Home Forums Hunting & Shooting AR and Tactical Rifles Doh! Reloading question

Been trying to go over all the things I can to find a load that shoots true moa ten shot groups in my latest barrel, a Criterion-Wylde-1 in 8.

Technique, scope rings, scope, bullets, powder, etc. So, was thinking back to basics, I would check my die set-up. Had 200+ rounds just came out of the tumbler from last session so got out the bump gauge and measured a dozen, then got a handful of the 5 or 6 hundred rounds I had loaded up just to burn through and did the same.

It's backwards, the loaded rounds were .002 bigger than the fired cases. That kinda set me back some. I stared at that for a while trying to think how that could be.

Right now I'm guessing that my die is still set to my other barrel and that I just spaced out setting it to the new chamber.

So the Wylde chamber will feed those just fine, but then firing them actually shortens the case?? Can that be right?

so, by 'bigger', you mean longer?

if you resize one of those cases, you will probably see it as long or longer than it was before firing.

If you're sizing without bumping the shoulder, the base to shoulder measurement will often be a few thousandths longer.

Have you been shooting any of that ammo? Contrary to what some claim, an AR will bump case shoulders back on chambering, and will run on a few thousandths crush fit. You can expect trouble ejecting unfired rounds though, so it's not ideal.

Yeah I got the bump gauge after someone on here told me about it. Measure a fired case so you know the size of your chamber and then measure the case as you size it so that you end up with a reliable feeding shell. I set the resize die to set the shoulder back .002-.003.

Must not have changed it when I got the new barrel. So I guess firing it now sets back the shoulder to the new chamber dimension.

No problems with feeding, maybe because it's the Wylde chamber, but I'm still going to move the die. Just wondering how the shoulder gets set back shorter but there's a lot of heat and pressure happening.

The shoulder gets set back when the round is slammed into the chamber by the bolt under recoil spring pressure.
If you ease a round into the chamber manually, rather than using the bolt release, you may notice some difficulty getting the bolt into battery.

The Wylde chamber isn't the issue. Wylde chamber differs from the .223 and NATO in throat dimension, not base to shoulder length.

Thanks Steve, went and did some reading on it.

OK, thanks for the replies. So I sized this ammo for my old gun that I gave to my son, but it still works cause I always load by a bolt release on an inserted mag and have emptied every mag to this point. Just pushes that .002" right on in there.

I still have about 600 rds. left but will just pay attention, it's all loaded with bulk bullets and H-335 for plinking.

Going to re-set the die for this chamber and carry on.

Glynn, how is accuracy with the crush fit rounds? be interested if it affects anything that way.

I won't speak for Glynn, but I've experimented with crush fit in the AR. I did this by partial neck sizing cases fired in that same chamber, using a full length die set ~.050" off the shoulder. Accuracy was excellent, as good as that rifle has ever shot, as one might expect. It cycled and chambered all the rounds fine.

The downside was when needing to extract a chambered live round; they would be stuck pretty solidly. Because of that, I don't think it's a good practice for anything except target ammo. I bump shoulders back ~.002" on all my AR ammo now.

Crush fit is good accuracy.

Ejecting loading as you note, can be iffy sometimes.

My personal ammo even match, is .003 setbacks...

Most of what I had loaded was just 55 gr. bulk fmj's and sp's over 25.3 gr. of H-335.

Out of the couple hundred test loads I tried with "decent" bullets I only had two batches that shot under 2 inches for ten rounds. That is why I am trying to get to the bottom of this.

I don't think the sizing changed much cause of the way I charge the gun. I went ahead and moved it back .002-.003" just in case I want to unload the gun with a round in it. The stuff I have left I will just shoot it out.

Got some 69 gr. SMK's over varying loads of Varget loaded up now and still had a few 62 TSX's and 70 GMX's that I changed up too. Now just need a weekend that isn't 50 mph winds or rain or prior engagements. Hog hunt got canceled so have time for more testing.

I think I finally found a load that gives me faith in my barrel. Also a little insight into a lot of things I'm doing wrong, or at least not the smart way.

I may have to read the rules on the BRC and post on it.

Pics from Sat.