Home Forums Reloading Varmint Rifles 22-250 reloading question

I have a Savage Striker in 22-250 that I am loading for. Had about 95 pieces of Win brass that I had fired in a Savage model 12 single shot 22-250 30 years ago. After full length resizing the bolt on the Savage Striker will not close on about half of them. I have been reloading for almost 40 years and have never encountered this before. Anyone else ever had this issue?

have any idea of the number of the reloads on the brass? Probably not.

I've had the problem before myself. I annealed the case mouths, and then lubed the cases with Amzoil's synthetic version of WD 40, and let them set for several days ( 3 to 7 ). The oil soaked in evidently, because resizing the ones that hadn't chambered, resized easily and then were able to chamber easily also. Brass has just harden due to age is my guess..

Anyway, that is what has worked for me when I've embraced the problem.

other thing possible, is that the brass just needs to be trimmed also...

Brass fired in one chamber doesn't always work in another, could be because of different reamers or headspace. Did you measure with a comparator with brass you fired in the striker that chambers to the ones that won't? Usually theres 3 reasons brass dont chamber, brass to long, not enough shoulder bump or web is to big at the .200 line.

Thanks for the reply. Hadn't thought about brass being old and getting hard. I tumbled the brass first then trimmed and prepped.

I knew there was a possibility of different chamber specs from the Sav model 12 to the Sav Striker so I full length resized them as well as trimmed to specs to start fresh.
New factory Win, Rem, Hornady, rounds chamber fine so I will toss the old brass. Just curious as I have never had this issue before.

Did you measure the brass to compare, I find it hard to believe brass setting around doing nothing getting hard.
I had some 30 year old Rem brass I fireformed from 280 to 280AI just fine. Brass has a memory if the web was bigger with the Savage 12 it may not wanna size back to fit the stryker

I don’t know for about brass sitting around hardening up but you can take new easily unrolled
Copper tubing, hang in your shop, be hard and impossible to unroll in a few years.

Paint a case which won't chamber with a magic marker or sharpie, then try it. That should show you where it is too big.

If you don't know how many loads you have on them, anneal them.

If they are oversize down near the base, I've read you can size them with a.45 ACP die. Personally, I use a Lee Bulge Buster and Carbide Factory Crimp Die in cases like yours.

If salvageable I wouldn't scrap them.... brass can be hard to come by, and also I feel older brass is definitely a cut about in Quality Control than newer stuff... older brass was made back when Quality was taken seriously.. NOWADAYS its just a propaganda buzz word.

A little TLC, I think older brass will last longer than newer stuff.. especially made over the last couple of years.

I have no problem getting 40 and 50 reloads plus out of brass with a little TLC and a little prudence on the powder scale.
Drop the scale back a grain or a grain and a half., and you can compensate for the minor slower velocity with a click or two on the elevation knob.

Just run it through a body die and it will work. I have 5 different 22-250’s and use one load for all of them. Once the round is loaded, I run it through a body die and they work like new in all actions…

Shrap is correct but the body die.

or another thing to do get some factory loads shoot a couple through there measure the datum line and screw dies in if possible until your previously fired brass is about .002 under that.
but I Seafire has suggested I would annesl all the old brass to start with.

Yeah Shrap, I have about 4 or 5 body dies, that are Reddings. One is in 22.250. That certainly sees a lot of use at times depending on the age of the brass, and certainly is used when I pick up used range brass in 22.250. They don't necessarily see a lot of use, but kinda like it being nice to have a spare tire, when you get a flat out in the middle of nowhere in say, Montana.

In most of my reloading tho in other calibers, my preferred method is using a body die, to size down the brass, and then use a Lee Collet die to size the neck. Two steps, but pretty much always chambers.

Only reason I don't have more body dies, is about picking up 4 or 5 Redding Body Dies, I finally figured out I had a bunch of 'body dies' on the shelf. Spindle out of a 260 and it makes a 243 body die just fine... and the 7/08 makes one for the 260 just fine, and so on.

For others, I also find that when I have a problem with a round or a couple out of a batch not chambering, disassemble and then check the length. Neck may need a quick trim....or sometimes its just I need to tighten down the shoulder a hair and they will chamber just fine. A body die is nice tho, as one doesn't have to disassemble a round, if the shoulder needs to be bumped back. More than often, something not chambering for at least me, is for some reason, I didn't bump the shoulder back far enough. You get that when some of your brass is on its 20th to 40th Reload.

I don't redline my velocity, so I keep my pressures down, so brass goes a long time before it needs trimmed or the shoulder bumped back a little further. All my rifles are bolt actions, so they are not that finicky.

Hell anything you role up has a memory, take a straight stick of pex tubing and roll it up and leave it for awhile now unroll it it will not be straight again and harder to unrole.