.223 jamming

[1911Nut]

I'm new to reloading and i'm having a problem with Jamming In My AR. I have been reloading 50 gr soft points and 55 gr ballistic tips and i have been having problems with some of them not quite chambering all of the way and some (mostly) that wont extract!. They have all been preped to 1.75 and all other prep work done. they have all been ran through my full length sizing die. i have been seating them to simmular factory loads at 2.22 and have went down to 2.21 and as long as 2.25. some will go right in and then not extract and some won't quite chamber all of the way and some work perfect. i dont get how they can all be done the same way through the same dies but yet some stick. I even pulled the bullets from some then re sized them. any help?

[Dragonheart]

I would suggest starting with a 233 cartridge headspace gage.  They run around $25 and Wilson is a known brand.  Drop your case or finished round into the gage and you can see if the problem is with the round.  I use these gages to check my cases after sizing and to see if my finished rounds will chamber properly.   

[gearheadpyro]

Headspace is certainly something to check.

What I'm thinking I'm seeing here is some brass that is pretty hard and not resizing enough. As brass gets worked it gets harder. When it's harder it doesn't take the size from the die as well. Thick (military) brass does the same thing here, especially if it's been run through a loose machine gun type chamber.

I would suggest trying a small base die and see if that doesn't clear up your problem. Might also want to check and see how fouled out your barrel is.

[dhhardw]

There are a lot of variables involved.  One little known issue relates to lube on the neck.  Rifle cases should only be lubed on the body of hte case and inside the neck.  If the neck is lubed, the case may not fit competely in the sizing die which results in the loaded round not chambering completely. This is because the lube took up space which the case neck should have filled.   A case guage will show if this is the problem.