Home Forums Hunting & Shooting AR and Tactical Rifles C.O.L. of .223 in standard AR-15 Magazine?

There's something to be said for "If it aint broke don't fix it".

I just want to learn to be smart enough to fix stuff before it breaks instead of learning from too many of my screwups ........................DJ


TWR, How have the Noslers been shooting for you? I've started to shoot more and more of them since they are a good bit cheaper than the Sierra's and so far have shot pretty well but I'd like to hear other reports.

I get a little bit more velocity/pressure swapping bullets only and they aren't quite as accurate as the SMK's. I quit messing with them and delegated them for my Colt chrome lined barrels where accuracy ain't bad but not in the same league as my Noveske and Krieger barrels. Who knows 2.260" might put em in the zone.... grin

I have yet to kill anything with them but will fix that soon enough, reports say they are better in that reguard but I like to see for myself.

supposedly a big nosler price increase coming fairly quickly IE April IIRC...

at least thats the rumbling I hear.

Nosler 77's have been very accurate in my first Noveske barrel, under 1/2" at 100, and certainly 1MOA or less out to 700. I'll buy some Sierra cannelured 77s soon to compare though.

It's been a couple, but if IRC, the last time I measured Hornady 75gr BTHPM, they varied in length by up to .017". Lessee, what is 2.26something" + .017"?

When you feel froggy, measure the length of at least 50 bullets out of your box and write down each one. Subtract the longest from the shortest.
Then figure out how you are going to be sure that your magazine has the same inside length 2" down as it has at the mouth.

Then tell us how sure you are about loading to 2.26".

The Rost knows! Listen to him once in a while.

I think some of the issue is that some folks don't run BTHPs they run other types and IIRC, measuring things like BTs and such, they tend to measure a lot closer to true length.

I always get on my soapbox and then I recall what a buddy said... leave them alone, let em all shoot 80 sierras at 2600 fps.... that way you've beat all of those shooters instantly, quit telling em about 80 jlks and N500 powders and speed....

Trigger wise... should be the same thing too.... your money, like kids have to do, learn it the hard way.

Now... when did sierra start selling cannelured 77s? And are Nosler 77s cannelured? That must be after I quit shooting.

I measured about 30 or so 77 SMK's last night. They varied 5 thousandths, yep I'm still sure enough that the remaining 4-500 out of the last 1000 loaded at 2.260 are gonna stay that way.

Alot of the "old info" is obsolete with Pmags and Magpul followers. Here's one for you Barry, load some rounds of your choice at 2.260 and see if they work. If they go in, they'll come out.

Jeff, Sierra started making a slight cannelure in the 77's so they wouldn't lose the DOD contract. Nosler was happy enough to oblige DOD but Sierra finaly won out when they saw the light. The results is MK262 Mod 0 (no cannelure) and MK262 Mod 1 (w/cannelure). Whether or not Sierra is selling them or not I don't know, mine do not have the cannelure. DOD test's showed the bullet broke up easier and created a better wound channel with them.

Sometimes it takes a little while for stuff to sink in. I remember being a little taken aback when a couple years ago when Jeff (rost495) told me that my Jewell AR triggers weren't the best thing since sliced bread.

Two years and 4 Geisselle triggers later I'm starting to think that he might have been on to something ......................................DJ

Luck is for people who don't understand statistics.

Good info on the 77s. Had not heard that. Thats what I get for stopping competition in 03....

As to the new mags, there would really be no reason they can't accept rounds a bit longer. The old GI mags had some parts in them and some rivets and such that limited space. Redesign and you gain length.

You have pretty close to reliable results there on the measuring of the new projectiles... I used to have a standard set of lengths for 75 amax... over this and they likely were not formed well enough to shoot great, under this and they were. Things have gotten better over the years.

BUT lets say you set up a die for the shortest bullet, 2.260, and then hit a bullet that was 005 longer. And had a slightly over size ogive.. then you are at or really close to 2.270. That would scare me in a standard mag. Hence our use of 2.250 over the yeras.

Hmm... DJ... the biggest thing I"ve been called on is saying Jewel sucked in an AR... I've not seen or felt a bad one in a bolt gun. As I"ve said the very early ones we ran as prototypes at Camp Bullis... they were really good. Though the lock time always "sounded" slow compared to my Milazzo's. Then a good friend that posts here told me otherwise on their production quality... I said he was nuts... and then I bought a new one and dang if he wasn't right. He is more anal about testing and playing than I ever was. Thankfully he lives in Hawaii.... if we both lived close together we'd have never gotten work done for playing/testing AR theories.... Comes here as Chris F..... as fine a man as I know.

Jeff

Midsouth has the 77SMKs w/ cannelure in stock. I found them in stock in several other locations as well. I was wondering for a moment if they were a limited run.

http://www.midsouthshooterssupply.com/item.asp?sku=000079378

Wow, last I paid was $93/500. Looked at the Noslers and they are $148/1000 but on overdue order. They weren't that far behind Sierra's in the accuracy dept...

14.80 per 100. Wow. Thats more than what I used to pay for 168 smks per 100 when I started shooting.... guess Im showing my age...

But scrap is up... 8 bucks a hundred for scrap steel again.... means who knows what regular copper is up to or lead...

I was running my .223 loads at 2.240" COL for both my R15 & RRA ARs and never had a problem in any mags with them.
In my 6x45 AR my COL was 2.255", never a problem in my mags with that COL either.