So my friend, let's call him Bartholomew, is having some problems with his 223 ammunition.
I went with him to the Indy1500 a year or 2 ago and he ended up buying a box of 1000 rounds of reloaded 223 from some guy that was selling reloads for $299 before taxes. (If it were me I would have bought any top tier factory ammo, preferably Lake City M193)
I remember asking the guy at the time what the difference was between 223 and 556. He said something along the lines of "They are exactly the same except 556 has a [different] primer." Neither Bartholomew nor myself knew anything about reloading or the differences between 223 and 556 at the time, but looking back this seems not entirely correct.
Fast forward to a few weeks ago. We went down to the range and he shot some of those reloads for the first time. He kept getting malfunctions. His BCG would get stuck in the chamber after firing a round, and he would need to hammer it loose.
The guy that helped him at the range said this is common with shooting reloads out of some ARs, and said the headspace probably needs adjusted. I'm not sure if he was referring to the headspace on the gun(tighten or loosen barrel?) or headspace on the cartridge.
Feeling bad that he wasn't able to properly shoot, I "lent" him one of my loaded magazines to use. No problems. Looking back, there was probably a 50/50 chance the mag I handed him was loaded with 5.56, something he probably shouldn't be using in a 223 rifle.
I didn't think to try his ammo out of my gun, as I didn't want to damage it with potentially bad ammo.
Is he pretty much out of luck here, or is there some kind of solution? Any ideas?
I went with him to the Indy1500 a year or 2 ago and he ended up buying a box of 1000 rounds of reloaded 223 from some guy that was selling reloads for $299 before taxes. (If it were me I would have bought any top tier factory ammo, preferably Lake City M193)
I remember asking the guy at the time what the difference was between 223 and 556. He said something along the lines of "They are exactly the same except 556 has a [different] primer." Neither Bartholomew nor myself knew anything about reloading or the differences between 223 and 556 at the time, but looking back this seems not entirely correct.
Fast forward to a few weeks ago. We went down to the range and he shot some of those reloads for the first time. He kept getting malfunctions. His BCG would get stuck in the chamber after firing a round, and he would need to hammer it loose.
The guy that helped him at the range said this is common with shooting reloads out of some ARs, and said the headspace probably needs adjusted. I'm not sure if he was referring to the headspace on the gun(tighten or loosen barrel?) or headspace on the cartridge.
Feeling bad that he wasn't able to properly shoot, I "lent" him one of my loaded magazines to use. No problems. Looking back, there was probably a 50/50 chance the mag I handed him was loaded with 5.56, something he probably shouldn't be using in a 223 rifle.
I didn't think to try his ammo out of my gun, as I didn't want to damage it with potentially bad ammo.
Is he pretty much out of luck here, or is there some kind of solution? Any ideas?