.308 issues - tight chamber or out of spec die? I'm lost

[anothernewb]

background info. Bought a set of .308 dies at a gunshow awhile back.

Got on a whim to load .308 now that thanks to BDS, I found powder and primers.

I did the typical batch processing. cleaned all my cases then sized, then trim.

Now, partway through the initial batch of sizing, I got a stuck case and the expander ball broke in my die. The die wall ended up being scored on removal of the case so I bought a new set of dies and continued to resize.

I next sorted by headstamp and did my load workup. All appeared to go well, until I tried to check my loaded rounds. several rounds would not chamber. My first thought was OAL. That proved to be incorrect. There was no rhyme or reason to the rounds that jammed vs the rounds that chambered. After inspecting the What was happening to the bad rounds was that the shoulder of some cartridges appears to be catching in the gun. In each case where the round was sticky, on extraction, the shoulder has a bright ring and some scratch marks.

Is is possible that my first set of dies was worn out or out of spec, or that the new die is out of spec. Or that I have a really tight chamber on the gun? I'm lost as to what to check. a sticky round continued to be sticky even after the bullet was pulled. There is no correlation between headstamp and sticky ones either.

The die appears to be set up according to instructions. My initial thought is to resize them all and go forward. Several cases I checked that I knew were resized with the new die seem to chamber fine.

 

[rcmodel]

There was no rhyme or reason to the rounds that jammed vs the rounds that chambered.
the shoulder has a bright ring and some scratch marks.

Sound's to me like you have your seating die adjusted to crimp when seating the bullet.

That results in slightly buckled shoulders on the longest cases.
And no crimp or buckled shoulders on the shortest cases.

Back off the seating die enough the crimp shoulder in the die is not touching the case mouth and I think it will fix your problem.

rc

 

[chrisgo]

I had the same issue. First thing is buy a dillon or Wilson case gage to check your ammo. This will save you a ton of time!
I was using one shot case lube and switched to Frankford Arsenal spray lube. This was much slicker and actually sized the cases better as they slid into the die with a lot less friction. Second problem was just as RC stated, my seating die was buckling shoulder just enough to cause chambering problems. You couldn't really see it or feel it but a check with the gage confirmed the problem. I load .308 on a dillon 550 with rcbs small base dies. I never had a problem with this ammo in my M1A but my DPMS SASS would not chamber it. Now they both run perfect!

 

[anothernewb]

I did trim all the cases before loading. But I did set the die for a very light crimp. I will back it off for the next set and see what happens

 

[918v]

Now, partway through the initial batch of sizing, I got a stuck case and the expander ball broke in my die. The die wall ended up being scored on removal of the case so I bought a new set of dies and continued to resize.

Why did the expander ball break? How was the die scored? Did you lube the case? With what? How did you set up the die?

 

[anothernewb]

What happened to the previous die is a total mystery to everyone I've shown it to. I was using Hornady one shot lube. The expander ball broke into 3 pieces, while the brass was being pushed in based on what was left of the extracted case. The die was scored likely from removing the damaged brass from either a tool, or the expander ball pieces. they had actually sliced the side of the case neck. had a very nice deep score down the die wall.

Die was set up similar to every other die I've used.

After doing some reading on "bumping the shoulder back" I may simply have not adjsuted either the old die or the new die tight enough to get things into speck. Much of the brass I have was stuff that was run through an AR (they are not militaary cases, however)

Apparently, my process so far today was doing exactly that, without me knowing what it was called. I set the die down as far as I could while keeping the press still operating. It was set rather tight. The resultant re-sized brass have chambered easily, so I'm hoping I have solved my issue. I will reassemble some rounds tonight and see what happens.

The rifle is new. I have fired only 50 rounds through it. Remington core-lokt 150 grain. each of those rounds chambered fine.

 

[blarby]

I was using Hornady one shot lube

Its not a mystery anymore

Why does this keep coming up regarding stuck cases. The instructions on that stuff must be really bad.....

 

[918v]

Apparently, my process so far today was doing exactly that, without me knowing what it was called. I set the die down as far as I could while keeping the press still operating.

Are u using a single stage press?

 

[anothernewb]

yes, good old single stage.

 

[918v]

So u raised the ram all the way up and screwed the die to touch the shell holder?

 

[gamestalker]

Have you marked the brass with a sharpie or smoked it so you can see where it's making hard contact? If so, you will be able to quickly identify what's happening. And judging by your post, you are loading for an AL action, right? If so, you might need to use a small base die, if it turns out that contact is occurring mostly down towards the case head end of the cartridge.

Don't beat yourself up or get frustrated, it sounds like your still fairly new to reloading. The good news is, problems like this help to educate you, which will help you to quickly identify these type issues when they present next time.

GS

 

[FROGO207]

If you are not chamfering the case necks on the inside the act of pushing the bullet in could be collapsing the casing just before the shoulder. A too small expander button could cause this as well. If I have this type of problem the first thing I will do is try to chamber a sized casing. If it fits and then will not after loading it, sizing is not the problem. Crimping when seating as RC says is also a possibility especially if you have NOT trimmed them all to the same length before attempting to crimp. FWIW I will not load a bunch of ammo until I am sure things are adjusted to fit the firearm, even on subsequent sessions. I use a dummy round to reset the dies to the same place that worked the last session.

 

[stubbicatt]

I'm going with the crimp shoulder pushing the necks into the shoulder and buckling it.

 

[anothernewb]

good news. looks just like either a combination of die setting, bumping the shoulder, and crimp was the issue. made up 10 dummy rounds last night, each chambered just fine.

 

[ranger335v]

Quote:
I was using Hornady one shot lube

Its not a mystery anymore

Why does this keep coming up regarding stuck cases. The instructions on that stuff must be really bad.....


No, the instructions are fine. So is the lube if it's used as instructed.

 

[gamestalker]

One Shot has gained a reputation of sticking cases by those who have used it improperly, in my opinion. I've never stuck a single case and I've been using spray on lube, and others as well, for decades. With that said, make absolutely sure you allow spray on lube to dry completely before trying to run it through the sizing die.

GS

 

[FROGO207]

Glad you got it figured out OP.

 

[the count]

"+1 on First thing is buy a dillon or Wilson case gage to check your ammo."

I have been using Hornady ONE SHOT case lube for a while and no problems. Just make sure you spray the cases from all sides and also into the neck a bit. Also, when sizing there will be some cases that have to be resized carefully (and I hate stuck cases more than anything): If you are pulling down and you feel more than normal resistance back off and pull down a little further until the whole case is resized.