Gah! Another Issue... FNG here again.

[Antihero47]

Oops. Well, I went ahead and started processing my brass. I had about 160 casings that I 'thought' I could go ahead and reload since I only fired them once

Well, I prepped 50 cases to the specs that it says on the lee dies insert that I have. I then put 47g of Varget into the casing and topped it off with a 150g Sierra MatchKing HPBT as it says on Hodgdon's data. I made sure the seating depth gave the cartridge a overall length of 3.250" and measured it with my calipers.

The thing is... that I decided to see if the cartridge would chamber into my rifle. I placed a Cartridge with no powder or primer but bullet seated into it and tried to close the bolt. It does not want to chamber. I can not turn the bolt down.

I have some Winchester Super X 168g factory ammo that I purchased to sight in the rifle. After pointing the rifle in a safe direction and the muzzle pointing to a proper backstop, I chambered the Winchester ammo. It sat in and slid and chambered, I was able to close the bolt.

I measured the Win ammo to the casings that I have, and the measurements check out the same pretty much. I don't know why its not going down.

I think I'm going to toss these 100 things of brass, the head stamp is MFS 30-06. I bought them off cheaper that dirt... they were re manufactured FMJBT rounds going for $8.50 a box of 20. So I got 5 boxes and they all chambered fine.

Any help would be great.

[wpcexpert]

First thing to try, is chamber one of the resized cases with no bullet. Then it might the difference in bullets that is making the difference.

Just have to ask, by "Prepped" you mean resized correct?

[Shoney]

Two things that come to mind

Are the cases properly sized?
Try to chamber a sized case by itself.

Did you overcrimp a tiny bit?
The shoulder will bulge out imperceptably, but enough to not allow the case to chamber.

[Dr. Strangelove]

You did resize the cases, correct? Did you full length resize or neck size only?

Did you insert both the dummy and the live round into the magazine before trying to chamber them? Some rifles won't allow you to chamber a round that hasn't been fed through the magazine.

Take your bolt out (assuming your rifle is a bolt action) and just drop the dummy round into the chamber. It should go in with no problem. Do the same with the live round and compare where the case head is relative to each other.

Did you chamfer the case mouth? Sometimes if you don't, the bullet seating process will bulge the case out right at the shoulder, kind of like a ring, to the point the cartridge won't chamber.

Maybe post a picture of the dummy round?

[Antihero47]

By prepped I mean...

Tumbled..
Primer pocket Cleaned..
Full Length Resize..
Trimmed..
De-burred inside mouth and out..

I purchased .308" projectiles. These are 30/06 cases.

I seat them and they go in fine, and I do not crimp. I have a factory crimp so I can, but I have not on these.

[kraigwy]

Not to keep beating a dead horse but you cant beat a Case Gage for setting up the sizer die. great for bolt guns, necessary for gas guns.

[rn22723]

First off were these cases fired in the gun you are loading for? Fired cases from the same chamber should chamber easily, if this is a bolt gun? Did you get brass from another gun?

Next off when FL sizing always set up the dies and recheck chambering. Did you remove the lube after sizing?

Next off you need to understand that you need to work up a load in a stair step procedure working up a load, not just plunking down a load and topping off with a bullet. And, till a load is proven never make a production run of ammo. It is not fun pulling bullets...get a collet bullet puller.

[Antihero47]

Yes, all 160 of the brass were fired in this rifle only. It is a bolt action. The Winchester and Remington brass in the bunch all pretty much go down fine.

I tried to load a piece of the MFS brass with no bullet and it was pretty hard getting the bolt to close, as if I almost would have had to force it with pressure to go down.

As for RN227, I appreciate your concern. I did not fully make 50 rounds. I prepped 50 cases up to the deburr and chamfer point, primed them and then created 5 rounds with 47g of Varget. I was then going to create 5 rounds of 47.5g of Varget, but wanted to make sure before I got too far if they would chamber. I just assumed that they would, and 2 of the five chambered fine.

I wound up putting the rest of the fifty through the chamber and separated the brass by the ones that went in and closed without any force, and ones that needed force.

The ones that needed no force, I loaded the amount of powder that I was on and seated the bullet. These chamber fine.

Do you think that I need to trim them a little more?

