223 rounds dent during seating

You have a 22 caliber bullet that measures .233” in diameter?

Chamfer your mouths more.
Provide some actual neck dimensions-sized and seated outside diameters.

With a .233" bullet diameter I doubt these will even chamber in the gun.

My guess is that you are seeing the bullet telegraphing through the case neck where the bullet sets. Excess neck tension could be part of the issue causing you to see this. This assumes that your bullet is not really .233.

Are you asking about a ring on your bullets caused by the stem of your seating die ? If so that is an easy fix .

Maybe polish the seating stem or use a different shape/style to match the bullet

MAHLMAN said:

The unknown bullets are .224" and the Hornady's are .233" Dents happen with sized neck no ream and with ream.

Click to expand...

OP, double check your numbers. It isn't likely to be the correct bullet if it is really 0.233" dia.

Sometimes a seating die stem will dent a bullet jacket because it doesn't fit well, and sometimes it is because the seating force is abnormally high.

Right now it is hard to say which of those two situations you are in, but if you sort out your observations we will get you sorted.

ETA: ..."How bad can dents be before they effect accuracy?" This is another one where the answer starts with "It depends..."
If a jacket is just cosmentically affected, you can often get away with it, however when a jacket is actually dented to the point where it starts to propogate the damage into the core, you will likely not see good groups. Some people cannot shoot the difference. In some bad instances, the bullet can do very strange things with a range of events from flyers to disintegration.

how much powder do you have in the case, is it a compressed load? Sometimes with varget and the hornady 68 since it is longer than the sierra 69 and if I dont let the powder spiral down the funnel I will get a seating ring.

rweaver00geo said:

how much powder do you have in the case, is it a compressed load? Sometimes with varget and the hornady 68 since it is longer than the sierra 69 and if I dont let the powder spiral down the funnel I will get a seating ring.

Click to expand...

Very good point. This brings up one of the ways to get abnormally high seating forces.

If the powder column is being squeezed by the base of the bullet, it can contribute to the issue. To find out, make a few dummy rounds without charges or study the seating stroke to see how soon the dent appears along the stroke.

C;mon folks , It's called a typo . When was the last time you saw Hornady make a .233" bullet . Never ! Concentrate on the question , and stop picking the fly shit out of the pepper .

OP, round off the sharp edge of your seating stem and you will eliminate that variable . You can also check your OD of neck before seating and after to make sure you are not reducing neck diameter too much. Good luck .

MAHLMAN said:

While these were all supposed to be processed cases I am finding that the mouth chamfer is poor. Changed the 233 typo to 223 for nit pickers. Powder is AR Plus and is not a compressed load. Neck ID sized with provided Dillon carbide ball on the depriming stem.

Click to expand...

"for nit pickers" coming from the guy who half the scant data he provided was a typo.
Actually measure your shit and chamfer your cases and you wont have dumbass issues.

Hornady jackets are soft, compared to the thicker SMK or Lapua jackets. They can dents a ring from the seating stem easily. Ive never seen it affect accuracy in a poor manner but don't like it. As above in prior post first put a more steep chamfer inside the mouth and see if that helps. then also check ID of the mouth. There is tool to check Neck Tension out there. just a quick ID gauge. Ballistic Tools makes em https://ballistictools.com/store/case-mouth-gage-224-308

Haney said:

C;mon folks , It's called a typo . When was the last time you saw Hornady make a .233" bullet . Never ! Concentrate on the question , and stop picking the fly shit out of the pepper .

Click to expand...

Are you absolutely sure about that?
How many .228 diameter bullets did they produce?

check your neck tension also. may be too much causing stiff seating and thus the stem marks.

Too much seating pressure. The reason some bullets dont dent as much is due to their harder construction. Reduce neck hardness, neck tension, neck friction.

U talking to me?

spife7980 said:

"for nit pickers" coming from the guy who half the scant data he provided was a typo.
Actually measure your shit and chamfer your cases and you wont have dumbass issues.

Click to expand...

You'd have to be a complete idiot to think he actually meant .233" for a 22 caliber bullet. Duh, that's an obvious typo, and yes it's nit picking when most of the posts in the thread are about that. But you knew that and just wanted to be a jackass again. The guy's clearly a less experienced reloader, give him a break.

Haney said:

C;mon folks , It's called a typo . When was the last time you saw Hornady make a .233" bullet . Never ! Concentrate on the question , and stop picking the fly shit out of the pepper .

