Thread: Dpms r25 reloading help

There seems to be a bit of knowledge on here for the ar platform so I was hoping some could help.I am trying to reload some once fired brass (Lapua brass) and have tried lee,hornady and rcbs dies all seem to have the same result.The round will chamber,fire and cycle but near impossible to manually eject if needed without a hammer.All my research seems that small base redding type s dies will solve this.What sized bushing is needed?Would dead eye dicks be the only one to stock this type of die?Any one know what date they reopen?Am I on the right track?My current load is Laupa brass,150gr sst and barnes and 45 gr 2206h.I don't see any signs of over pressure on the cases.

Welcome to the forum

R25s usually eat anything they are given

What happends if you ride the bolt slowly forward so its not ramming the case into the chamber
Will it still go 100% into battery? ie bolt all the way forward and locked up
If you drop a round into the chamber with the barrel facing down does it stop with a metallic noice and fall out easily or with a gentle tap of the upper on the bench etc?
Can you get a round sitting in the chamber to get stuck if you push on it?

Last question, have you used a different shell holder with all those dies or the same one?

Even with new reloaded brass or factory ammo I have never been able to ride the bolt slowly forward and get it to lock up even with the bolt assist.Always stops short.Probally had 150 rds max through it so far and it never grouped well untill after the first 60 or so.I can drop a round easily in the chamber with and if pushed on will fall out easily by turning the action upside down.

Same shell holder rcbs.Would that make a difference?The dies were set to that shell holder as far down as possible if that makes sense.The reloaded brass that I am having trouble extracting is noticeablly harder to get in and out of the shell holder,worse in a lee hand primer than the rcbs shell holder.Not sure if this is the issue or not as there are no big extraction marks.

If the shell holder is a touch 'thick' it wont allow the cases to be sized properly
Can you chamber and extract no probs a factory round, and what about just the sized case?
Got a Lee or cheapie shell holder that can be ground down a touch?

Are the pills engaging the rifling on chambering and getting stuck there (oal possibly too long)? look for 6 evenly spaced marks on the ogive of a chambered and extracted round (let it slam into the chamber to give a good set of marks if this is happening)

I forgot to ask, and goes along with Cyclists chain of thoughts, will a sized but unloaded case exhibit the same issues?

Factry rounds are fine,new reloaded brasss is fine,once fired reloaded brass is the problem.I have put the shell holder in the lathe while this solves the problem the case is getting dimples in the neck from the case going to far in the die, Back the die off and the caes is not sized enough for this rifle.The once fired reloaded brass will chamber and extract in other types of rifles.My oal is 70.94mm or 2.793".I am getting no grooves on the bullet and I doubt seating depth is to blame as the cartridge would fail to fit in the magazine before it would even come close to touching the lands.Some brass is very tight in the shell holder could the load be to hot and cause expansion at the base area?The primers are showing no signs of excessive pressure.Fired unsized brass is fine and extracts easy enough.

That is weird maybe your die is out of spec? I found that in my AR's I had to screw my Lee FL die down further than specified, otherwise I would also get sticky manual extraction. No adverse effects for me.

I think Spanners is on the right track. I suspect your chamber is on the tighter side of the acceptable tolerance and as such your die is not sizing the brass far enough around the base area. If the brass chambers with a ground down shell holder this could be because you have resized your base slightly or it could mean you have reduced the length to the datum of the shoulder. Personally I suspect that its a base size issue. I have a DPMS AR10 and I use a Forster FL die and have no issues feeding and extracting unfired rounds. I think trying a Small Base die is worthwhile, I use one exclusively in my AR15 and it does not seem to have affected accuracy, and it guarantees no matter what brass I put through what gun it always chambers and extracts.

In the past I have noticed Lee dies do not resize the base as much as some other brands like Redding so swaping dies with a mate may be worthwhile. Oh was the brass that is a tight fit in the shell holder fired in the DPMS or another rifle?

I had my Dillon .223 die shortened very slightly as I had the same issues as you are detailing. At the time I just put it down to the fact that I was using a 550 progressive press and the tolerances were a little out.
Since that was done no worries

Note: Not a good idead to give a Dillon Carbide Full length sizing .223 die to your mate to tickle up 5 thou off on the lathe WITHOUT telling him its Carbide. Apparently it wrecks the tools or something.

Originally Posted by Herbmiester

I think Spanners is on the right track. I suspect your chamber is on the tighter side of the acceptable tolerance and as such your die is not sizing the brass far enough around the base area. If the brass chambers with a ground down shell holder this could be because you have resized your base slightly or it could mean you have reduced the length to the datum of the shoulder. Personally I suspect that its a base size issue. I have a DPMS AR10 and I use a Forster FL die and have no issues feeding and extracting unfired rounds. I think trying a Small Base die is worthwhile, I use one exclusively in my AR15 and it does not seem to have affected accuracy, and it guarantees no matter what brass I put through what gun it always chambers and extracts.

In the past I have noticed Lee dies do not resize the base as much as some other brands like Redding so swaping dies with a mate may be worthwhile. Oh was the brass that is a tight fit in the shell holder fired in the DPMS or another rifle?

Only fired in the dpms.

Originally Posted by mikee

I had my Dillon .223 die shortened very slightly as I had the same issues as you are detailing. At the time I just put it down to the fact that I was using a 550 progressive press and the tolerances were a little out.
Since that was done no worries

Note: Not a good idead to give a Dillon Carbide Full length sizing .223 die to your mate to tickle up 5 thou off on the lathe WITHOUT telling him its Carbide. Apparently it wrecks the tools or something.

I am no lathe expert but lathe tooling is far from cheap.I have more money in tooling and inserts than the cost of the lathe