Bolt won't close on my cartridge

[MD]

A buddy who handloads gave me a sweet little 1955 Husqvarna model 4100 in 7x57 last year.

He had successfully loaded for it before and I needed some loads so last night I went over there with powder and brass and he had 140 gr. Nosler partitions and primers and we were set to go.

My brass was once fired clean de-primed brass I got from a gun show and after making a few loads and trying them in the rifle the bolt wouldn't close without considerable force on them.

His previous loads made on the same dies closed no problem, so we realized we should have resized the bass and did that. Still no-go.

Well, maybe the dies are off after all. We took 12 empties that had been fired in that same rifle and resized them, made a sample load with the Nosler and still the bolt wouldn't close without forcing.

He has considerable experience loading all variety of calibres and like I said even this specific rifle.

We're stumped.

 

[vviking]

Smoke a case that won't close and run it through till the bolt handle gives resistance.
On carefull inspection of the rub marks you will see where the problem lies.

Partial F.L. sizing will sometimes bulge the shoulder enough to create a lack of headspace.

Remove the firing pin if running live ammo through.

 

[mark k]

Did you measure the length of the case?

 

[steve62]

Do youu have a FL resizing die? lots of die sets do not come with one.

 

[JohnS]

Did you measure the length of the case?

What he said. C.O.L. could be off by allitle bit

 

[rookie wildcat]

Did you measure the length of the case?

I go with this, myself.

 

[stubblejumper]

Will the bolt close on the sized cases before a bullet is seated?

 

[1riot1ranger]

Primer seating depth? If the primers aren't properly seating the bolt may not close.

 

[Baribal]

M.D.
Check the case lenght and then try to chamber a cases without the bullet. If it closes, seat a bullet and smoke the case / bullet assembly... A marker usually works too.
Then, check the neck area for rubbing, but also the ogive of the bullet.
It may also be the base wich is not properly resized for your rifle, especially if those were shot in a military rifle first. Then, you will have to full-lenght resize with the die almost touching the shellholder to make it work.

 

[Tumbleweed]

Check
(a) brass length
(b) cartridge OAL (the ogive may be hitting the throat)
(c) a bit of crud (from a cleaning patch, for example) in the chamber,
(d) slightly crumpled necks from a mis-adjusted seating die, or
(e) a sizing die that may not be set low enough.

 

[Walter Hornby]

also make sure the bolt hasn't turned out a full turn. this happens to my 303 in my PAL class. you have to give it a quarter turn to get it to come out and students don't watch and when they pull the bolt out it flops over and when they put it back in it is off by a full turn. always good for a chuckle when it happens.

 

[Talquin]

Part of a old case could be in the chamber. Read enough threads on this forum to see it happens more than once.