[wncchester]

Anti, you only need to FL resize the cases again, their shoulders haven't been set back quite far enough. It's a common newbie problem, most of us did the same thing at first.

Repeat your original sizing on one of the "bad" cases. Chamber it and close the bolt, if it will. It likely won't go. Turn the die down about 1/8th turn, size and test chamber again. If it goes, fine. If not, repeat moving the die down a tad until it does.

Be sure you LUBE the lower part of the cases. That's where they can get stuck and we will pull the rim off trying to un-stick them.

[Fox1]

'Nother newbie here and I just recently did the same thing.

Turns out that just turning my die down a little less than 1/4 of a turn and re-resizing (full length) my brass fixed the problem.

I test by chambering an empty (no primer, powder or bullet) re-sized casing.

HTH!

[Antihero47]

Great! I am going to have to bring down the sizer die a bit more then, run these suckers through and then check it again, will be a life saver if I can keep these.

I am going to have to pull the 3 cartridges that do not fit and recycle the components. I am SO glad that I checked these before I made 25 rounds of stairstepped rounds and found out that more then half wont fit.

[wpcexpert]

Am I missing something? I remember when I first started, it wasn't but about 2.5 years ago. The instructions that came with my FL Sizing dies told me to put the shell holder in and run the press to the top of the stroke. Then run the die down to touch the shell holder.

I never had any problems chambering but if I did, would I of had to "cam-over"?

[Antihero47]

I have the same instructions from my dies as well. It says to run the ram to the full length of the down stroke, turn the die in until shell holder and die touch, and lock down the locking ring on the die.

Thats exactly what I did, but perhaps while messing with the locking ring and holding the die with my hands it moved. I don't know, I checked and re-did the die setup for my full length resizing die last night. I will throw some lube down and get to work on these cases when I get home from work.

*fingers crossed*

[Antihero47]

Success!!

Appreciate the info. Groupings will be posted!

[wncchester]

"I never had any problems chambering but if I did, would I of had to "cam-over"?"

Expert, it ain't the "camming over" that's the issue, it's just pushing the case far enough into the die. Anyway you can get that done will work fine.

[wpcexpert]

wncchester, thanks.

So, no matter what, that case isn't going in any further if the shell holder is pressed against the die. I haven't had any issues like that.

My very first loads, for my 7mm WSM, I forgot to lock the bullet seater plunger. The more loads I loaded, the longer my bullets got. I had to pull several and start over. That was a pain.

[Nnobby45]

Great! I am going to have to bring down the sizer die a bit more then, run these suckers through and then check it again, will be a life saver if I can keep these.

Sounds like a lesson learned.

A fired case is fire formed to exactly fit your chamber, and should rechamber easily enough (except in rare instances where the chamber is out of round).

Likely the round will chamber easily enough.

Now size the case JUST enough to allow for easy chambering.

HERE'S WHERE NEWBIES RUN INTO TROUBLE (and sometimes experienced loaders as well):

NEVER load a batch without chambering a sized case first to make sure it's right.

When you FL size, the case GROWS BIGGER until it goes far up far enough for the critical shoulder area to get set back. Then it gets smaller.

Therefore, if you size enough to make it bigger without sizing enough to make it smaller (set the shoulder back), you can't chamber the round, and you end up considering throwing away a bunch of good brass.

Again: If you can chamber the fired round, you have, without doubt, a sizing issue.


Mark your case (magic marker, smoke it) and adjust your die down in steps until you see where the sizing stops where the shoulder meets the neck. Go from there and size ONLY ENOUGH for easy chambering.
This assures proper headspace, and his superior to just cranking your die down until you get a bunch of cam over, and just loading away while creating more headspace than you need, and shortening case life..



I've found that. with RCBS dies, anyway, a slight cam over on the up stroke is about where I want to be. That (slight) cam over is associated with (slight) shoulder set back. A lot of cam over would be associated with the case not being able to go into the die any farther, and it's being forced, as someone mentioned.

NOTE: Checking the ogive of the bullet with a proper gage is the correct way to keep OAL records. The next batch you buy can have a shorter or longer OAL length. It's the place on the ogive that contacts the lands, not the tip, that's important. Once you have the means to record that, you can load different lots, or different makes, the same distance from the lands even though the the OAL's will be different.