Melonite is a trade name of nitride treating. Basically it a salt bath chemical treatment. Not uncommon to have crystals left behind. A good scrub of the chamber may be all it takes. It’s free to try, unless you don’t already have a brush.
Oh ok, I didn't know that. I scrubbed the you know what out of it and the bore last night. I spent a good 45min on it.
I called a few buddies today to see if anyone had headspace gauges but no luck. I called a few gun shops around to see if they had any to use and they just want me to drop it off for them to look at.
At this point I just feel like I'm better off with a different barrel.
What area are you located?
Maybe someone close by can help.
You don’t actually need a headspace gauge, and honestly in your case it won’t help. We already know it’s long based on your measurement of fired brass. The question is how long.
Just do it like people have checked loaded length for years.
Strip the bolt.
Convert a piece of 223 brass with an extra long shoulder by backing your die off a turn or two. If you have any other 223 based die size it in that first to get the base. You want a piece that is at least 1.090” at the shoulder. If that chambers and the bolt closes your done. If not just bump the shoulder a couple thousandths until it does and measure it. We already know it’s more than 1.080”.
I was finally able to get a few minutes to take another stab at it.
I formed a .223 case starting in a .223 fl die then cut it just below the shoulder and trimmed. Run it into the 300 die until i had 1.090. That case would not chamber using the assist. I bumped it down .002-.003 until it chambered.
Well what do you know, it was 1.075.
I seated a bullet at 2.060 and marked it with a marker. Chambered the round and again it grew about. 010 and could make out some faint markings on the bullet as before.
Then i decided to try to seat the bullet deeper, at 2.050. Same results.
I went ahead and ordered a Balistics advantage barrel i found on sale. If nothing else i'll have some peace of mind.
Headspace is fine, only question might be throat or freebore.
With that piece of brass you can do the same thing with the bullet to find the lands. Easy to pull the upper and bolt carrier.
Load it long, 2.100" insert it into the chamber with finger pressure and it should stick if it's hitting the lands. If not it will drop out on it's own. Work the bullet down until drops out, there's your max length for that bullet.
Once you can rule out the barrel pulling the bullet out, then you can work on the neck tension.
