Tonight's reloads hard to chamber?

Silverado

Silverado

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I made a dozen reloads for my 7-08 tonight. Same routine as always; FL resize, trim, clean PP, chamfer, deburr, prime, charge, seat.

These were brass I've reloaded a couple of times. OAL was good; they fed fine from the magazine.

Once fired, they were just fine to extract, no pressure signs, but on chambering, the bolt was extra hard to turn.

I'm not sure if this matters, but I just did a trigger job on this rifle. With no round in the chamber, the bolt functions just fine.

There are no weird marks on the brass that I can see...


WTF???


On another note, this rifle is becoming boring in it's accuracy. These were my first try with a different bullet AND a different powder, and they shot .561" c/c.
 
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Probably need to be *really* sized, they've expanded a bit..Try screwing your die down so the ram has to cam over the shellholder- assuming you have trimmed them, which you said you did.

Looks like it may be tiem for new brass.:)
 
I'm using a Lee Classic Cast; it has a stop on the lever so it can't cam over.

I did just set the die to the usual spot. I will try a little deeper tomorrow.

I've never had this problem before, but I usually neck size only. It just so happens that when I went to get 7-08 dies, they only had a FL set.

Thinking about that though, had I only neck sized, the shoulder/body wouldn't have been sized back anyway...


Duh...??????????
 
camming over in order to ensure FL resizing would have been my first suggestion. I'm not familar with these dies? The only other possibility is that you are setting the seating (+crimping) die too far down having the effect of pushing the shoulder too far back. Measure the shoulder of a factory or fired casing and compare against your reloads.
 
I kind of full length size my brass. I leave a little daylight between the shell holder and the bottom of the die, maybe a millimetre, sometimes you have to work the olt a bit harder, but this method produces generally very accurate ammo.

If it's a bit hard i wouldn't worry about it, when you are cycling the bolt on your buck for the second shot this year you won't notice it.
 
Just as a safety check, zero your scale, weigh a factory bullet (or check weight) to check your scale, then pull a bullet and check a load.
you never know.

Also, with my press, I have to visibly check that the die is hitting the shellholder with each resized round. Sometimes it feels like it did, but, it didn't. (mostly that's only with 308)
 
@ OBF, martin and JYC:

Nope, nope and nope.

No crimp, and these are plain Jane RCBS dies.

I like my ammo to feed smoooooooth in a hunting rifle. I've never had reloads this hard to chamber before?

I recalibrate my scale every time I start a new batch of loads. In any case, why might that cause them to be hard to chamber? They extracted nice and easy after firing, with zero overpressure signs and great accuracy.

In any case, I'm going to make some more after lunch. I'll try the first one or two to see how they chamber. Check the die adjustment too.
 
If you are not lubricating the inside of the case mouth enough you may be pulling the shoulder forward when you pull the expander ball out of the case.
 
'Boo said:
If you are not lubricating the inside of the case mouth enough you may be pulling the shoulder forward when you pull the expander ball out of the case.
Click to expand...

Hmm, that I never thought of. I gave them the usual spritz with Lyman spray lube, and I always put a shot in the die as well, but perhaps that's the answer!

I actually had the die apart a week or so ago and noticed that the expander has a knurled portion on it. I can't imagine why....

All in all, I must say that I WAY prefer Lee dies to these RCBS ones.
 
If you're using a new bullet (with a different ogive than the others you use) check and see if it's contacting the rifling. You may see a faint ring on a bullet that's been chambered.

Also, try reducing the OAL a couple thou - and see if they chamber any easier.
 
agilent_one said:
If you're using a new bullet (with a different ogive than the others you use) check and see if it's contacting the rifling. You may see a faint ring on a bullet that's been chambered.

Also, try reducing the OAL a couple thou - and see if they chamber any easier.
Click to expand...

That may be it, but these bullets are WAY shorter than the ones I used previously. Too bad I don't have any more of the other ones to compare them to.

I could seat them a little deeper; I'm not at the spec minimum yet. I could go another .025" deeper.
 
Silverado said:
I could seat them a little deeper; I'm not at the spec minimum yet. I could go another .025" deeper.
Click to expand...

The lengths given in the reloading manuals are MAX. over-all lengths not MIN. If you are jambing the bullet into the rifling that would explain the resistance on chambering.




Silverado said:
I actually had the die apart a week or so ago and noticed that the expander has a knurled portion on it. I can't imagine why....
Click to expand...


It is to grab with your finger to unscrew it. The actual expander portion above the knurled portion is wider than that.
 
'Boo said:
The lengths given in the reloading manuals are MAX. over-all lengths not MIN. If you are jambing the bullet into the rifling that would explain the resistance on chambering.
Click to expand...

Hmm, they're clearly listed as Min. OAL. This is b/c if you load shorter, overpressure will occur. Loading them as long as you're rifle will take will not cause pressure spikes; slightly more case volume for the powder to expand into.

My ballistics calculator states that if bullets are loaded into the lands, the STARTING pressure of the curve prior to bullet movement is higher by about 7000psi, but the top of the pressure curve is not affected.

Now I understand that the SAAMI spec length for a listed cartridge is MAX, but that's not what I was referring to.
 
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