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I have an AR15 and find that if I manually insert a round into the chamber and try to seat it with my finger I can't push it fully home, it sticks out about 5mm. The bolt will push it in when it is cycled and it fires ok but just wondering is it normal for the round to have that tight fit that requires a lot of force to seat it.

Is this with commercial loads or homeloads..?? or both..??

Factory ammo

The case might look as though it's sticking out, but the AR design means that the head of the case is in the bolt when closed. Look at the bolt face and you'll see what I mean.

Clip a round to the bolt face and gently insert it that way you'll find it seats I reckon.

Gently closing the bolt often doesn't fully seat the bullet or completely close the bolt. Pulling the trigger will result in a click and the bolt closing fully but no bang and no evidence of why it didn't go bang.
It's why you shouldn't ride the bolt/charging handle when chambering a round and might not give you the result you want in this instance.

Don't most manuals caution against single-loading rounds into the chambers of ARs? The floating firing pin means that there exists the possibility, however remote, of a slam fire.

JSC wrote:The case might look as though it's sticking out, but the AR design means that the head of the case is in the bolt when closed. Look at the bolt face and you'll see what I mean.

The same with an AK, it is the force of the recoil spring that seats the round in the chamber, ride to bolt carrier and they don't always chamber a round fully.

Yes, I see that now. Maybe I was just riding the bolt when I first noticed it. I can see that pushing the ejector rod requires a bit of force.
Thanks guys.

It's a bolt design matter this I think, not one of force, or was he original reply wrong?