The bolt closes fine without a round in the chamber. When I chamber a round its fine until I start to push the bolt into the down position. I takes a fairly hard push to get it down into position. There have been no signs of high pressure in any of my reloads. I've tried trimming the cases slightly shorter and I've played around with the seating depth. The only thing that makes it a little easier to close the bolt is seating the bullet a bit deeper in the case.
I just tried it with a case I resized in a forster coax press with the lee die touching the shellplate +a tad, and it's still hard to close.
It WILL close, but not like "freely". It feels like a case that has been only neck sized 5-6 times and that is super tight in your chamber.
I will try factory ammo to see if the issue is with the die or the rifle.
If factory ammo is the same, it's the rifle, and if it's not, it's the die...
If it is the die, I guess I'll just email lee and see. If it's the rifle, what would you do? Bring it to a gunsmith to have the headspace adjusted a few thousands longer?
A bit annoying when shooting 50-100 rounds as it gets hard on the hand to close and open the bolt 50 times.
I just tried it with a case I resized in a forster coax press with the lee die touching the shellplate +a tad, and it's still hard to close.
It WILL close, but not like "freely". It feels like a case that has been only neck sized 5-6 times and that is super tight in your chamber.
I will try factory ammo to see if the issue is with the die or the rifle.
If factory ammo is the same, it's the rifle, and if it's not, it's the die...
If it is the die, I guess I'll just email lee and see. If it's the rifle, what would you do? Bring it to a gunsmith to have the headspace adjusted a few thousands longer?
A bit annoying when shooting 50-100 rounds as it gets hard on the hand to close and open the bolt 50 times.
I had the same problem with my SPS Varmit. Sent it back to Gravel which does the warranty work for Remington here in Canada. They fixed the problem. It was the extractor. They replaced it and i haven't had a problem since. If you do a bit of research with google you will find this is a common problem with the sps actions.
mmm I hope I didnt buy another die for no reason. I Was too cheap to buy a box of factory 308 ammo.
We will see.
Take a sharpie and color a bullet all the way around down to where it meets the case, chamber it, check for evenly spaced marks...if you see any this is the bullet contacting the rifling...you're going to have to seat these bullets deeper.
What's the COAL you're using now?
Did you use brass that you previously shot from the same rifle for your reloads
Brass without bullets does the same. It's not the bullet. stop.
ok I tested the small base die and it's not alot better.
Technically, brass is back to minimum factory spec now... and still hard to close.
Doesnt seem to be the extractor. I feel the "pop" when it snaps, but it's not that bad.
It's "closing" the bolt once it has snapped, it needs quite a bit of force.
My old savage, it closed as well empty as loaded.
What should I do?