Make sure your Lee Crimp Die is adjusted for a HEAVY crimp. This will bulge the shoulder and when you go to chamber the round, you'll get a nice ol' jam. Nothing like slamming your rifle against the bench to fix it. LOL :banghead:
How does this happen since it isn't the crimp itself that causes the problem? Well, look at how a Lee rifle crimp die works. As you raise the ram, the cartridge enters the "jaws" of the die and the ram itself presses on the bottom of the die. The bottom of the die then compresses those jaws. Since I was crimping heavily, the case was held stationary by the jaws while the ram kept pushing up on the base, resulting in the bulge at the shoulder.
Since the shoulder was bulged, it was bigger than the front portion of the chamber and attempting to load the round wedged it in there darn good.
I'll still be using my crimp die, but I have backed off the tension.
Moral of the story: don't crimp too heavy and inspect your rounds carefully!
On the plus side, informal accuracy tests showed that my reloads (24.5gr H335, 55gr FMJBT, 2.240 OAL) were more accurate than the cheap Remington UMC 55gr FMJ stuff from Walmart and some old boxes of PMP 55gr FMJ.
How does this happen since it isn't the crimp itself that causes the problem? Well, look at how a Lee rifle crimp die works. As you raise the ram, the cartridge enters the "jaws" of the die and the ram itself presses on the bottom of the die. The bottom of the die then compresses those jaws. Since I was crimping heavily, the case was held stationary by the jaws while the ram kept pushing up on the base, resulting in the bulge at the shoulder.
Since the shoulder was bulged, it was bigger than the front portion of the chamber and attempting to load the round wedged it in there darn good.
I'll still be using my crimp die, but I have backed off the tension.
Moral of the story: don't crimp too heavy and inspect your rounds carefully!
On the plus side, informal accuracy tests showed that my reloads (24.5gr H335, 55gr FMJBT, 2.240 OAL) were more accurate than the cheap Remington UMC 55gr FMJ stuff from Walmart and some old boxes of PMP 55gr FMJ.