[Tim Galyean]

I am new to reloading, purchased a Dillon 650 press recently. I have had great succes loading for my 22-250, and have become increasingly frustrated while loading for my AR15. The gun is a 24" RRA Varmint and I am loading 50gr. Vmax's.

What is driving me up the wall is that from what I can tell, I am doing every thing right and in order and no matter what I do I can not get my rounds to feed through my rifle. I am talking about just manually feeding the rounds, not firing. The bolt closes about half the time and they stick/jam with varying degrees of pressure.

Here is what I am doing, hope you guys can correct me:

-Tumble casings
-Lube casings
-Full Length size
-Trim to length
-Deburr/champher
-Powder/Seat bullet .020" off the lands.

I also tried using a small base die after sizing the neck and still no luck.

Where should I look first?

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

[phil218b]

Dillon makes a case gauge that will tell you if the case is sized to sami specs.
The problem is more than likley you have not sized the base of the case enough to chamber. Make sure your small base die is 1/8 turn down after the ram is all the way up. The black rifles need to be sized completely or they will jam, I loaded 1500 shels just to find out they didn't chamber. I bought a redding body die and hand sized the whole lot on a single stage press, learned that lesson the hard way!:cuss:

[Sommerled]

Tim,

I had the same trouble some years ago when starting out. But didn't know of this forum to get some answers and had to learn the hard way. THere are many on this forum much more experienced than I and They will also give good advise.(I've reloaded only about 8or 9K of .223 in the last 4 years for a bolt and about the same for an AR)

When I had trouble with cycling in my AR (the bolt not closing) it turned out to be the shoulder not pushed back enough (aka inadequate headspace), which is determined by how far the die is screwed down in the tool head.

I bought a L.E.Wilson .223 case gage to check my cases after resizing, if they fit the gage, they cycle in the AR just fine. I use a small base die and do not seperately resize the neck. Some will say you don't need a SB die but many manuals recommend it. Also, the RRA rifle is very high quality, I have heard, and to get best accuracy it might have some tight chamber dimensions to take into consideration.

To assemble accurate varmint loads for my AR (as opposed to blasting ammo) this is my sequence:

-tumble then inspect and sort brass
-RCBS small base die (my chamber is tight too) resize on my single stage press. Check with case gage for length and chambering.
-trim and chamfer if necessary
-tumble again for a couple hrs to remove lube
-assemble on my progressive press with a universal decapping die in the first station to remove any tumbling media in the flash hole.
-Load five in a mag and test at the range for each batch before hunting.

THe first time I took my AR out Prairie doggin I did not check for headspace and proper function, All 500 of the AR loads wouln't work:banghead:, But they did fit into and shoot well out of my old break action single shot that I had along by habit but had not intended to use.:cuss:

The case gage is worth the $15 or so it costs. I bought one for every caliber I reload.

Keep trying, you'll get it right!

[Idano]

Tim,

It's hard to diagnose from an arm chair without being there, seeing pictures or having measurements but my first guess would be that you are not getting the shoulder set back far enough. Re-set up your resizing die and make sure it is just barely coming in contact with your shell plate. Also make sure that your powder measure isn't limiting your stroke as well as any other station.

[rcmodel]

Things to check:

1. Die not adjusted properly to completly full-length size them.

2. Unlubed case necks?
Expander button is pulling the shoulder back out when it comes through the neck.

(Use a nylon .22 bore brush with just a slight amount of case lube on it to lube case necks. Or powdered graphite.)

3. Crimping? Make sure the seating/crimping die isn't adjusted down to far and crimping you didn't plan for.
Crimp can cause buckled cases right behind the shoulder you can't see without an L.E. Wilson or Dillon case guage.

My suggestion would be to find one that won't chamber, then carefully smoke the neck & shoulder area with candle soot.

Carefully chamber it as far as it will go, then carefully eject it.
Then inspect it.

Where the soot is gone is your problem.

And ditch the Sm Base die.
That isn't going to be needed when you find out what is really going on.

rcmodel

[30Cal]

Buy a case gage. If you own an FL or SB resizing die, you really ought to have one. It'll answer a lot of questions.

[Tim Galyean]

I screwed the full length sizing die down another 1/4 turn and that solved the problem. Would there be any problem with taking off .030" or so off the end of the die so that there is not so much pressure on the shell plate?

[Walkalong]

You should not need to do so. If it needs that, the die company needs to replace it, but yea, you could knock off a little bit.

[rcmodel]

I wouldn't recommend it.
The die and shell plate are supposed to be right when adjusted properly. It should be impossible to push the shoulder back so far as to become dangerous.

If you remove material from the die itself, there is no built-in failsafe against pushing the shoulder back too far and creating ammo with excess headspace.

PS: I have done it (1/8" off the bottom) on my 32-20, 38-40, and 44-40 WCF dies, but those are all rimmed cases.
And there was a very good reason.
Apparently, Colt & winchester couldn't agree on which case design they should use about 100 years ago.

rcmodel

[30Cal]

I'd measure with a case gage before you go cutting on something.