Please Help

[bbradford71]

I have not been hand loading long but have read several manuals and everything I could find here on the net. Up until now I have only loaded hunting rounds (168 gr Accubonds)for my 300 WSM at a COAL of 2.89" and have not had any issues. I decided I wanted to start loading some target rounds and researched and found a bullet and powder combo that should produce some good results, 180 SMK and IMR 4350. I tried loading up some rounds to test this weekend but am having some major issues. The load data in my manual says that I should have a COAL of 2.86". I determined my COAL length by putting a bullet into an empty un-primed brass and put it into my rifle and closed the bolt. This gave me a COAL measurement of 2.92". I decided to be safe and seated some loads up at 2.89" instead of 2.92" I then found that it was extremely difficult to close the bolt so I seated a bullet deeper by .1" and tried it again only to get the same result. I kept trying this until I reached a COAL of 2.65" which was still difficult to close the bolt on. I had some hunting rounds I had loaded that were at the 2.89" COAL and those loaded into the rifle fine and I was able to close the bolt just fine. I just do not know what is going on or what I might have done wrong.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

Brent

 

[ChrisGarrett]

Re: Please Help

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: bbradford71</div><div class="ubbcode-body">I have not been hand loading long but have read several manuals and everything I could find here on the net. Up until now I have only loaded hunting rounds (168 gr Accubonds)for my 300 WSM at a COAL of 2.89" and have not had any issues. I decided I wanted to start loading some target rounds and researched and found a bullet and powder combo that should produce some good results, 180 SMK and IMR 4350. I tried loading up some rounds to test this weekend but am having some major issues. The load data in my manual says that I should have a COAL of 2.86". I determined my COAL length by putting a bullet into an empty un-primed brass and put it into my rifle and closed the bolt. This gave me a COAL measurement of 2.92". I decided to be safe and seated some loads up at 2.89" instead of 2.92" I then found that it was extremely difficult to close the bolt so I seated a bullet deeper by .1" and tried it again only to get the same result. I kept trying this until I reached a COAL of 2.65" which was still difficult to close the bolt on. I had some hunting rounds I had loaded that were at the 2.89" COAL and those loaded into the rifle fine and I was able to close the bolt just fine. I just do not know what is going on or what I might have done wrong.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

Brent </div></div>

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Chris

 

[Beef82]

Re: Please Help

Are you certain this is not a headspace issue with the brass? I'm sure the ogive is different between those two bullets but nearly 1/4" seems like an awful lot. Get yourself a comporator so you can measure ogive length instead of overall. Perhaps someone more knowledgable will chime in.

 

[bbradford71]

Re: Please Help

I did my normal case prep as I always do but I will look into the head spacing of the brass.

Thanks

 

[ChrisGarrett]

Re: Please Help

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: bbradford71</div><div class="ubbcode-body">I did my normal case prep as I always do but I will look into the head spacing of the brass.

Thanks </div></div>

Sometimes you can have a batch of say 50 pieces of fired brass and they'll have varying headspace dimensions due to work hardening of the brass--some springs back more, some doesn't, so the latter might be harder to chamber after a few cycles.

We'd like to think that everything is dead nuts on in this hobby, but truth be told, there are plenty of variations that we confront on a daily basis.

It could be that some of the cases were sized to such a minimum amount, that they're just a tad long and binding up. It could have nothing to do with the bullets jamming the lands.

Heck, you can jam a bullet a good .020" into the lands and not really 'feel' it upon bolt closure.

Bump those shoulders back and be all you can be.

This is where the Hornady/Sinclair HS gages come in handy and tell you exactly what's what.

Chris

 

[bbradford71]

Re: Please Help

I ordered the Hornady HS gauge from Sinclair's on Saturday so I am hoping to have this resolved by this weekend.

 

[Beef82]

Re: Please Help

When was the last time you trimmed? Excessively overlength brass can cause these sorts of problems too.

 

[5RWill]

Re: Please Help

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: Beef</div><div class="ubbcode-body">When was the last time you trimmed? Excessively overlength brass can cause these sorts of problems too.</div></div>

This is what i was wondering. Anything right at or above max is going to have a decent cam when closing the bolt. Hell i'm shooting some of my .308 brass right around 2.012-2.015(max) and it's not to terribly bad, but noticeable.

 

[gilream]

Re: Please Help

If I were you I would obtain the necessary tools for measuring your bullet’s contact point to the rifling as well as a gauge for measuring the headspace in your chamber. Check your overall length and trim if necessary (this is something that you need to pay close attention to.)

FL resize your cases and set the shoulder back .002-.003 from your chamber dimension. If you control these dimensions, you should have no problems getting your cartridges to chamber properly. The OAL gauge that Hornady sells is a very quick and easy way to determine where any particular bullet contacts the rifling. Try it and you’ll never go back to the ‘jam’ method that you describe by closing your bolt to seat the bullet. Check the empty cases in your chamber as you FL resize them to make sure that you feel no resistance in closing the bolt and you are GTG.

 

[tcreynolds02]

Re: Please Help

3 main things that come to mind are:

1. Does your brass need trimmed? I try to keep at least 5 thousands under book length
2. Headspace- If you don't have a guage, put the resized/unprimed brass into chamber and close bolt to see if you can feel it is too tight. If it is thread your full length die down a little, resize, and repeat process. Buy headspace guage tonight
3. get a hornady OAL guage to see where the lands are

 

[bbradford71]

Re: Please Help

Thanks for all the advice everyone, I do trim every other loading but it could be the head space, I have the gauge on order so we will see if that resolves the issue.