy VLD's, etc. They are loaded to 2.400+" OAL. If you load them to mag length, you will have inadequate case tension on the bullet shank, and the round will collapse upon feeding from the mag.

 

[Victor N TN]

Re: Seating to mag length/ Leade

Unless you have a custom barrel / chamber you can't make them long enough to reach the lands anyway. At least without going to the extreme long Scenars.

Find a length that your rifle likes to feed and copy that. When I first started loading for a gas gun, I copied a factory load.

 

[Tactical30]

Re: Seating to mag length/ Leade

I have measured 15 bullet types in the 5.56 nato chamber with the Hornady OAL Gauge and not one of them come close to mag length.
The closest I have would be the 62gr. HP Remington Match bullet,
It measured 2.300" with the HOrnady Gauge/ just touching the lands. So it would be no problem seating that out to mag length.

The Barnes 62gr. TAC-X BT went all the way out to 2.380".

But I noticed bullets such as the Sierra 52gr. BTHP went out to
2.320" but there is no way you would want to seat it out that far cuz you would barely have any of the bullet on the neck.

So loading these bullets out to mag length would be best? (2.260")??