while I have owned and currently own several duplicate rifles, this is the first time I have owned two in which the rounds for one would chamber in another.
the RAR Ranch .223 and 300blk.
8mloading and shooting green tip BT in .300 and red tip VMAX in the .223.
what advice, tricks, schemes, suggestions do you have to avoid a RUD (rapid unscheduled disassembly)?

Will the 300 chamber in the 223? I could see that being quite bad.....

I studied this specific question, in AR's as I have both.

The .300 frequently works better if you seat the bullets to AR Mag Length, or 2.24", instead of the 2.08" often recommended. At that length they won't go in a 223 chamber - unless the bullet is pushed back in seating. That's possible in an autoloader, but less likely in a bolt gun.

For autoloaders I keep magazines set aside, marked for .300.

On the reloading bench,
One powder, primer, bullet and case on the bench at a time. Post it notes for reminders when you are reloading more than one caliber per session.
On the shooting bench,
one rifle and one ammo box at the bench at a time. Clearly mark your ammo boxes.
All my AR's are 5.56 but with mixed loads, I will put a piece of masking tape on the mags with basic load data on them. 69, 60, 55 etc.
I will sometimes put rifles back in their case even if I am not finished shooting them.
I will sometimes take 4-5 milsurps out at a time that all have similar calibers and different loads.
It's a brain game of discipline and firm adherence to routine.

Don't take them to the range together!

If you can't tell the difference between a .224 and a .308 bullet you have no business shooting.

Definitely need to be careful with autoloaders. Just did a quick test with a dummy .300 BO round I had on the bench: no primer, no powder, 220gr SMK(?) seated at 2.230". Placed it in a magazine. pulled back and released the charging handle. BCG went forward into battery. Trigger went "click". Extracted round measured 2.150" COAL. BCG sliding forward seated the bullet the additional 0.080" necessary to for my DPMS Oracle 5.56 upper to go into battery.

I once managed to load up the mag of one of my .223s with some .222 ammo while shooting at the range. No major damage done, but I have been 1000% more deliberate about looking at the ammo I load into a rifle's magazine since then.

If you can avoid taking combinations of rifle and ammo out to shoot where this can happen, you should be in a pretty much fool-proof position...but to be very critical and honest about it all, you and I both should be on our toes to the extent that it wouldn't happen anyway. When it happened to me, I know I was allowing myself to be distracted---even though I knew better.

Rifles need to be different. My .223/5.56 is a 16" carbine, My .300 BO is an 8" Pistol, waiting on a stamp. Maybe you can change color or styles of furniture of one of them. As in make one all FDE and get FDE mags to match. Just an idea.

I'm not the guy to ask.




Clark

No kidding! They don't even look close.

Fingernail polish on the receiver ring at the ejetion port, that matches bullet tip color. There are a lot of crazy shades, you should be able to get a close match. A little acetone will clean it right off. No I do not have one you can borrow.

That's why I went 5.56/.458 SOCOM. The SOCOM round won't chamber in a 5.56, and a 5.56 round will just fly out of the end of the SOCOM barrel.

Yup.

Mistakes can happen, but this one is pretty darn obvious.

Methinks there could be an interesting or at least perversely entertaining story here...

Paint marker [300 Booh] on all your 300 BO mags.

Don't remember where, but in the last few months, I saw a thread about a guy who took a new shooter out, and there wasn't enough supervision loading the mags. Ended up getting one BO in the stack of .223s. So it's not just a theoretical problem.

smarquez's advice is really good. And with regard to the .223 and .300, yes they are different. But mistakes CAN happen, even to people who "have business shooting," and the steps and adherence to routine that smarquez suggested goes a long ways towards keeping a careless error from occurring. My friend and I both have similar rifles, down to the scope, one in .260 and the other in 7-08. We are very careful to remove the ammo from the bench when we switch shooters at the bench! We've also checked, with firing pin removed, to be sure the 7-08 ammo won't chamber in the .260. It won't, but we still follow our routine of not having both boxes of ammo at the bench. The other thing I'd say is to always clean ALL ammo out of pockets if you carry ammo loose.

This.

Pay attention to what you are doing.

