Hello all.
I posted this in hunting rifles but thought it may be a better fit here.
Took my NULA 250 to the range today and had issues chambering one of my loads. This load was using once "real" fired (fire formed with COW, then loaded and shot) Lapua 22-250 brass. It was very difficult to chamber so I shot the other loads I brought and took the remaining back to the reloading room.
Initially thinking I had had seated the bullets incorrectly I remeasured with my Stoney Point and all checked out fine at 20/1000ths off the lands.
Next I measured a sized case for length, with it coming in right at SAMMI 1.912. Curious as if it could be too long by some chance I trimmed to 1.90 and still had issues chambering and opening the bolt. A word about the difficulty - it's tight to close the bolt, then the initial lifting of the bolt is firm, and when the lift is about 3/4 complete it hits a very tight spot, the for lack of a better term "clicks" over and opens the rest of the way. The feel is similar with a sized case and a fired case.
Then I compared a Hornady 250 savage case , once fired, sized in the same die with the same setting (Redding FL) - this one worked just fine, smooth as silk. Same with a Winchester case.
Also, Hornady factory ammo, Winchester factory ammo, and handloads with Winchester and Hornady brass are all just fine.
I tried sizing the case more by screwing in the sizing die deeper into the press but this did not change things.
Am I dealing with the "dreaded donut" caused by .22 to .25? I'm thinking not because it was COW fired formed vs resized when new and then fired.
Any thoughts?
Thanks for your help,
Courtney
