hand loads for a 30-06, 308, 22-250 rifles

[deerhunter13]

[B]Hello my name is Dan and I have a couple of question and I was wondering if anyone could give me some answers. I hand load for 3 calibers 30-06, 308, 22-250. Lately I been getting a stuck bolt in some of my loads after the shot. A friend suggested that I should full length size my brass instead of always neck size them, even if its for the same rifle. Is there any truth to this? Also I am having some concentricity problems with run offs of 5-7 thousand would it help if I get completion dies for my Dillon 550 press? And would I need both dies or just the seating die?[/B]

[mrawesome22]

A stuck bolt after the shot is a sure sign of extreme over pressure round.

I have no idea what a completion die is.

Most runout is induced by the expander rod. Bushing dies and turning necks can aleviate this.

Sent from a highly hacked Android device using Tapatalk 2.

[PawPaw]

Lots of things can cause a stuck bolt, but the first thing to look for is over-pressure rounds.

What loads are you using? Do they follow the manuals? How close to max are you loading? What is max in one rifle might just be a stout load in another. Be careful when approaching what the manual says is a max load.

Something else to consider; have you changed your stock? Some stocks take longer mounting bolts than others. Conversely, if that particular stock needs a shorter bolt, the mounting screws might be binding the bolt. Have you changed your scope mounts? I once had a Savage with a bound bolt because the scope base screw was too long. There are lots of things to consider.

[Doyle]

Could a stuck bolt could also mean that his case is stretching enough to get the neck stuck in the chamber throat? If that is the case then he needs to start bumping back the shoulder a bit and trim the neck length.

[tomt53]

On the cases that cause a sticky bolt, mark them with a permanent marker so you can tell them apart. Now chamber the marked cases and see if the bolt closes hard compared to a case you did not mark. Measure the head space and compare it to the case that don't cause a sticky bolt. You will most likely find the head space is to far out. Now full length resize and trim to length. It will most likely chamber just fine. There is a point in time when you can't neck size anymore.

Tom

[Toolman]

I'm shooting a Savage 110 BA in .338 Lapua Mag.
I started out with Hornady commercial loaded ammo & saved the brass. Every Hornady round would cause a stuck bolt. I thought something was wrong with the rifle, but had no overpressure signs of any kind on the brass or primer.
I bought some Lapua rounds and they worked flawlessly, no stuck bolt.
Since I've been handloading for years, there was no way i was going to buy anymore commercial ammo.
I've handloaded the Hornady brass & they still stick.
I've handloaded the Lapua brass & they flat just run.
All were loaded identical, same powder, primers, Redding dies, Redding scales, Redding Magnum press, all Redding.
When you get into the large magnum calibers I think the brass composition makes a difference. I have not tried annealing the Hornady brass yet.
Just some observations on my part.
I have Hornady & Lapua brass trimmed to same length.

[dab102999]

Am I understanding that the Horandy stuck even factory new??

[hooligan1]

I'm going on 6th and 7th, handloads in the same cases, all Hornady, no issues.
I also got a 50 count bag of Winchester brass for my birthday and I annealed before I full length sized it, prior to 1st loading, seems brass last longer if I anneal it.

[Toolman]

DAB102999: Yes. Hornady was .338 Lapua magnum new commercial ammo.

Hooligan: Are you shooting a .338 Lapua magnum?

I might have to consider annealing the Hornady cases before I hand load them again. Haven't tried any other brass except Lapua yet. I might have a tight chamber reamer issue also.

[hooligan1]

No, the cases I use that are Hornady are 7mm rem mag.

[Bart B.]

In my experience, there's two main reasons why the bolt binds trying to extract a fired bottleneck case from a chamber.

One's when peak pressure's way too high. Often happens with folks loading belted cases as they want every foot per second of velocity they can get. They put as much powder in the case as they can that doesn't show pressure signs as they look at fired cases and primers or measure case expansion. But looking at and measuring fired cases is a poor way to judge pressure, especially if the chamber's quite a bit larger than the case and the hole in the bolt face is much larger than the firing pin tip diameter.

Another's when neck only sizing's been done and after several shoot and resize cycles, the case has expanded enough that it's case head binds against the bolt face 'cause they're both not square enough. This happens typically when the bolt face ain't square with the chamber axis; very common with factory rifles; more common in service rifles.

Regarding how fired cases are sized, yes, full length size them. Benchresters started switching over to full length sizing some years ago. Sierra Bullets' full length sizes all their cases used to test their stuff for accuracy. High power match rifle competitors winning matches and setting records with both the .30-06 and .308 Win. full length sized their fired cases, too. The .22-250's not any different. It's important that the case body diameters not be reduced more than a couple thousandths as well as the case neck be set back no more that that amount, too. Best accuracy tyically comes with full length sizing dies with a bushing in them that's a couple thousandths smaller than a loaded round's neck diameter. Deprime your fired cases in a separate die first, then tumble/vibrate them clean, lube and resize them. This makes for much straighter case necks as no expander ball's used that typically bends case necks too much. For what it's worth, both full length and neck only sized bottleneck cases center up front in the chamber equally accurate aligning the bullet very well with the bore when fired. The advantage of full length sizing fired cases is it eliminates any interference between case body and chamber body as neither one is perfectly round. And it makes for much easier fired case extraction from the chamber.

[dab102999]

I think that with the fact that you are shooting factory new and getting stuck that full lenght sizeing is not comming into play here...I would pull a couple bullets of each brand and check the size of the cases from the factory before shooting them...and check a couple you already shot and see what the difference is....

Also with the Horandy is that the "top of the line" horandy.. If so manybe it is to much for your gun.

Also is this a new gun or a new gun to you?..maybe something might just be wore out enough that with the higher quality ammo it is a little much for it.

A couple pics of the fired brass might let someone on here see something that you are not...more eyes the better.

[Bart B.]

dab102999 suggests:

Also is this a new gun or a new gun to you?..maybe something might just be wore out enough that with the higher quality ammo it is a little much for it.

Too much for higher quality ammo? Is high quality ammo loaded to higher peak pressure than standard quality ammo? Never heard of such a thing.

I doubt anything's wore out enough to cause higher pressures such to cause fired cases to be harder to extract. There's only two things that wear out a bolt gun.

One's the barrel getting shot out. The origin of the rifling's eroded away so there's less resistance to the bullet going into the bore and that means lower pressure. And velocity will be less, too.

The other's the firing pin spring getting weak. Weaker smacks of the firing pin on the primer don't make it put out as much fire to the powder. And that, too, means lower peak pressure as well as a lower muzzle velocity.

[dab102999]

I thought I had read that some of the horandy ammo had a higher velocity then other horandy ammo. Maybe I am off on that..

Have you contacted horandy with your concerns to see if others have had complaints??