Greetings to all. Some of my cartridges (SOME, not ALL)are hard to chamber. I have heard that one should "bump the shoulder" back a couple thou or have my extractor adjusted or replaced. I have been reloading for about years to the 10 factor and have never experienced this in any of my bolt guns until recently. I am shooting a Remington Model 700 Sendero in .27 caliber. Bullets touch the lands in my chamber at 3.843 (measured with a COAL gauge and measured with my calipers with a comparator attached to the calipers. My COAL is 3.781 so I am not jamming the bullet into the Ls and Gs. My brass is all trimmed to 2.530 - the recommended length for a .270 case. The manufacturer of my dies says it may be the die. Two things if this is the case - 1)if it is my die then why are ALL my rounds not hard to chamber?, and two 2) again, if it is my die then why have I not experienced this earlier than about a month ago? Don't know what to do here and thought I'd seek some advice before I end up sending my dies off to the manufacturer. I have no problems with extracting or ejection. Anyone have any clue you might be able to assist me with in this matter?

neck might be to long

How many times have they been reloaded?..compare the neck wall thickness of the ones that are snug to the ones that chamber freely. If they are the same... bump the shoulder back 10 on the ones that are tight. Do you see a bright ring above the case head? If so toss them into the recycling bin.

Anneal your necks and shoulders. Brass gets work hardened and does not spring back like it does when new. It is not your extractor, nor your die, if it worked before. Try some new brass and see if it happens; it won't.

The ogive on some bullets are not uniform, at least not down to a gnats a$$. Try seating the bullets a few thousandths deeper.

Is it possible that you have the die screwed down too far in your press, and you are swelling the datum line when you seat the projectile?

As has been said, bullets do vary in external dimensions ever so slightly. If your seater plug is not screwed down far enough you run the chance of bumping the mouth of the case with your seating die. That will swell the brass slightly at the datum line, and the loaded round won't chamber.

I once found a full box of loaded 270 rounds in the trash can at our range. The brass was brand new, and a few measurements at home told me what had happened. It was the exact scenario I described above: the seater die was not adjusted properly, and the guy ended up with a full 20 rounds of handloaded ammunition, with brand new components, that would not chamber. I broke the rounds down, ran them back through the sizer, and re-loaded the cases with my own recipe. They all chambered and shot as designed.

Ammo: Sizing die could be backing out during run or press could be flexing (I have a Ponsness that has grub screws to retain the main posts and these seem to work loose over time).

Rifle: dirty chamber or bolt face?

Either way your headspace is right on the edge. Not a bad thing for a rifle unless it's a DG rifle.

Worst comes to worst you can shave your shellholder (cheaper than shaving die if you mess it up)

Sendero here. Thanks for all the info, folks. The cartridges in question have been loaded twice. There is no indication of incipient case head separation ( bright ring around the case near the case head). My powder charge is one full grain lower than the suggested maximum. What I'm having trouble with wrapping my head around is as follows - Is it possible that an issue with my die would affect only some of my cartridges but not all? Again, most all of my hand loaded cartridges will chamber with no problem but every once in a while I will run across one that is hard to run my bolt handle down on. I am going to re-visit my dies and ensure that they are not too far down in the press. Meanwhile, I am open for any ideas and/ or guidance that may be able to fix this. And when I do finally get it figured I will most definitely share this info with all of you. You folks are great and I certainly do appreciate your input and sharing of knowledge.

Bump your shoulders back and you should not have a problem. You are using a bolt-action and should not have a big problem closing the bolt on a cartridge unless there is a big problem.

It ain't the die; and it ain't your rifle, and it ain't the bullet seating depth. Remember that both are made to a set of tolerances, which overlap, and it is very possible to have a min chamber and a max die, so that the reloaded ammo won't chamber. Also, when you size the brass, it gets longer, from base to shoulder (you are making it smaller so the brass has to go somewhere. )
Your particular lot of brass might be on the hard side; more springy, less ductile and is springing back. I chuck the dies in my lathe and remove some from the base, that will make the brass shorter to fit your minimum chamber. You can' t mess up the die; assuming a good machinist.
Why do some chamber and some don't? Well, the brass is not all sized the same, due to varying ductility of it, and the probable overlap of die to chamber tolerance you have. It is a wonder that most of the rifles, brass, dies, and ammo, work so well together. Very seldom, like in your case, it doesn't. Seen it before. Now, with work hardened brass, that will not size down either, but you probably do not have that problem.
Bump your shoulders back; good advice, but in your case, sounds like you are doing that, but back to the SAAMI tolerance overlap thing. It will be s small problem; not a big one.
Oh, over crimping, and bulging the shoulder, as suggested, would cause a problem but you aren't doing that.
Solution; longer chamber, or shorter die. Try annealing the brass; might help even with only twice fired brass.

