Inconsistent Federal .223 rem bullet depth?

[UB40]

I recently bought 200 rounds of Federal PowerShok .223 Rem 55 grain softpoint last month. Just now I opened a box and saw some horrible looking inconsistencies between bullet seating depth per the crimp line. Some are IN the case neck and some are so high that I see the copper band below the crimp. This isn’t a MY loading question per say but don’t know where else detailed, thousands of inch precision bullet questions would go. Also if it’s a clue, 1 round in 40 or so is a dark dusty tainted copper color brass case almost black or dark brown? Did I get skunked or am I tripping over nothing? I got this just for general purpose hollow points to have on hand, maybe coyote duty. I know it’s not match Ammo but I’m under the impression that varying rifle gap jump will cause varying results at impact.

The first pic is OAL checked with a “long” example then I picked a “short” deep depth round and that gap left over could be called the “variance” between the two. It’s approximately .030” wide.

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Last edited by UB40 on Mon Jan 14, 2019 8:56 am, edited 1 time in total.

[Sinus211]

Thread relocated

[MadPick]

Well, I certainly would expect a box of factory ammo to look better than that. That said, I’m sure it will work just fine.

Maybe it’s inconsistent seating depth (I.e., overall cartridge length), or maybe it’s inconsistent brass length.

[UB40]

Thread relocated

Thanks!

[Old Growth]

What, factory ammo that's inconsistent and low quality? No way! Lol.

After recording numbers on hundreds of results/numbers on shooting/cronoing factory this weekend, I must say the numbers were all over the place. HUGE variations from identical rounds out of the same box. Hundreds of FPS apart from each other.

The more expensive fancier looking stuff seemed to be the worse many times, while the less common stuff was very consistent.

Just cuz you have a receipt and it came from a factory, doesn't mean its any good.

Weigh those and see how far of variance you get.

[Blaze.45]

Not that I don't believe you, but I see you're measuring a non-pointy-tipped bullet by the cartridge overall length (COAL). Do you have a bullet comparator to measure from the O-give? Just curious.

[hartcreek]

Blaze it has to fit his magazine so yes OAL is important. That box in the photo looks more like reloads with different case lengths.