Getting back into reloading after 20 years and need to get up to speed on what's up. Purchased an AR, will be feeding with reloads once I get a few empties. Any special tricks with AR's or are they just another gun? Match grade barrel has a Wylde chamber and flash suppressor. Any affect on accuracy?

Wylde chambers should generally be more accurate.

I pay close attention to magazine length when loading for my ARs, other than that there's nothing special about them.

FL size your brass and make sure you set the "Head to Shoulder" measurement correctly.

I have found that when loading for my AR that trimmed cases are a must!

Steve nailed it as to cartridge headspace. As to trim length, get a sinclair chamber neck length gauge. You will soon find that virtually all commercial ar chambers have a great deal of unstated neck length to the effect that you can properly size and full power fire the case 5 times at least before case length exceeds the nominal. How many more times do you want to shoot that case at full power before discarding it ? That trim thing is not real.

I strongly recomend that you work up loads for your individual rifle. Bolt actions get more velocity (and higher pressures) then the AR's.

My Colt Delta Elite fired this 400 + yard group yesterday with tuned handloads... 75 Hornady A-Max, VV 540 powder single load length

Be certain (test a few from each brass lot) that your reloads have adequate neck tension to resist the bullets moving during the feed cycle. Make sure you get the lube out of the necks.

Set your FL sizing like you would any rimless case; I really like those relatively new Redding shellholders of varying thickness, as they let you close the press fully every time.

Watch out for stretched primer pockets in once-fired primer-crimped factory ammo (it was American Eagle that got me.) After I swaged out the crimp the primers went in tight, but the pockets were expanded down inside and let the primers expand enough to crack, leaving burns in the bolt face.


BV

I have been told that I should use small base or narrow base FL sizing dies for semi autos. I bought a Redding die for .223

Small base dies are not needed. Standard dies work fine.



ZM

A Lee factory crimp die is a must IMO along with SB dies.

quote:

Originally posted by Hunt-ducks:
A Lee factory crimp die is a must IMO along with SB dies.

Small base dies are not needed when loading for AR's. SB dies just overwork the brass. Been there, done that.

Crimping isn't needed but can help accuracy.
I crimp 55gr blasting ammo. I don't crimp 75gr long range loads. A little testing is in order to see if crimping can help or not.

The Lee crimp die works great....but for volume loading it's an extra step. I use the crimp built into the RCBS dies. Saves time and there's no difference in accuracy. I'm still using a single stage press, so I can't justify the extra step for just blasting ammo.

The single most important goodie needed for reloading .223 is the Dillon Case gauge.
http://www.dillonprecision.com/#/content/p/9/pid/23612/...less_Steel_Case_Gage

This will assure that the case is properly sized.

ZM

not sure why, but most of my ar's seem to really like the 60-63 gr bullets best. even the 7" twist ones.