I was wondering if there is a general issue with Nosler factory .223 ammo.
I've been shooting an AR for a while, not a rabid long time fan, but I like mine and have put a few thousand rounds through them. The only misfire I've had so far was with Nosler 60 grain ballistic tip "match grade" factory ammo. I more or less shrugged it off.
Last weekend I took a new 700 VS that's been languishing in the safe unfired for a year out to sight in. I wasn't ready to play with handloads, just took a few partial boxes of factory ammo. The WW 64 grain powerpoint stuff worked fine. Didn't shoot for [bleep], 4+ inch groups, but it went bang and gave me no guff. The first 2 rounds of 55 grain "Varminator" Nosler ammo fired fine. The next 3 misfired on the first try. I extracted each, turned them part of a turn, put them back in the chamber, and pulled the trigger again. All fired on the 2nd try. The 2nd of the 3 had a wildly protruding primer after the shot. The third ruptured the primer .. punched the firing pin right through the cup. A single round of the 60 grain factory ammo, same as misfired in the AR, would not fire at all.
I'm wondering a couple things ... first, the symptoms suggest excessive headspace and since it happened in 2 different guns, especially in the AR which has a fairly significant history of no other issues, I think it is ammo, not the guns. Does that seem reasonable?
Second .. is there a known issue with Nosler factory .223 ammo and misfires?
Tom