I had a similar problem with one of my 7 mags once.

When using new Winchester brass and just the FL die I had no problems with the same loads. When using once (or twice) fired brass with a S bushing die I was having chambering issues on just some rounds even though they were all loaded the same and all the same COL. The bolt wouldn't close smoothly or be very hard to turn on some rounds but not on others. I tried bumping the shoulder 5 and even 10 thousandths with the same issues. I scrubbed up the rifle and the chamber. I tried my Willis Mag die. I checked the cases and length with mics. All with the same results.

Then I called Redding and talked to them and I sent the die and 6 cases ( 5 1X fired) in for inspection . They found that the die was not perfectly in spec and they fixed or replaced it. They also found that my chamber may be a touch out of perfectly round and even a tad short. I could index cases to sort that out too. I really didn't want to do that. The new or improved bushing die cured the problems. And Redding's service was excellent. It was the only time I ever had to send in one of their dies and thats pretty much all I use.

But in a way it was a good thing. I did find out that particular rifle actually shoots its best with new brass that has been FL sized. So for actual hunting loads that is what I use. For just range shooting I use the reloads and the S die set for about 0.005 inch bump.

If you are neck sizing or partial full length sizing, using a full length die to neck size, the body of your brass may be a little large. The problem you describe five sounds the same as when you have full length die set a little to large still and can't chamber a couple of newly loaded rounds but most chamber. Try full length sizing a couple, or if you can borrow a body die size the body of a couple of loaded reminds that wouldn't chamber.

I bet if you purchased the RCBS Precision Mic for your case, it would tell you straight away that your head to shoulder dimension is TOO LONG on some cases.
I used to believe if the die was set, it never needed adjusting, WRONG, as the brass hardens from firing and sizing, it resists the sizing because it wants to stay where it is and bounces back to close to it's original position.
The fix is to anneal the case necks/shoulder.
Unless you want to oversize your brass, .003" bump may take a .006" deflection to overcome the springback, then you will need to adjust the die as the brass gets harder.
My comp brass gets annealed after every firing, my hunting brass get annealed every 3rd firing.
The upside to this is that uniform neck tension enhances accuracy, as brass work hardens, neck tension actually gets less. So, you may start with nice neck tension that's uniform through all cases, but, it drops off over time and not the same between cases.
What DPCD said is right on the money.

Cheers.

The only time I had sized reloaded rounds that would not chamber is when the chamber of my rifle was cut too tight.That said I have used various makes of dies and handloaded for many rifles.

Its not uncommon for this to happen if the die doesn't return all cases to fit the chamber for several reasons..Most time you can file the top of the case holder so the cases go deeper into the die and size them just a bit more..I have fixed more than a few problems this way for folks and for myself..Shell holders are cheap so if you ruin one its no biggie..You can accocmplish the same by trimmed a couple of thousands off the bottom of the die but if you go to far you will ruin the die, thus the shell holder is the best bet..Id bet dollars to donuts that's the problem if your existing die is set to a very light bump at the end of the stroke, when this happens you only have a few cases out of a batch that won't feed so that can explain your case...worth a try.

quote:

Originally posted by p dog shooter:
neck might be to long

Yep! Trim the cases..

The OP did and that ain't the problem.

Anneal and full length size..It is not that unusual. jc

I toldya how to fix it. But I suggest you use some marker on the shoulder and body and run that round in the chamber as best you can, then eject it and check to see where the hang up is..I bet its on the shoulder and your chamber is ajust a tiny bit to long, so you file off a thousands at a time off the shell case holder and run the case in the die until it bumps lightly, then try it in your gun,keep doing that a little at a time until is seats with just a ever so tiny amount of snug.

Please don't be filing on your shell holder; it is probably too hard to file anyway. Send it it me and I will precisely face it off for you.

Sendero, Is this a new rifle? I ask because I rebarreled a Savage 11 from 243 to 250 Savage. I got the head space a bit snug. It would chamber and fire factory loads, it would also fire loads built on fresh factory brass ok. Resized brass not so much. Some case would chamber a bit hard, others ok.
After a bit of thought I used my sharpening stones to polish a bit off the shell holder, Size a sticky case, polish, try again till the sticky cases chambered ok. As long as I use this modified shell holder with these dies I have no issues. I keep this shell holder right in the box with the dies.
Leo