308 178eldm problem

[danatkins]

I tried working a load up for my FLCP-SR for 178 eldm with 4064 and made them to the same size as my other rounds and they won't chamber without considerable force. Anyone else experience that with a stock savage barrel and the eldm bullets.
I've resized some brass a fired case down farther than my previous attempt, seated a bullet a little deeper than my 168 BT and the dummy round chambered fine. So I dropped 41.5 grains heard nor felt any crunch of powder. Round wouldn't chamber. I'm completely confused

 

[Bantam1]

Did you measure the headspace on your brass? If you sized it incorrectly the case could have grown for lack of a better term. It can make it difficult to chamber.

 

[danatkins]

How would I do that never heard of checking headspace on just brass

 

[Dave62677]

Try resize the brass with small base die next time.

 

[danatkins]

Thought those were only for semi auto rifles?

 

[Iamero]

Two biggest issues I have run into when it is hard to chamber:

1) I either didn't have my FL sizer set properly or accidentally used just a neck sizer
2) My brass is too long and needs to be trimmed.

I've never had a long bullet make it excessively difficult to chamber. The only way I could see that being the case was if it was a noticeably long OAL.

Are you using once fired brass from another gun or is it new brass?

 

[Iamero]

https://www.brownells.com/reloading...y&utm_campaign=itwine&utm_content=749-058-029

 

[Mike_in_FL]

How would I do that never heard of checking headspace on just brass

https://www.brownells.com/reloading...ck-n-load-headspace-gauge-tool-prod35168.aspx

This attaches to your dial caliper to check the headspace of your brass. What dies are you using to resize? FL or neck?

 

[danatkins]

Two biggest issues I have run into when it is hard to chamber:

1) I either didn't have my FL sizer set properly or accidentally used just a neck sizer
2) My brass is too long and needs to be trimmed.

I've never had a long bullet make it excessively difficult to chamber. The only way I could see that being the case was if it was a noticeably long OAL.

Are you using once fired brass from another gun or is it new brass?

It's once fired LC brass I bought from Natchez. Doesn't make sense to me that the dummy round will chamber but the one with powder won't

 

[danatkins]

Lee FL die

 

[Iamero]

Lake City brass is incredibly thick as well. Pull the bullet from your dummy round and load it up with powder and I bet it'll still chamber. I'm thinking the brass is the issue and not the bullets, but I've been wrong before.

 

[Mike_in_FL]

It's once fired LC brass I bought from Natchez. Doesn't make sense to me that the dummy round will chamber but the one with powder won't

If you bought once fired LC and NOT LC LR brass you can pretty much guarantee that shit was fired in an MG. You need to run all those cases through a small base die. Or just sort them first by seeing if the cases will chamber after you size them with the Lee.

 

[spife7980]

Color a case in sharpie and see where its getting rubbed off.

Take measurements, speculation is useless, measurements are the only thing that matters.


For measuring your head space we use datums to measure a consistent point on the case each time.

This hornady body holds adapters to measure the case shoulders.

This is a headpsace bushing that will actually touch the shoulders

And it looks like this in operation. This is measuring the length from a point on the shoulders to the case head.

You want your sized cases to be .002" shorter than your fired cases. If your once fired is longer than your chamber then youll have issues.


Next you want to do the same thing but instead of measuring the case you measure the bullet. The actual over all lengths of the bullets can vary a good bit, the bullet comparator is a much more consistent method.

Now, this could also be fired out of a machine gun with huge chambers, in addition to length being out of whack they could also be toolarge in the base of the case, measure the diameter of the brass .2" up from the base and get its diameter, compare that you factory bras or some that have been fired out of your gun, if its way bigger than thats the issue and youll need a small base die. The regular die may be enough for normal brass but spring back with the machine gun brass may be more than it can handle, a small base will size it more so that once sprung back its not too large again.

If youre going to be changing things change one thing at a time and measure so you know why. Dont size more and then seat deeper in the same step. Size and check, seat and check etc. One variable at a time.



Also, measure the neck diameter of a loaded round and see if its too thick for your chamber. Its possible and could be very bad if so, neck turning is the solution to that issue.


But in looking at your posts if the only difference is that you powdered it then something else is the difference. Measure between the dummy and the powdered, that should be the most obvious method. Empty volume inside the case cant effect its external dimensions obviously, if youre not compressed then thats clearly not the issue.

 

[Dave62677]

get a small base die, your problem should go away. me and my buddy run into the similar issue few years ago. If your headspace is right and still couldn't chamber it, that should be the issue

 

[danatkins]

What you guys think? Ran them back through the resizer and things are going fine. This one wasn't ran through it yet though

 

[spife7980]

Looks like the shoulders have pretty consistent contact all the way around. The base has contact but its not actually rubbing it off so maybe youre getting by alright there.

Seriously though, the lack of measurments tells me you dont have any calipers, get one.
You can use a 40 cal case or a 9mm even to measure in a pinch to avoid buying the headspace and comparator inserts but its the first thing I recommend to new loaders.

 

[danatkins]

I've got a set of calipers. Have the measuring tools on my list of things to get but life keeps getting in the way