62 Gn Hornady problems in AR

I loaded up a bunch of 62 Grain Hornady FMJ BT in preparation for a new rifle. They were loaded at 2.215 OAL using lake city processed brass.

I purchased a Black Rain Ordinance Spec-15 last week and excitedly went out to the range only to find out that even when the slide did go in to battery, it would stick in the barrel and had to be hammered out. Most times it wouldn't even go in to battery and was still stuck. I thought this is a simple problem of being slightly too long. I tried them in my Mini-14, they run perfectly.

I get home, and try out seating them a little lower, but the problem still persists. It goes into battery, but the bolt has to be forced out for it to eject. Something seems to be making cuts in the bullet. Is it possible that the 62 gn Hornady has a different O-give that is causing this problem? I'm pretty new to the AR platform so is there something I'm missing there?

I've tried uploading pictures in both Safari and in Chrome, not sure why it fails each time. Either way, anybody got any thoughts that might help?

Do you have any of the brass that is not loaded? Try chambering a sized brass and see if it goes into battery. I have had to bump the shoulder back a few thousands at a time until the the bolt would go into full battery. Then start seating the bullets and testing for full battery.

Ive never loaded that bullet before, but I’m guessing your seating depth is a little long. My Hornady manual doesn’t list the 62gr fmj, but it seems like other similar bullets in their manual are seated to 2.200”. The only ones longer are more streamlined vmax and bthp match bullets.


JTD

How does the gun cycle on factory? I always keep a box or two to break in a gun especially an AR. BRO is hit or miss on quality and it could be something to do with the gun

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Originally Posted by JeffreyDeGraff

Ive never loaded that bullet before, but I’m guessing your seating depth is a little long. My Hornady manual doesn’t list the 62gr fmj, but it seems like other similar bullets in their manual are seated to 2.200”. The only ones longer are more streamlined vmax and bthp match bullets.


JTD

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Im pretty sure my 62gr FMJs are seated right around 2.250” so I doubt they’re too long.

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Originally Posted by Adam Van Camp

Do you have any of the brass that is not loaded? Try chambering a sized brass and see if it goes into battery. I have had to bump the shoulder back a few thousands at a time until the the bolt would go into full battery. Then start seating the bullets and testing for full battery.

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Yes, I've tried chambering only brass, it all works just fine.

I went one step further and did a plunk test with a live round separated from the lower, it plunks and falls out perfect. I'm starting to think that this is not a seating depth issue at all, rather it is something with the bolt carrier or feed ramps and how they interlock.

Haven't tried factory loads because I can't find any locally. But my 55 grain soft points run like a top through it. The 55 grainers are seated at 2.190. I ran 100 of them through it with no problems at all.

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Originally Posted by Mbaker78

Im pretty sure my 62gr FMJs are seated right around 2.250” so I doubt they’re too long.

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I’m wondering if the rifle has a short throat though?? The 55gr sp at 2.190” are functioning properly, they have a similar profile as the Hornady fmj. Just a thought.


JTD

I loaded the same at 2.26 and run great. I'm testing shorter OAL tomorrow see how they shoot.

Thing is your 55s run just fine. Check all the measurements of those against your 62s. Has to be some difference. Also check to see if anyone else has ran into headaches with that rifle. There are 223 barrels out there that don't play nice, run really tight so run into issues.

Turns out it was high primers. Loaded 50 without powder and primers today, fed them manually they eject perfect. Thinking I'd solved the problem along the way of replacing my die due to a stuck case and waiting for more components, I pulled the bullets (total pain), primed and powdered and repeated. 15 or so of them were difficult to eject. After scratching my head for 30 minutes or so, I noticed a minor abrasion on the primers of the rounds that were difficult to eject. Checked the difference in length and found they were .002-.003 longer. Turns out the primers weren't completely seated. Not enough to really feel the difference and the case gauge didn't catch it. Re-seated the primers and they fed perfectly. I guess the bolt and extractor in the AR is much tighter than the Mini-14. Now I'm going back through 700 plus rounds re-checking the primer depth.

Good to hear you got it figured out