reloading .223 OAL question

Any reloaders out there? I bought 1,000 rounds of 53 gn .223 hollow points in March of 2020 because I saw an ammo going the way of TP thing coming about. Figured if I was going to be stuck home, I would gather some hobbies together so I could use my time productively and not play games all day. I finished pressing the Lords caliber together, and am about to change back over to .223 (my company did get essential status and I worked through the pandemic, thankfully because sitting at home for a year would've driven me insane. 2 weeks was bad enough). My question is about the overall length that was given for the round I'm using, is that to the flat on the hollow point or to the hypothetical point of where the bullet would be if it did have a point. I tried cycling them in my savage axis bolt action and the round gets caught on the barrel. I didn't know if that was due to the rifle not having a feed ramp or the bullet is too long and I have to shorten them. Going through the single stage press wouldn't be a huge thing to do. Sorry for a sloppy explanation, my coffee hasn't kicked in fully on this glorious Monday morning.

You'll find your answer when you select what powder you choose to use; it tells you the OAL. Now if you wish to use the data provided by the bullet manufacturer it's usually the same or very close. That said, you might be over thinking the matter, just measure with a good caliper to what the manufacturer suggests or for the data listed for the particular powder you're going to use.

Usually Over All Length is determined by the magazine interior dimensions. So take your loaded cartridges and see if they work in your magazine. As long as they move up and down freely, you are OK.

If you are talking about loaded ammo (factory or loaded by somebody else), do not push the bullet in: you risk to increase dramatically the pressure.
Do some detective work to figure out why they do not feed: if loaded individually, do they chamber or the case/bullet jams somewhere in the chamber before the bolt is closed?

A good way to detect what is robbing is to cover the whole round with layout blue or color it with Sharpie.

Paolo

My problem only happens in one rifle, the savage axis. Rounds fit in the mag. When I push the bolt forward the tip of the round doesn't clear the throat of the chamber. I don't have the issue with other guns. When I feed by hand, the bolt closes like normal, I don't have to apply any extra force. The axis doesn't have a feed ramp though, so it could be that the magazine isn't raising the tip high enough.

Sounds like a mag issue to me. I have a hollow point load which will only work in pmags, as metal mags will catch the mouth of the bulllet. My issue is only on my ARs tho- I don't own a bolt gun in 223.
To answer your question, OAL is total length, from the head of the case to the tip of the bullet, regardless of tip style.

Is the magazine tightly held by the receiver or does it have vertical play? Can it be pushed upward after it latches? Does holding it up make it feed correctly?

Paolo_MD said:

If you are talking about loaded ammo (factory or loaded by somebody else), do not push the bullet in: you risk to increase dramatically the pressure.
Do some detective work to figure out why they do not feed: if loaded individually, do they chamber or the case/bullet jams somewhere in the chamber before the bolt is closed?

A good way to detect what is robbing is to cover the whole round with layout blue or color it with Sharpie.

Paolo

Click to expand...

WHAT! chuckle chuckle

I did get a chance to play with rifle this week. It mostly comes down to the mag, imho. I tried other reloads I made and they cycled fine. It is only these rounds that screw up. Not sure why. I used a sharpie and didn't find any smoking gun, pun intended-ish, as to why the bolt is harder to go into battery than others. I forgot that that was an issue, I may has stated it wasn't, but that was my bad. All reloads worked fine in other rifles, just this one rifle and one bullet is having trouble.