Hi, I just reloaded .223 (l/c used)rounds and most did not chamber in my Rem 700...I am new to reloading.I trimmed the case to specs and full lengthed sized died them..OAL is shorter than specs.Rescipe is: used l/c brass,cci primer Accurate 2230c,and Midsouth varmint nightmare 55gn sp.Please help

Did you crimp the rounds? If so, did you crimp while seating the bullet, or as a separate step? A botched crimp can easily distort the neck or shoulder enough to cause a failure like that.

Are the loads compressed? A highly-compressed charge of powder can sometimes cause the case walls to bulge and the round will not chamber (depending on the brass).

quote:

Originally posted by Trappy:
...used l/c brass...

Does this indicate brass bought as once fired?? I.e. brass fired in a chamber different to yours??

How did you set up your FL seating die?? Did you follow the set-up procedure which came with the dies??

Have you got access to (1'ce fired) brass fired in your chamber?? If yes, measure case diameter at neck, shoulder and just in front of the extraction groove - both on the brass fired in your chamber and on the sized brass which does not chamber. Is the sized brass larger than the brass fired in your chamber?? Also compare a case (fired in your chamber) to a sized case, how does head-shoulder dimensions compare??

This may not be the issue, but in principle there is nothing which guarantees that even a FL die will size cases shot in another chamber to fit in yours. It does not happen very often, and may also depend on your die adjustment. But is a possibility that the dies are simply not sizing down the used brass sufficiently to fit your chamber. If the brass you are working with has some cases which will chamber and some not, this could simply be an indication of the difference in size of the chambers in which they were fired. Measuring is really the only way to find out.

Good luck spotting the gremlin.

- mike

Color the case with black magic marker and try to chamber it again and see where it's tight.

If it's at or just below the shoulder check that your seating die isn't screwed in to far. If the seating die is to deep the case mouth will hit the die and it will cause the case to bulge right below the shoulder.

It looks like you are a new reloader. Let me recommend a new piece of equipment that you did not mention: case gages. I really like the Wilson type case gage. You size your round and drop it in the gage. This gage measures the distance between shoulder and base. It is a "go" and "no Go" gage. And it is a true measurement, as I have dropped my chamber headspace gages in my wilson gages and found perfect agreement between them.

http://www.realguns.com/Commentary/comar46.htm

The midsection of the Wilson gage is cut big. It only measures headspace. What the Wilson type gage and the other functionally equivalent gages do not measure is "fatness". This is an important measurement for gas guns and should be controlled. You do not want any resistance to bolt closure due to overlong cases or over fat cases. It is a safety consideration for gas rifles with free floating firing pins, it is a reliability consideration for the other few actions. However the answer is not to reduce the case length excessively, for then you risk headspace separation.

I have a number of match rifles. Match rifles are cut by gunsmiths using commerical reamers. Which tend to be much tighter than military, and a little tighter than what is used by major manufacturers. (At least my Ruger Bolt Gun, huge case neck dimensions for that one) To ensure that I have enough cartridge reduction, I measure headspace and "fatness" using a gage cut with a chamber reamer. Frank White of Compass Lake www.compasslake.com/ cut me a .223 one last year. It was around $35.00. It was cut with the same reamer that cut my match Space gun. Frank and Family are just great people to do business. If sized brass won't drop it, I know I have a problem.. I also have cut chambers in 30-06 and 308. I use them all the time.

The set up instructions given with sizing dies assume a lot of things. And seldom following the instructions do you ever get the brass sized to the correct length. In a few instances I have had to grind material off the bottom of a sizing die to get it to set the case shoulder back enough.

Bolt rifles are extremely tolerant of poorly sized ammunition. They have massive camming leverages (at least the good ones!) firing pins don’t tap primers, and don’t have the dynamic timing issues that must be controlled in semiautomatic mechanisms . If you are having problems closing the bolt, it might be due to grossly over long cases. The only way you are going to know that is by using case gages. And if your cases are sized to the proper length, well cross that river when we get to it.

The poster has already said he trimmed to specs so the cases aren't too long.
Did you check to see if a case would chamber after you F/L resized it? As posted, blacken a case and tell us where its tight. Did you chamfer the inside of the case neck before seating your bullets?

Its either undersized because you didn't tighten the die down far enough... or you tightened it a hair too much and have a slight bulge on the shoulder that is preventing it from chambering...

HINT when you are setting it up, size the first case and then chamber it in the rifle.. if it doesn't chamber, or is tight, make your adjustments then.. instead of sizing 50 or so and finding out later that they won't work..

good luck..
seafire

Agreed on the die short stroking the case short of F/L but the shoulder bulge would come from an incorrectly adjusted seater die.