I AM HAVING ONE HECK OF A TIME FITTING SHELLS BACK IN THAT I HAVE RELOADED.DO ANY OF YOU HAVE SAME THING HAPPENING TO YOU.

Make sure you are full length resizing your brass for any automatic, lever, or pump rifle. Also, I believe RCBS makes a die for the above rifles. I used to load a 7 mag BLR and full length sizing did the trick. Are you having any problems with bullet length? When loading for the BAR the magazine limits your overall length, so make sure you have left enough room so your round doesnt cause hanging, etc as you try to chamber a round.

I have a BLR 308 and it takes the sizing die screwed all the way down on the shell holder to get the cases sized enough to chamber in it. I guess it means I have a tight chamber, it does shoot very good.

Steve E..........

You may have to use small base dies. They are made for rifles that do not have the camming power of the bolt action. I've also had good luck with Redding full length dies. The Redding dies are made to closer tolerances. Good luck.

You should NOT have to use a small-base full-length sizing die for a BAR, but it is conceivable that it might be required for some rifles.

Will an empty case you just fired in your rifle go back in and permit the bolt to lock fully before you do anything to it? If so, then something in your reloading process is causing your problem. If this is the case, then you should try rechambering cases after every reloading step to try to identify which part of the process is making the case not fit in the chamber properly.

One caution: be careful during full-length sizing NOT to set the shoulder of the case back too far. The best way to do this is to take a match and "smoke" the case neck/shoulder area after you lube it, then note how far down the neck the die touches tha case as you size it, adjusting the die until it JUST TOUCHES THE SHOULDER during the sizing step. Then lock the die in that position. Setting shoulders back too much will cause early case failures due to case head separation.

I can't explain why, but my brother in laws .270 BAR is the worst ever. The only way I'll load for him is with new brass each and every shot. Pressure is also a real issue and only light loads will cycle! Worst part is he loves it! No accounting for taste.

I agree that small base dies should not be needed for the BAR. I have one in 30-06. The same time I bought it, I also bought a go/no-go gage for the case. I checked all of my full-length-sized 30-06 cases before loading for it. A significant number (maybe 20%) would NOT go into the go/no-go gage. We are not talking about small extractor burrs keeping it from seating. The entire base was too big and running them through the sizer did not change that. I put them aside.

Anyway, I have had no problem with reloads in the BAR after doing this. The cases I put aside work great in my Garand. It has a much larger chamber. You can tell the difference in chambers during sizing very easily by the amount of force it takes.

I know exactly what you are talking about. I went down that road the beginning of the Spring with my BAR. You don't need small base dies, but you do need an FL die. I had to screw my FL die to the shell holder and then a little more to get the setback and sizing I needed. Since then, I haven't had 1 case in over 100 fail to lock home. Before this epiphany, I had 70% of all brass fail to lock up.

Also, I used a stoney point headspace gauge to determine my shoulder setback of .003 from the fireformed cases. If I wouldn't have bought the gauge, I never would have screwed the die down far enough.

You will notice a difference, light night and day, when you get your shoulder setback correct.