Can't close bolt on 1 in 50 hand loads.

[salate]

Hi guys,

I'm reasonably new to reloading and have had a problem that's new for me, hopefully someone can advise.

Shot a bunch of hand loads yesterday.

They're .308 Hornady SST's which have the crimping cannelure but were not crimped. The COAL used meant the bullet was set just above crimping line to match the rifle instead of being crimped.

I shot about 50 rounds, and all worked fine, except one...

When cycling the action, the bolt would collect the cartridge and chamber it fine, but I could not close the bolt.

I tried with modest force to close the bolt and it wouldn't budge so I left it at that. I might have been able to close it with more force but didn't try.

Like I said, 49/50 worked fine, but this last one wouldn't chamber.

Nothing really out of place as far as I can see.

Any ideas what the problem might have been?

Thanks.

[Baldrick314]

Hi guys,

I'm reasonably new to reloading and have had a problem that's new for me, hopefully someone can advise.

Shot a bunch of hand loads yesterday.

They're .308 Hornady SST's which have the crimping cannelure but were not crimped. The COAL used meant the bullet was set just above crimping line to match the rifle instead of being crimped.

I shot about 50 rounds, and all worked fine, except one...

When cycling the action, the bolt would collect the cartridge and chamber it fine, but I could not close the bolt.

I tried with modest force to close the bolt and it wouldn't budge so I left it at that. I might have been able to close it with more force but didn't try.

Like I said, 49/50 worked fine, but this last one wouldn't chamber.

Nothing really out of place as far as I can see.

Any ideas what the problem might have been?

Thanks.

Try measuring the neck thickness of the case with your verniers and compare the measurement with your other fired rounds to see if there's a discrepancy. Another thing to try is dismantle the bullet and full length resize the case. Won't tell you what caused the problem but it should fix it.

You did the right thing by not forcing it to close.

[Norton]

Were all the cases trimmed? If you missed one, a longer neck could be creating the additional resistance.

Something around the neck would also be my first suggestion.

Something may have gone wrong when resizing the case also... Perhaps a slight bulge in the neck or body which wasn't obvious at a glance.

Another vote for not forcing it and firing it. Dispose of it appropriately, or dismantle it and run it through the resizing/reloading process again to iron out the bug.

[salate]

Hi guys,

I've since pulled the bullet and run the case through the usual routine, including full length resize as suggested, so we'll see how it goes next time around.

The only obvious thing was that the next was a 1.5mm longer than standard. Maybe I did miss one in the trimming process the first time around.

Would that much extra neck cause the problem?

[Tonit]

The only obvious thing was that the next was a 1.5mm longer than standard. Maybe I did miss one in the trimming process the first time around.

Would that much extra neck cause the problem?

It's possible.

In any case, you did the right thing by putting it aside and resizing it etc.

See how it goes the next time around and keep an eye on your neck lengths and see what happens.

For future reference you could even make a point of not trimming 1 brass a few times till it reaches that 1.5mm longer point then load and try to chamber it.

That might give you a definite answer.

[Lorgar]

This is probably a long shot, but a bit of extra info never hurts...

I shoot 150gr SST's as well and had the same problem once.

In my case, the cannelure was just above the neck of the brass without crimping. When seating a bullet it looked the brass had peeled off a tiny bead of copper from the jacket, and this was sitting half in the cannelure and raised slightly above the height of the neck.

The bead was about 1mm long and half mm wide, but it was enough that I could only close the bolt half way without forcing it.