Seating Depth Question

[scoober78]

I have been reloading for about two years and have recently decided to try to increase my level of precision by using a Hornady OAL gauge and accurately measuring jump to lands as opposed to simply relying on OAL length of the loaded cartridge.

Loading some .308 168gr Hornady BTHP's on Hornady match brass...I measured 2.343 inches to the lands at the ogive...sweet. Brass is new and was FL sized before case prep. Brass chambers normally in the gun. I prime, charge and seat the bullet to give me the 2.323 inches (.02" off lands). When I pull that round out of the press and attempt to chamber, I get a significant amount of resistance closing the bolt handle. The Hornady manual specifies a COAL of 2.8" and with my desired seating depth the cartridge measures 2.930" OAL.

Is this what is causing the stiff bolt or am I missing something here? If it is the
cause, how can I load to my desired distance off the lands? :banghead:

Appreciate the help and am happy to be posting, not just lurking.

 

[steve4102]

There are basically 3 things that will cause a bolt that is hard to close.

First and number one, is the case was not sized properly and the shoulder needs to be bumped back a few "K" more. One way to check this is to chamber your empty sized cases before you load any primer/powder/bullets. If they chamber and extract with ease move on to #2.

Second is the bullet is seated to long and contacting the lands. Being you just attempted this Max OAL technique it's possible you are touching the lands and maybe misreading your new gauge.

Third is the seating die is set up to over crimp and the unwanted crimp is bulging the case just enough to cause your "Hard to Chamber " issues.

Going back to square one with checking the sizing die is job one.

 

[scoober78]

Cases chambered fine after sizing and prep. Pretty confident in the sizing.

I tend not to crimp rifle loads and am not crimping at all in this load.

Sounds like a problem with the OAL gauge then...

 

[USSR]

With a 2.930" OAL that puts you 0.20" off the lands, I can only assume that you are loading for a Remington Model 700. First, if you are seating a 168gr BTHP out that far, you really don't have enough of the bullet in the neck.
Seat the bullet so that .308" of the bullet (not including the boattail) is in the neck and call it good. Secondly, your hard chambering problem is likely caused by not bumping the shoulder back far enough. After resizing the brass and before charging it and seating the bullet, try chambering it to see if it fits.

Don

 

[scoober78]

I've chambered the empty brass after sizing. It chambers normally.

 

[gamestalker]

If you have 100% verified that the bullet isn't making contact with the lands, it's very likely brass that isn't head spaced to the chamber. Probably needs the shoulders bumped back a couple thousandths.

That said, are you FL sizing, necking, or what exact process are you using to size. The easiest way to determine what may be happening would be to pull a bullet out of a cartridge that is producing that resistance, then try and chamber it. Or you could use a sharpie to color the shoulder, neck, bullet, and even the body of the case and then see where it shows contact when chambering, that's will be your problem area.

GS

 

[witchhunter]

Check your trim length, too long will cause stiff bolt closure. Use a sharpie and mark your bullet then chamber it. Look for rifling marks on it. seat deeper until they are no longer touching. This is Zero. Start .020 deeper and adjust until your accuracy improves.

 

[USSR]

I've chambered the empty brass after sizing. It chambers normally.

Okay, so try backing your seating die out a bit (turn counter-clockwise) and screw your seating stem down a bit to compensate for the change and bring your OAL back to what it was and see if that does anything for you.

Don

 

[12guns]

How hard is your neck tension when you seat the bullet? Stiffer than normal? Use a sharpie as suggested and rule out the coal being too long first. I cut slots in a spent case to be able to get a simple and accurate measurement to my lands. Sure makes things easy to read for me!

 

[Walkalong]

You don't want heavy neck tension, and you do not need to seat those bullets near the lands to shoot well. Try a Redding FL bushing die, and a Redding or Forster competition seater. Load match quality bullets straight and they will shoot well if the gun is up to it.

 

[scoober78]

Good call on pulling the bullet. Thanks. Pulled it and checked the brass. That 1 piece of brass needed the shoulder bumped. Checked the other 99 and they were all fine...all were trimmed to 2.005 as someone asked earlier.

I'm guessing that a piece of unsized snuck into my prepped cases.

Thanks for the suport guys.