Bolt tough to close on reloads

mister308

mister308

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I'm reloading 308 and my reloads are giving me a tough time chambering. My 308 reloads are fine in my Remington 700.

I have FL resized the case.
I have trimmed the case to 2.003''
I am shooting a Tikka T3

More specifically, the bolt is giving me a lot of resistance when pressing down. I FL resized a case (1x fired from my Tikka) and tried chambering the empty case and still got resistance. I'm even getting scratches on the brass.

Any ideas? Thanks!
 
Chuckbuster said:
I had similar issues. With some cases, it was like hitting a brick wall on the forward stroke. In the end, screwing the sizing die all the way down did the trick.
Click to expand...

I took a look to make sure that the die is touching the shell holder and it sure is. I'll try screwing the sizing die down in 1/4 turn increments to see if that makes a difference. I'll post tomorrow with results
 
I had a similar issue before, turns out i needed to bump the shoulder back a bit more, turned the die down a little more and it fixed it for me. Use case guages to check you cases :)
 
I just went through this where fl sizing for my 243, shell holder just touching resulted in an INCREASE of 2 thou at the shoulder. This resulted in tight bolt close. I had to turn the die down until it was camming over to get a 1.5 thou bump on the shoulder.
Get a hornaday headspace gauge.
 
I had to shave a little off the bottom of the sizing die for my Tikka in 22-250. I have a Forster Co-Ax so I couldn't shave the shell holder.
 
screw the die in 1/16 at a time until the bolt closes properly.

I had to cut the bottom of my lee die to size properly for my 700p
 
My savage had this problem. Sounds dumb but I just ran it through my full length sizer twice instead of once and it was perfect. Lee dies. Savage 10tr.
 
Do you have a cartridge case gauge? If not I suggest one.

CGA1.jpg
 
calibrecarstairs said:
As a pistol reloader only with aspirations of rifle reloading soon I hope this helps.

ht tps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ldtbsym650k
Click to expand...

this is an excellent video, thanks for sharing. I'm going to order a headspace gauge tomorrow--I've been meaning to for a while now. Thanks everyone for your advice, I'll report back with results
 
mister308 said:
I took a look to make sure that the die is touching the shell holder and it sure is. I'll try screwing the sizing die down in 1/4 turn increments to see if that makes a difference. I'll post tomorrow with results
Click to expand...

You guys don't set the sizer the way I do. I screw it in several turns past where it would touch the shell holder. When I size the die hits the shell holder and stops. Can't size any more than that.
 
If your die is making hard contact with the shell holder and your press cams over your problem is a tightly headspaced rifle set at or below the GO gauge. The simplest and cheapest thing to do is buy a separate shell holder and lap the top of the shell holder and remove .001 or .002 at a time until the case fits the chamber. At SavageShooters.com this happens all the time when people replace the barrel and use a new case and pieces of scotch tape to set their headspace. The very next posting from this person is them saying their resized cases will not chamber.

Below you can see the case gets longer before the die pushes the shoulder back. And if you lap the shell holder the case will be pushed further into the die and the shoulder will be bumped back to chamber dimension.

shouldersetback_zpsrefii5sv.jpg
 
If you have resized properly and you said your brass is getting a scratch when inserting/extracting ammo then check and see if your scope rail screws aren't protruding into the receiver. Check the locking lugs on your bolt and see if there aren't scratches on that as well.
 
Just to keep things straight here, there is no such thing as "camming over."
All presses are designed with some type of block, to prevent it from going over centre and the cycle is stopped just before dead centre.
It has the most power, that is the handle moves the furthest in relation to how much the ram moves, at the point where it is stopped, just before top dead centre.
Screwing the die in several turns past where it will hit the shell holder, has the effect of taking away the full leverage when the handle hits the stop.
Most efficient setting of the sizing die is to turn it down, with the handle up a bit, to where it takes decided pressure to push the handle down with empty ram until it hits the stop.
If you go to extreme here, you put excess stretch on your press. You want the die turned down just enough that it will make solid contact with the shell holder, while sizing a case.
 
Just to add another angle here.
It can happen, I have several times had this happen, that when you do everything to make sure the case is fully sized, the bolt still may not close on it, or at least will close hard, on the newly sized case.
In this case the cause virtually always is failing to lubricate the inside of the neck before sizing.
The handle hits the bottom and the case is properly sized. But on lifting the handle you feel a fair bit of pressure as the inside neck sizer is drawn through the neck. This causes the neck to be pulled out a bit, which brings the shoulder a little forward, close to the neck.
The solution of course, is to lubricate the inside of the neck.
 
PitBull1973 said:
Adjust it less than a 1/4 turn at a time. If you have something to measure headspace you will be surprised how much the shoulder will bump back
Click to expand...

Agreed. I learned just today after owning reloading gear for many years how to do it properly, more by accident than anything.
I just bought .45 acp dies, and was setting them up, same as you describe, but was reading the little RCBS booklet that came with them. I've read the term, "Until the press cams over"
a million times, maybe its the tired me talking, but I never really noticed the feeling till last night. Once you have the die set deep enough, go 1/16th at a time and resize. You will feel,
in the handle of your press, right at the very bottom of the stroke, a small divot, or bump feeling - that's it being 'Cammed over'.
I sometimes put a "." of black marker on a die to make sure of just how far I'm turning it, as a reference point.
 
H4831 said:
Just to keep things straight here, there is no such thing as "camming over."
Click to expand...

It would appear that Redding and other die manufactures disagree, and H4831 it is just a widely used term and even used by the die manufactures. ;)

Redding Tech Line & Tips (FAQs)

Question: I have my Full Length Resizing Die/Body Die adjusted so that it is touching the Shellholder and I cannot push my shoulder back. Is there something wrong with my Sizing Die?



Answer: Probably not. In most instances, using Cam-Over will allow the reloader to push the shoulder back sufficiently. To set a Full Length/Body Die up to Cam-Over:

1) Install the appropriate Shellholder into the Ram of your Press.

2) Raise the Ram so that it is in its uppermost position.

3) Screw the Full Length Resizing Die/Body Die down into the press until it firmly contacts the Shellholder.

4) Back the Ram away from the Die.

5) Screw the Die down FURTHER into your press an additional 1/8th to ¼ turn.

Note that you will feel the Ram/Shellholder contact the resizing Die before the stroke is completed. Completing the Ram Stroke will feel as though you are snapping the latch on a toolbox.

These directions apply only to standard Single Stage Presses. If your single stage press was not manufactured by Redding Reloading Equipment, please contact the manufacturer to see if using Cam-Over is appropriate for your particular Reloading Press.

Hornady sizing die instructions.

To adjust the full-length size die, follow these steps:
1. Raise the press ram to highest position without camming over.
2. Thread the full-length die into the press until the base touches the shell holder head.
3. Tighten the lock ring against the press and tighten the set screw with the allen wrench.

RCBS die instructions.

ReloadingDieInstructions-a_zpspvw3xeoo.jpg
 
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