1. Yes it's the lands. Have to put some good muscle behind the charging handle to get the unspent round out of the chamber.

2. COAL

Will give it a try. Thanks!

I don't know if it will work in an AR. The forward slamming force may jamb the bullet far into the rifling. I've never tried it. Plus they wouldn't fit in a standard Pmag without some modification anyway so I never saw the point. I get half to 3/4" groups seated to book COAL anyway.

Is the marking you are referring to, all the way around the circumference of the bullet? Or is it in one place on the bullet? If the loaded round has some run out (out of round), it will show rifling contact on one side of the bullet, but not all the way around the circumference of the bullet. Also, when I am chamber checking a round in an AR platform, I do feed it from the mag. Mag feeding will scratch up the bullet when feeding into the chamber.

The first one is a Stag Arms (which they are replacing due to multiple manufacturing errors, take note I will never deal with SA again)

Sure, they replaced the barrel, but why did it leave the shop to begin with shooting like that?

Not to derail your thread too bad but I have been very impressed with my Rock River upper. I have the 16" model of this:

http://www.rockriverarms.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=category.display&category_id=271

If you decide to give up and start over you might try it or one of their barrels.

I don't know if it will work in an AR. The forward slamming force may jamb the bullet far into the rifling. I've never tried it. Plus they wouldn't fit in a standard Pmag without some modification anyway so I never saw the point. I get half to 3/4" groups seated to book COAL anyway.

It works. You just have to ease the bolt closed, then let go the last inch. If it doesn't close, use the forward assist.

No forward assist, you'll have to let the spring do the work, and then the bullet might lurch forward giving you a false reading.

On my hand loads the book specs a COAL of 2.250 (223 Rem 55gn V-Max). Mine average 2.249. I had a barrel that was marking bullets nearly all the way back to the casing and was jamming it in the lands so far it was hard to eject the unspent round. There were other issues with that barrel so it got returned to the maker. I was curious so I loaded the same round in another new barrel from a different maker and this one also marked the bullet but not so far back. I used the same round and measured it at a COAL of 2.249. Placed that same round in my old daily use barrel and it was fine. What are the odds of getting two barrels from bifferent makers that do this? Or am I missing something?

I tried the marker method once and didn't trust it. Here is what FiremanJG told me to do and it works perfectly:

Size and deprime a case.

Take a dremel tool with a cutoff wheel and cut a slit in the case mouth like the picture below. I only made one cut straight through both sides but this is the only pic I could find online.

Now just stick a bullet the casing enough to kind of hold it in place.

Insert it into the gun, close the bolt, and eject it.

Repeat this several times and write down the measurements. You should get consistent measurements.

It also gives you more consistent measurements if you measure to the ogive using a comparator tool. I bought the Hornady one. Soft point bullets can easily have variations in the tips so COAL may not yield precise measurements every time.

Have done this trick for several different calibers and it works like a champ. Cheap, relatively easy and effective.

Btw, as said elswhere, measuring to the Ogive will give much more consistent results than measuring COAL off the meplate.

I Tried that,,, the bullet 98% of the time sticks in the rifling's and i eject an empty case !