Click to expand...

Bump

Haney said:

OP, round off the sharp edge of your seating stem and you will eliminate that variable . You can also check your OD of neck before seating and after to make sure you are not reducing neck diameter too much. Good luck .

Click to expand...

Bump

MAHLMAN said:

"for nit pickers" coming from the guy who half the scant data he provided was a typo.
Actually measure your shit and chamfer your cases and you wont have dumbass issues.

Your suggestion was good and I hesitated before writing this reply. However there are a few things to consider in the abrasive manner in which you decided to reply and please note that at this time I would like to direct your attention to your atrocious sentence structure which is deliberate and not a typo. Anyway not everyone has years of experience where they would know exactly what to ask and they post questions. The correct response would be helpful ideas on what to look for and not snark. I don't know why it is people feel compelled to act this way but sadly all to often on the internet this is what I see.

Click to expand...

Yondering said:

You'd have to be a complete idiot to think he actually meant .233" for a 22 caliber bullet. Duh, that's an obvious typo, and yes it's nit picking when most of the posts in the thread are about that. But you knew that and just wanted to be a jackass again. The guy's clearly a less experienced reloader, give him a break.

Click to expand...

62 spire points are not known for being super accurate to begin with

As for the ring I can tell the OP that compressed loads can and will result in seating stem rings on bullets. I was working on 53 grain Bergers in 223 with 26 grains of N135 which was just below the case mouth. As I tried to seat the bullets deeper the ring appeared and became more obvious as the COAL decreased.

FMJs in general are not know for shooting very good, and normally are considered about the worst hunting bullets.

supercorndogs said:

FMJs in general are not know for shooting very good, and normally are considered about the worst hunting bullets.

Click to expand...

Plus they are illegal to use for hunting in some states. They were so in KS when I lived there, where expanding bullets must be used.

I had the same nose ring problem when I started loading Hornady ELD bullets. I bought Hornady seating stems for each cartridge and the problem disappeared.



P

62 FMJ are probably a 3-4 MOA bullet, good luck.

MAHLMAN said:

OK with 23.5gr AR plus powder I have space to spare and they are not compressed loads. I would not use the FMJ rounds for hunting and would use the Spire points for that. As to what accuracy I can get I won't know til I get out there and shoot.

On the Hornady seating stems. My rings have gone away with the stock Dillon seating stem with a little carbide burr work. Had one the same shape as the bullet. I will look into those Hornady's though.

I have guys that swear by 62gr soft point bullets for deer but I always leaned towards 308 for that. I intend to varmint shoot and practice with these 223's and the accuracy should be just fine for what I do. Later I might look into loading for better accuracy but all my rifles are stock AR's and from all I read they are not 1 MOA guns anyway. I have yet to really get out and shoot much with these so I have no idea what to expect.

Click to expand...

You'll get far better accuracy from those 62gr soft points than from the FMJs. Not sure what that other poster was talking about, maybe he was thinking FMJ instead.

But - on the .223" bullets you mentioned - you may not get very good accuracy from those. They are generally a leftover from the days when .223" was the common centerfire diameter, like the 22 Hornet for example; I've still got a couple boxes of .223" Hornet bullets but they aren't good for much. A .224" bullet is the right size for pretty much all modern centerfire 22 caliber barrels.

Shoots 700's said:

62 FMJ are probably a 3-4 MOA bullet, good luck.

Click to expand...

Maybe a shitty shooter would get 3-4 MOA , I can hit a 3" steel repeatedly at 300 yards w/ mine . Experience is the best teacher .

MAHLMAN said:

I have no idea how old these bullets are and did not think to look for a manufacturing date on them. It was a sealed case of 6500 rounds and from Midsouth less then a year ago. They measure .223 and I also have some Federal trophy Bonded Bearclaw that measure .224. I will be interested to see how the two fare.

Click to expand...

Huh. Probably not intended for old .223 bores then if they are that new, just maybe low quality and smaller than they should be. Personally I'd have lower accuracy expectations for those (and honestly would have returned them if it were me) but you never know until you shoot them.

Of course make sure your micrometer is calibrated well, it doesn't take much to be off .001".

I'm guessing these .223" bullets are the FMJ version?

You might have some luck smacking them in the backside with a faster burning powder like Benchmark, 2230, or maybe even 2200 for a reduced velocity (but full pressure) load, in an attempt to get them to slug up and fill the bore.