I finally got a resizing die which would allow me to resize for the BAR. Took some reloads to the range and got 2 misfires out of 10. Thought the bolt was not in battery, so I let it slam home. Same problem. What would cause these misfires?

Bowman, is the pin hitting the primers or are the primers clean? If it's hitting the primers and they're just not firing, then I'd say you got a bad box of primers or they got contaminated. Unload those rounds, deprime, and start over. Compare the dimples to those of fired cases and see.

Also, I suppose it's possible that if your dies were way undersized that you could push the shoulder back on the case enough so that it would go so far forward in the chamber that the pin couldn't dimple it enough, that's just a guess though, but anything's possible.

Last but not least, if the bolt was not in battery you should even be able to pull the trigger. So don't worry about that.

Regards,
Tom

Bowman
I had the same experience with a .280 Remington in the BAR. I would put the load in, put the chamber down on it and all I would get is a "click" when I pulled the trigger. Come to find out my loads were to long (even though loaded to no more than max C.O.L. for the cartridge) to allow full closure of the battery without really letting her slam. This allowed them to fire, but obviously I was well into the lands with my bullet. Took the gun to the gunsmith and found that the throat was so short it would not chamber factory ammo. Sent it back to browning, but that is a different story. I have since sold the gun, and I can't recall exactly why I got the click when I pulled the trigger, but it was not releasing the firing pin because the battery was not completely closed. FWI mine was an older model BAR (obviously since they have not chambered it in .280 Remington for quite some time). Hope this helps.

300 winnie...The gun shoots factory stuff without problem. I think that the shell base is just too big to allow the bolt to close all the way. The "click" is a little scary when you expect the beast to roar. I am checking into getting small base dies from RCBS, or asking them to make a resizing die which will resize to .050"

Bowman, I was under the impression from your original post that you were already using a small base die (my assumption). If you're not, then I'd say that's definitely your problem. Before, I thought the cases might be undersized, but now I'm thinking that they probably are in fact too large or too long to allow the bolt to fully close.

Have you tried cranking down your FL die another 1/4 to 1/2 turn against the shell holder? If you're oversized in the shoulder area that should push it back a little. Might be worth a shot.

Good luck.

Bowman,
What kind of dies are you using now? When I bought dies for my BAR they were RCBS. They would not work, but the gunsmith I use told me to get Hornady dies. Have never had a problem since with loading for BAR's since (have 3 of my own). FWIW.

I own two BAR's, one in 30-06 and the other in 338WM. I have small base dies for the 06 and standard Lee dies for the 338wm. I always cut the cases to lenght after resizing and I have never had a misfire or malfunction whatsoever. I would give browning a call and discuss this problem with them to determine what is going on

RCBS small base dies work great for me (BAR safari MkII .30-06).

Well guys, I called Browning and they were no help. All they would say is that if the gun functions with factory stuff, then it is good. I spoke to RCBS rgarding small based dies and they quoted me $76.95 for a die which wouldresize the based down to .551. They would not allow a return if the case was still too big.

Using Hornady dies now and they will only resize down to .553 while the factory stuff (which works) is .550.

Going to my "smith" tomorrow and will have him check out the actual chamber dimensions. I'm guessing that I have a tight chambered Browning.

Will keep you guys posted.

By the way,, when I could get some handloads to shoot the beast grouped 1in. at 100 yds with 60 grns. of H-380 behind a Sierra 265 gr. Gameking. Just worried that when that big ole dear is sighted, the gun will go "click"

I have a BAR in 30-06 with a BOSS. I use standard dies. I don't have problems, however, I also have a go/no-go gauge for the 30-06. I went through all my cases before loading and found a fairly high percentage (around 15%-20%) did NOT fit the gauge. This was not because of burrs due to the extractor (a fairly common problem). I had a points file that I used if it was that.

Anyway, after weeding out the ones with oversized bases, I have had aboslutely no problems. I did not throw out the other cases. They work great in my Garand. I also ended up getting go-no-go gauges for all my semi-automatics. Takes care of a LOT of problems. That is a different way of handling the problem other than small base dies, and a lot cheaper.