Some questions on what I inherited .. no particular order

[Oldloser]

I inherited a lot of stuff from my dad and it’s been a few decades since I sat with him and reloaded. Unfortunately his last few years he and I did not go over his stuff in detail. I’m looking for advice or thoughts from the wisdom here.

My dad was a master mechanic and meticulous and very precise. So I’m surprised I am running into some issues.

First, I have a lot of reloaded 308 and 7.62x51 and 25.06 that is from 1990 to 2000 based on his notes.. I pulled a few dozen bullets and weighed a lot of it to confirm his notes. Some of the former is 175 gr and 190 gr. While the latter is 117 and some 131 stuff. He had an m14 and a custom 25.06.

I took some to range and test fired it. It fired very well. I easily got sub moa with my savage 110 tactical. Ditto the 2506 out of his custom 25.06.

However about 10 percent of the 308/7.62 will not allow the bolt on my fairly new savage to lock. The round will fit into and out of the chamber, but the bolt will not rotate. The bolt on the m14 will lock. Another ten percent I get slight resistance when I lock the savage bolt. All the rounds will extract just fine. I’m also concerned about the large quantities of 25.06.

Now I have some ideas, such as the rounds are too long. But what should be my next step? Is it the rounds or my savage? How can I confirm? I have thousands of rounds to consider. Keep in mind that his dies and presses are all from the 70s.

Any advice is appreciated.

 

[hafejd30]

Reloaded rounds are generally tuned to a particular rifle. Whatever rifle he had in the rounds your shooting will be what it is tuned for

There’s a good chance the rounds are to long at the shoulder or bullet/lands and not fitting in your savage

The rounds are loaded for a particular gun. If you have the rounds and that gun I’d suggest shooting them together

308 = M14
Run the 25-06 in the 25-06 it was loaded for

 

[Oldloser]

Reloaded rounds are generally tuned to a particular rifle. Whatever rifle he had in the rounds your shooting will be what it is tuned for

There’s a good chance the rounds are to long at the shoulder or bullet/lands and not fitting in your savage

The rounds are loaded for a particular gun. If you have the rounds and that gun I’d suggest shooting them together

308 = M14
Run the 25-06 in the 25-06 it was loaded for

Thanks. Yep. That’s what I did. 308 in the savage 308 and 2506 in the 2506.


My question is how do I sort through the rounds to make sure they will feed? The rounds that don’t feed are the same length as the ones that do.

 

[Rocketmandb]

Thanks. Yep. That’s what I did. 308 in the savage 308 and 2506 in the 2506.


My question is how do I sort through the rounds to make sure they will feed? The rounds that don’t feed are the same length as the ones that do.

You can get a Hornady (or any of a number of more expensive ones) comparator tool to measure the shoulder.

 

[Oldloser]

You can get a Hornady (or any of a number of more expensive ones) comparator tool to measure the shoulder.

Checking it out now. Thanks!

 

[Rocketmandb]

Also,

Checking it out now. Thanks!

And make sure you keep the newly fired cases for your rifle separate so you can measure what you're current chamber is.

 

[Deej]

Thanks. Yep. That’s what I did. 308 in the savage 308 and 2506 in the 2506.


My question is how do I sort through the rounds to make sure they will feed? The rounds that don’t feed are the same length as the ones that do.

Will have to measure to shoulder midpoint. A lot of the semiautomatic rifles have generous chambers to make feeding and lock up easier if he tuned the rounds to that rifle they might not work well in another rifle with a tighter chamber. What oldloser was saying is fire them in the m1a they were made for.

 

[6.5SH]

Use those rounds in his rifles. No one wishes to think ill of family or friends but the reality is much has changed in the last 30 years.

Unless they purposely tailored their reloads to the degree of being a re-manufacturer you will run into problems. Many reloaders of that era did not have headspace gages or comparators. My mentors did not. I was grateful for what I learned from them but surpassed it and helped them become better reloaders as I gained knowledge and experience.

 

[Oldloser]

Also,

And make sure you keep the newly fired cases for your rifle separate so you can measure what you're current chamber is.

Thanks. Is there a system to do this? Other than labels on ziploc bags? Ie this round has been fired x times in z rifle?

 

[6.5SH]

Thanks. Is there a system to do this? Other than labels on ziploc bags? Ie this round has been fired x times in z rifle?

Ziploc and a sharpie is exactly what I do.

 

[nutation]

The M14 is likely chambered long; the 7.62x51 headspace spec is a bit longer than .308, to accommodate machine guns. If you're really set on using your dad's handloads in your Savage, you could reset the headspace to fit them, since it uses a barrel nut system. I wouldn't bother with it if you aren't already tooled up to swap barrels, though.

 

[Jumper]

I've used a body bump die to push the shoulder back on ammo I loaded for my semi auto rifle to let me shoot it in my bolt gun. Sounds like you could do the same if you didn't inherit the M14