Home Forums Reloading Big Game Rifles Hard bolt close on reload

I am trying to load for an out-of-the-box new rifle, using new Winchester .257 Roberts brass. I full-length resized the brass and found that they measure 2.228 to 2.229 in case length. That's below the Maximum Case Length of 2.233 and above the 2.223 Trim to Length. I seated the bullets well off their contact with the lands. When I run them out of the magazine and into the chamber, all is well until I close the bolt. It is very, very stiff, but it does close. The rounds extract just fine.

What am I not thinking of to correct this problem?

The shoulders are too far forward. Bump em.

You may well be right. Is it a matter of just a 1/16 or 1/8 turn of the die into the press? I ran into a problem a couple of years ago setting back the shoulder of .35 Whelen cases such that I was getting misfires due to headspace. I hadn't pushed that far back either ... or so it looked to me.

Run it down a quarter turn, size, clean gunk off case and try to chamber it, you want it to have slight resistance nothing hard.

Once I get that case where I want it I always run one previously unsized then clean it and chamber it that way I know what it will do on one pass only.

Mike

DO NOT TURN IT DOWN 1/4 TURN. A full revolution of the die is about .070". A quarter turn is about .018" and way too much. The thing that perplexes me is that this is virgin brass?
Take a marker and put a mark on the threads of the die above the lock ring. Put a matching index mark right below it on the lock ring. Move the marks about 1/4" at a time and see if it gets to chambering better. That movement will give you about .003-.005" more resizing of the shoulder. See how that works and go a bit further if needed. I think you'll be real close with that little movement UNLESS you have a different problem.

Better yet, Use that marker to color up your case. Then chamber it and see exactly where the rub is.

It for damn sure shouldn't be doing this with new cases. What make of rifle is it. I had a short chambered remington 700 BDL that did this new out of the box that had to be sent back to remington to fix.....

Im perplexed too. Wait unitl he trys to chamber factory new ammo and something bad happens like it goes bang as he's closing the bolt. Had a new remington 700 that did that....

SeeDepp, is the brass new or fired in another rifle? Try a piece of new unsized brass in the rifle.Rick.

good advice.......

How does factory ammo chamber and is this new, unfired brass?
I'd get a box of factory ammo and IF it chambers and fires ok, spend some money on the Hornady (ustabe Stoney Point) headspace "thingy" and measure to the datum line on an unfired, factory round. Adjust your sizer for that setting and make sure your sized cases are trimmed to the recommended length. I've found that the "thingy" is a lot easier to use than messing with painted necks & shoulders on cases.
I agree that 1/4 turn is probably way too much and should not be necessary. This is assuming your sizer has already been properly set - ie. initially touching the shell holder.
Good luck.
Bear in Fairbanks

Thanks for all the ideas on this matter. Kraky111 and Idaho Shooter, I took your recommendations on the use of markers in this project.

The loaded cartridge in the photos is a factory-loaded Hornady Light Magnum. The empty case is from a bag of virgin Winchester brass I opened yesterday. The bolt closed with minimal resistance on the factory load, quite as you'd expect. The hard resistance to bolt closure doese seem to show up on the shoulder of the black markered, full length resized, but unfired, case.

I pushed back the shoulder by the slightest adjustments of the lock ring until I now have the bolt moving down with much less effort: snug, but not crazy tight. What is the metric and dedicated Brownells tool for measure of proper bolt closure resistance anyway?

The rifle is a Kimber 84M, by the way. It's my third Roberts, after the Cooper 22 and Ruger Hawkeye.

Oh,surely not! You are obviously just another one of those incompetents who can't keep his finger off of the trigger! (Please be sure and note the wink. I fully appreciate your point and believe that it happened. I get tired of hearing people who weren't there dismiss others for what they have personally experienced.)

Somebody, once told us that the most important piece of equipment on the reloading bench is that magic marker. I am a devout follower of that philosophy.

The picture definitely shows insufficient head space in the chamber for the way that cartridge was formed. I am glad you were able to adjust the dies to fix the problem without altering them.

Put a little bit of anti seize compound on the back of your bolt lugs so you do not gall them like I did a SS model 77 a few years back while shooting slight crush fit cartridges. And rock on!

It sounds to me like you have cured your problem.

I have been hearing some weird stories lately of bad spec Win brass. It looks like you may be the victim of same.

Get a hornady case guage, measure thingy. It snaps onto your callipers and can measure from the case base to the middle of the shoulder. It will give you peace of mind and a clear understanding of where you need to be with your resizing. It used to be made by stoney point. This is a neccessary tool in my opinion, for all reloaders.

The big problem here, at least initially, was full-length sizing NEW BRASS. There's normally no reason to do anything to new brass except run an expander ball into the neck to make sure its round, and even out the neck tension. If the FL sizing hadn't been done, the brass would have gone into the chamber easily--just like the factory round.

It's best to adjust a FL die with brass that's been fired in the rifle's chamber, no matter what method used.

This is the first time I've used new brass, so I searched this and other forums for what others' practice is when loading virgin brass. Some said there was no need to resize, others said it wouldn't hurt to be certain of uniformity, and still others claimed it as routine best practice. That is how I came to do the resizing, going with the "no harm in it" sense of the combined posts that I encountered.

Today I took an untouched case from the bag of new brass and gave it the black marker treatment before trying it in the chamber.

This case was also quite difficult to close the bolt on. Does the area of rubbed away ink show enough indication that the shoulder on this lot of brass is too far forward? Or do I need to check for other potential problems? Am I okay to just set the shoulder back a bit to correct the stiff bolt?

Again, thanks for all the ideas.

I have run into a few virgin brass that has been just a tad long for some tighter factory chambers. its rare but can happen. I have and love the hornady headspace measurer. I can not think anyone would regret buying it and highly recomend you get one.

How does one go about attributing this particular issue to the chamber vs. the brass?

+1. I agree mostly to what John is saying here except the OP had problems with brass that was not sized at all and it's new (virgin) brass. It's obvious that the chamber has been short cut or the brass is not within spec. It is easy to check the brass if you have a gauge like the L.E Wilson case length headspace gauge:

http://www.midwayusa.com/product/68...ce-gage-30-06-springfield?cm_vc=wishList

I use them when I'm getting nats azz or if a problem like this one arises....You can also check the chamber with a chamber cast with cerrosafe.....It's one of the 2 and if I were a bettin man, I'd probably say it's the damn chamber.....good luck with it...