Ozark 110 and 135 gr Feed Issues?

[chris454]

I received some of the newer Ozark ammo. I've been using their 147 gr stuff, but lacked in accuracy for me. My rifle seems to like lighter bullet weights, such as the Remington 120 gr HP, so was really happy to see Ozark offer these two new weights. At the range, though, I had consistent feed issues and gave up on it. I attributed it to the shorter OAL of the new Ozark stuff (very short). I think SAMMI has a pretty broad range for the OAL, so it may not be out of spec ammo. My rifle has been 100% reliable up to this point, So here I am trying to get some insight about this. I read one review on the new ammo here, and no mention of feed issues. I only brought ASC 20 rnd mags to the range (I use those when bench shooting since they're short), so not sure if my Pmags would have made any difference. I sent an email to Ozark to see what they have to say. I really want this stuff to work because of the price! Anyone run into this type of issue?

[plant.one]

i'd have to guess its magazine related issue more than anything.

i only had 10 rounds to test with, but they fed normally, no issues for me with a pmag.

rebel and at least one other person has reviewed them as well (maybe more of us) and you're the first i can recall on issues with the 135's anyway.





do you have any pictures of the FTF's you experienced? that might help diagnose your problem a little easier if you do.

[chris454]

do you have any pictures of the FTF's you experienced? that might help diagnose your problem a little easier if you do.

No pics of that. Essentially, I could charge the bolt and it would feed fine, then after the first shot, just got a 'click'. Each time I dropped the mag, a loose round would also fall out. I just tried loading 10 rounds into both the ASC and a Pmag, then manually pushing them out. Boy, the Pmag is 'way' smoother. The ASC catches a bit. I think I need to head back to the range with the Pmags!

[plant.one]

do you have a standard carbine spring and buffer? it almost sounds like your bolt is outrunning the magazine spring and not picking up the next round.

[chris454]

Yes, standard weight buffer. Other ammo runs fine, though, so not wanting to point my finger at that just yet. I've used the aluminum ASC (former C-Products?) mags more than the Pmags, but as mentioned earlier, it's been 100% reliable up to this short ammo. I think another range trip is worth the time, I mean excuse, to go back to the range.

[chris454]

I pulled apart one of the 110 gr bullets to see if there was a cannelure, that perhaps the bullet was actually longer. Nope.

[A-Game]

The 135 GR Game Slayer was very accurate and fed reliably out of my 10 round Pmag

I've purchased 1000 rounds of 147 GR Ozark Ordnance ammo and I've had no issues with feeding and extracting that was the fault of the ammo. It was very accurate ammunition.

I have had some bad Pmags. Without metal feed lips the Magpul plastic widens out of spec over time and use with the mags left loaded. I am currently in the process of changing out all my Pmags for Lancer and GI mags.

My request for samples of their new ammunition went unanswered so I cannot speak for the 110 GR ammo. It has always looked very short which wouldn't matter for bolt gun or single shot rifle. I'd like to put these rounds through a carbine course torture test before making judgement

[chris454]

Tnx! I just ordered a couple 20 rnd Lancer mags from Wilson Combat. I too haven't had any problems with the 147 gr Ozark ammo. Or any other for that matter, just this new shorter stuff. Anyway, we'll see how the Pmag and Lancer does on the next range trip.

[brianm602]

You are not alone. I ran though about 100 rounds of the 110gr and 135gr and had ftf's in every mag. The 110gr rounds were averaging 2 a mag and the 135gr were about 1 a mag. I have ran 4 or 5 other types of ammo, factory new, in several different mags without issue. The way the ftf's were displayed it does look like it could very well be a OAL issue. Rounds were stripped from mag with bullet end facing almost straight up, slightly forward. Each ftf resulted in significant bullet setback.

To be fair to the Ozark ammo I did spend a few hours testing it with different configurations, rifle & mags, and still had the issue. Every time a failure to feed issue arose I tried other types of ammo with no ftf's in that same config.

Also shot the ammo for accuracy, best I could with a 2 moa red dot at 25 yards, and through a chronograph. The ammo is pretty accurate and the MV's were within 50 fps of each other on average.

Gun used:
9" BCM 300blk upper with enhanced lightweight barrel and pistol length gas system, M4 feed ramps.
Ran both suppressed and un-suppressed.

Buffers tested:
Carbine, H

Mags used for test:
Gen M3 Pmags, 20 & 30 round (2 of ea.)
Lancer L5 20 & 30 round (2 of ea.)
Labelle USGI aluminum 30 round with magpull follower (1)

I really wanted to like this ammo, especially the 135gr for hunting, but regular ftf's are not acceptable in my book no matter what the cost.

I do have a H2 buffer but due to time constraints I was not able to add that to the testing; besides both supersonic and subsonic factory loads function flawlessly with either tested.

[plant.one]

you were probably out running the spring with a carbine/h buffer in that 9".

systems like that are designed to run with a H2 buffer.



just a quick follow up - were you having more trouble suppressed or unsuppressed?