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

I haven't shot my AR in a couple of years,don't know why. I was checking powders and bullets I had in stock and realized I had misplaced my load notes. I think I was using a max charge of 788 with 50 gr. BTs simply because I have a bunch of both with CCI SR primers. This rifle has a 24" barrel and a 1 in 9" twist. Do you guys have a standard COL for the AR mags that you use, for some reason I think I wasn't seating to max length. Probably wouldn't fit in mag. I know I need to be more carefull about my notes next time, just hoping for some good spirited advice before I start all over. Also, do you guys have a favorite powder and load that works good for you?
Thanks in advance for any advice gentlemen. Chuck

Anywhere between 2.22" and 2.25".

2.25"...

I load all of mine at 2.260", never had a problem.

You've been lucky. Some mags - P-mags for instance are slightly shorter than others. Some HPBTM bullets vary slightly at the tips and a few can be longer than others when seated with the same die setting.

A buddy loaded some match ammo for me when I was out of town at 2.260 and it cost me 1/2 a string due to jamming due to overlong tips.......................DJ

Yeah, 2.26" is tempting fate.

Yep been real lucky, got about 50 P-mags that measure longer than 2.260 and have been using GI mags for years with daylight between bullet tips and the mag housing. I wish I was this lucky at the lottery.

As for your 1/2 a string loss, I'd chalk that up to a weak spring, a bad follower or a round loaded longer than 2.260".

Just checked a 30rd Pmag, 2.275" USGI 20rd 2.270" wall to wall, where it counts. Please check yours and report back.

2.250 is what I've run since the 80s. Its run in every magazine of 20 round capability.

30 round GI I shorten to 2.230 to be sure, and its been fine for NTIT rapid fire matches all these years.

ditto for me. 77gr Nosler OTM seated at 2.26" Several P Mags, some preban 30's and newer BCM 30's. Never an issue.

2.260 in some GI 20 round AL ones, with a full mag and wrong phase of the moon can get ya in a bind. Especially considering that a die seats off the ogive and all bullets are not the same OAL.

Though I would not be surprised to find that folks could fire thousands at 2.260 without an issue.

I"ve fired enough rounds to know that 2.250 is a much safer length.

IF seating with something like a dead stop, then 2.260 probably wouldn't bother me...

You are exactly right. Thats teh point. Not all bullets are exactly the same length, due to teh fact that no one i know of uses a deadstop bullet seater, but one that bears on the ogive, the the seater can be set for the shortest bullet ever, at 2.260 and could easily net a bullet at 2.270.

I will say I've used almost all GI mags my whole shooting career. None of the new mags. I will say that eating half a string of rapid fire was NOT uncommon with folks that just HAD to push that last few Nths of length that accomplished not a damn thing. seating just a bit deeper is safer and it doesn't affect performance in the least.

But like the trigger thread.... if ya want someone to bend your stock trigger springs a bunch, and buff off some surface hardening and reduce sear engagement and be happy, thats cool too but not for me.

Again, not refereing to new mags as i have no clue on them.

Kinda the same thing with triggers. Some people just don't shoot enough to understand the kinds of things that can happen and get a little too stubborn to listen to a voice of experience like Jeff's..................................DJ

I mean whats teh big deal about .010 shorter OAL. What is being accomplished by seating that further bit out?

Some people here still insist on seating bullets into the lands for LR shooting?????

Meanwhile you and others shoot 3" or better groups at 600yds with bullets seated deeply enough to ALWAYS function without worries.

Smart people learn from their mistakes.
Smarter people learn from other peoples mistakes ..................................DJ

Even though I've had zero issues at 2.260, 2.250 wouldn't hurt anymore than 2.260 helps. Load em how you like.

2.260 IS the listed SAAMI overall length and like Jeff said if your actual lengths are Always 2.260 they will feed just fine even in P-mags. I just like having some room for error since the ogives can vary a bit from lot to lot and with HP match bullets the actual noses can get jagged and vary a bit too.

My situation might have been a perfect storm, someone else loaded ammo for me with new components that I went and bought so I could participate in an out of town match. The Ogives might have been just enough different from what he was used to using that the actual COAL on the rounds that jammed in the Match might have been over 2.270, I shot the rest of them single shot at 600. Probably is an unusual case but it convinced me to just load to 2.250 and not worry about it.

If I had some load that consistantly shot bugholes when loaded at 2.260 and not at 2.250 I'd load em long too but before a match I'd make sure that none of them slipped through too long.

P-mags are shorter (well at least the one I just measured was). It was 2.270 from the back wall to the front. Brownells and Colt 20rd mags were 2.280 to 2.281 (again at least the ones I just measured).


So like TWR says load em like you want too. Just being aware of that if you are at the edge be sure you are consistant and not creeping over..................................DJ

I don't think I've seen a load that would shoot bugholes at 2.250 and crap at 2.260 or vice versa. Ever.

At least not different enough that I"d worry about accuracy over functionality.

TRUST me here..... I learned the hard way. And I leaned to the long side thinking less jump just had to win the match for me. Later on, hardheadness aside, I learned that winning a match was much more about me, than the tools generally speaking up to a point.

BTW new mags, as I've noted, I cannot comment on at all.

AND I'm the one that cut the front out of 8 round mags for matches so I could load them even longer at one point.... 75 jlk vlds run at mag length for 300 rapid were super.

Backing away from it and thinking of the issue, not what I've gotten by with all these years and I can see no reason to load at 2.260 other than it worked for me but so will 2.250".

Which for some unknown reason is what my Nosler 77's are loaded to. Well the reason is I'm lazy and that's where they ended up at with my die set for Sierra's.