I was hoping to sight in my new to me TCR Aristocrat .308 yesterday. I dropped a hand loaded round (full length sized Hornady brass, RCBS dies) into the chamber and tried -- too enthusiastically -- to close the rifle. This resulted in a very stuck round in the chamber and a spoiled range session. Only after a great deal of effort after I returned home could I finally get the still unfired round out of the chamber. A factory Winchester round loads and extracts with no issues.

Do the TCR rifles typically have very tight chambers? These hand loads chamber and extract without issues in my Browning Xbolt and Winchester model 70. I'll shoot factory ammo if I have to but would like to be able to shoot hand loads without a repeat of yesterday's experience.

Do you have a modified case that will allow you to measure the length of the chamber with the bullet you're wanting to use?

My efforts to remove the cartridge from the chamber forced the bullet most of the way into the case but the cartridge remained stuck. I'm assuming that the stuck cartridge is an issue with the brass and is not related to the specific bullet being used. I'm not familiar with methods to measure the chamber without doing a chamber casting.

Take a piece of brass same as that used previously. Insert it into the chamber to see if it chambers so you can easily close the rifle. If it doesn't then your brass needs further sizing and/or possibly trimmed? If it chambers ok then seat the bullet you used in previous round and load another to that length. Will that round seat easily, if not then you have too long overall length? Haven't had any issues with tight chamber on my Hornet or 223. In fact brass from a friends Ruger 77H will chamber easily so the Ruger has a tighter chamber than the TCR barrel which I was surprised.

Sounds like the case was not sized enough. Single shots like this do not have strong extraction, so definitely full length size all cases. I ran into this with a Ruger #1V in .22-250. My cases came out easily when tapped with a cleaning rod passed through the muzzle.