I have an AR with a 6.8 barrel from ARP.
When I run S&B bulk FMJ factory ammo through it, it works flawlessly.
With my handloads, it jams up on the second round nearly every time. I seat the loaded mag with the bolt back, smack the bolt catch, and it chambers the first round fine. Pull the trigger, and it fires and ejects fine, strips the second round off the mag and what visually appears to be in to battery. Upon trigger pull, nothing happens. Go to manually cycle, and the charging handle is stuck -- need to gently mortar it to get the round to eject. No primer strike, no visual damage/scarring to the round.
If I load a single handload into the magazine, it loads, fires, and locks back on the empty magazine without issue. Ejection pattern is 3:00-3:30, about 12' away.
I know these details are probably more suited to the reloading forum, but my handloads were all S&B brass, sized with a standard RCBS die, H322 powder (was working up loads, so I started at book minimum and worked up to book maximum -- all charges had the same behavior), CCI400's, 110gr VMAX & BTHP's. Brass was spot-checked in a case gage during sizing and after bullet seating -- no issues. Trim length was 1.680", and they were seated to 2.2590" and fit in the magazine with room to spare. This was the first time running hand loads through this rifle, but handloads made with the same brass, die, trim length, COAL, and bullets run flawlessly through my PSA 6.8 using 8208XBR.
So based on all of this, I was thinking that maybe the ARP chamber is tight compared to my sizing die, causing energy loss in the ejection/loading cycle after the first round, to the point where it isn't seating in battery fully? Should I try a small base die and see if that fixes things?
When I run S&B bulk FMJ factory ammo through it, it works flawlessly.
With my handloads, it jams up on the second round nearly every time. I seat the loaded mag with the bolt back, smack the bolt catch, and it chambers the first round fine. Pull the trigger, and it fires and ejects fine, strips the second round off the mag and what visually appears to be in to battery. Upon trigger pull, nothing happens. Go to manually cycle, and the charging handle is stuck -- need to gently mortar it to get the round to eject. No primer strike, no visual damage/scarring to the round.
If I load a single handload into the magazine, it loads, fires, and locks back on the empty magazine without issue. Ejection pattern is 3:00-3:30, about 12' away.
I know these details are probably more suited to the reloading forum, but my handloads were all S&B brass, sized with a standard RCBS die, H322 powder (was working up loads, so I started at book minimum and worked up to book maximum -- all charges had the same behavior), CCI400's, 110gr VMAX & BTHP's. Brass was spot-checked in a case gage during sizing and after bullet seating -- no issues. Trim length was 1.680", and they were seated to 2.2590" and fit in the magazine with room to spare. This was the first time running hand loads through this rifle, but handloads made with the same brass, die, trim length, COAL, and bullets run flawlessly through my PSA 6.8 using 8208XBR.
So based on all of this, I was thinking that maybe the ARP chamber is tight compared to my sizing die, causing energy loss in the ejection/loading cycle after the first round, to the point where it isn't seating in battery fully? Should I try a small base die and see if that fixes things?
