Bolt sticking with Federal Brass, but not with Winchester. Why??

[Kix]

Shooting 44.3gr of varget, lighting it with Federal GM 210 primers pushing a 175gr SMK HPBT seated .015 off the lands. The Federal brass was fire formed to my rifle using boxed 168gr federal gmm. The winchester brass was fire formed to my rifle using winchester 150gr power points. I'm trimming all the brass to 2.005" and neck sizing only. Just thought I'd get a couple ideas from the vets on why everyone thought why my bolt is sticking with the federal and not with the winchester brass.

Thanks,
Kix

 

[FCS]

Win brass with 44.3 doesn't stick but Fed brass with 44.3 does, correct?

I'd jump the SMKs a little more than 0.015", isn't going to hurt you and might help.

 

[Kix]

Yes, that's correct. Winchester brass is working great. How much more of a jump do you think. My COL is 2.80". I was thinking about trying out .010 off the lands and seeing what that got me. Wouldn't think that would help me with what seams like over pressure signs though.

 

[FCS]

Fed has about 1.0 gr LESS capacity then Win, running more pressure in the Fed then Win case. Hence the reason you are seeing pressure signs with Fed and not with Win.

Unless you are culling bullets by base to ogive length, I'd be jumping the 175 SMKs 0.025" at minimum and 0.050" isn't going to hurt you any. I've seen some lot #s of SMKs vary as much as 0.035" and some as little as 0.005" on base to ogive measurement of bullet.

2.800" OAL and 0.015" off lands? Custom barrel/chamber? What chamber are you running?

 

[Kix]

My platform is a savage model 10 fcp chambered in .308. I slighlty neck sized a piece of brass so a bullet was pretty tuff to get in and out. I left the bullet hanging way out of the cartridge and chambered it in my rifle seating it consistently at 2.815. So I figured putting it at 2.80 would give me .015 off the rifling. Is that incorrect?

 

[FCS]

I'd agree you are roughly 0.015" off lands.

Suggest you drop charge by about 1 gr in Fed brass compared to Win brass, then both will be running about same velocity/pressure and your brass sticking issue will also disappear.

 

[Kix]

Hey, thanks a lot for the tip. I'll give Er a go. I would have never even guessed the federal cartridge would need to be treated that much different. Thanks again.

 

[HawkeyeEngineer]

Case capacity can vary a lot from headstamp to headstamp. I learned this the hard way a couple years ago when I put what I thought was a safe charge into a different brand of brass keeping all else equal. Ended up with 200 rounds of high pressure 223 Rem! Whoops. I was blowing primers every couple of rounds. I now take the time to get a sample of each brand of brass I reload for and find the case capacities myself if I think I'm going to load duplicate loads in a different brand of brass and then scale my charge accordingly, which has been successful so far. If you do that, you should still cautiously load up to your final charge if you're anywhere near the top end of the pressure limits, though.

 

[jsthntn247]

I'm having a problem with RWS being too hot and Win brass not in my 300 wm. It's all due to case capacity and pressure due to thicker brass.

 

[HawkeyeEngineer]

I'm not sure about 300 WM, but Winchester brass generally has higher case capacity than most others. I've found this to be true in 308 and 223 at least.

 

[peaceatwar]

Off-Topic but everytime I consider reloading I read a post like this and just think "I am in way over my head."

 

[Killswitch Engage]

my opinion is you are seeing a case capacity difference for sure no doubt but another thing i recommend is to at least shoulder bump the case if you are not. letting the cartridge breathe a little in the shoulder .002-.003 surely will not hurt anything and you may in fact increase your accuracy. i know it doesnt seem like it should but ive seen it far to many times. i always shoulde rbump and have great results.

 

[One-Eyed Jack]

In addition to Federal cases having less volume (more brass), it seemed to me that the FGMM brass I reloaded was softer than Lapua's. So, more pressure pushing softer brass into the corners of your chamber making it more difficult to extract.

 

[Killswitch Engage]

In addition to Federal cases having less volume (more brass), it seemed to me that the FGMM brass I reloaded was softer than Lapua's. So, more pressure pushing softer brass into the corners of your chamber making it more difficult to extract.

yes! hence the shoulder bump!

 

[EOD350]

Case capacity is the issue. Back it down a bit. As Kilswitch said bump the shoulder 2-3 thousandts and it should do well.

 

[glassbeaver]

Had the same problem in my savage 10FCP HS precision with federal brass. Just couldn't load it to the same velocities as my lapua. Solution: I stopped using federal brass. No issues since.