Pic I found on the net. How are you going to mistake these two? Can you even lock the bolt on a 300 in the 223? Looks like the 300 ogive would hit before it even made it into the neck area of a 223 chamber???

I can tell you from personal experience, its one heck of a kaboom when it happens.....

Well, at least you can straighten out that mag box.


Was you ok?

Ringworm asked a legitimate question. I am going to assume he has "business shooting" and that he "pays attention to what he is doing." That is why he asked the question, and I think he recognizes that there may be certain habits and procedures that can minimize the chance of a momentary lapse of concentration, which we are all subject to, creating a dangerous occurrence. Several posters offered their experience by suggesting such procedures. Some did not. I'm a teacher by trade, and can tell you that smug, self-serving responses to questions never do any good other than making the person uttering or typing them feel momentarily smarter than they really are. Let's be civil and polite.

Since you quoted me, I will assume I am one of the"smug" people to whom you referred.

Please explain what is uncivil and impolite about "pay attention to what you are doing"?


Thanks for the lecture on etiquette. What a jerk.....


You want my REAL opinion? I think the thread is ridiculous and oils down to "Please tell me how to keep from screwing up...."

You would think people could figure it out fro themselves. I guess they can't today...

"A man's got to know his limitations"

If you can't be certain that you won't get distracted and make a whoopsie, then you'll have to take extra-ordinary precautions up to and including only bringing one of your rifles to the range at a time. Figure out what will work for you.

I agree that Ringworm did ask a legitimate and if I were to make a list of suggestions to legitimately help him avoid a kaboom #1 would be to pay attention to what you doing.

Higbean -yes I was kinda ok. Had to have three pieces of metal removed from my eye, lost a little bit of my hearing, but Im still able to be embarrassed by my mistake.

Ouch! what are the specifics?

I was hunting last year and shot a small buck. I unloaded my rifle and climbed down from my stand and started walking towards the deer. As I got about 50 yards away the buck raised it head. I reached in my pocket put a round in my gun and pulled the trigger. I didnt know what happened, I was standing there holding my butt stock of my rifle, ears ringing, with my barrel sticking in the mud in front of me.....
A week earlier one of my sons was handed me a round he had found in the driveway that was my younger sons. I dropped it in my coat pocket. Never thought anything about it.
That day I reached into my pocket grabbed that .308 round and loaded it into my .270 without looking.

The question makes perfect sense to me. It woud be easy to get the wrong gun for the ammo, early morning in a hurry. A little pinstripe of nail polish, matching the bullet tip, on the mag and the front of the loading port would be a visible last chance reminder.

Wow. Sounds like you were fortunate What rifle? Looks like it was a nice one!

I bought that rifle 30 years ago, 1949 model 70. I had a Shilen barrel installed about 20 years ago , an English walnut stock added a few years ago. It was my favorite rifle...

that makes the story even sadder.

BobinNH, you make my point far more eloquently than did I. Perhaps I am a jerk....but damn sure not the first one on this thread. I accept your thanks for the lesson, and I will apologize if I offended you .

That said, I don't think this thread is ridiculous. People have been blowing up firearms with the wrong ammunition for a long time now, and ringworm was asking how others minimize the risk of doing so. I think the mere fact that he asked means it won't happen to him, because he is paying attention to the potential problem.

Sorry to hear it man. That really sucks.

Just a few days ago, we were shooting at Quemado and Mike wanted to shoot my rifle. Out of 5 shots one was hard to extract and the others showed a little bright spot on the case head. Only difference in those loads and what I have been using for years was the bullets were from a new box. I only loaded a few from that box and they are separated, so I know which to pull and use a little less powder. Same kind of bullet just a different batch. I knew I was close to the edge as I had already backed the load down a little because of loose primer pockets after the 5th loading. It is a 7mm08 improved and this is the first time that I had hard extraction except when the sand got in the barrel, mentioned above. miles

Most reliable advise.....

or simply get rid of one of them if that is going to be an issue...

sounds like you should consider sticking with factory ammo on the one you do keep...

if you ever experienced a rifle blow up, it will certainly be a good teacher to take Bob's Recommendation... Paying Attention to What You're Doing...