i picked up a used BAR in .270... safari II... nice steel-receiver rifle...a friend loaded a few 150 gr sp's to try it out... he was telling me that the bolt did not want to close completely, but would with a little more bump... at first i thought it might be that he was feeding it by just dropping a shell in the receiver and not letting the bolt pick it up.. and that the extractor was keeping it open... he made some dummies up and it still was not closing completely... i think i'm goning to need small base dies to make it work...any other BAR shooters want to chime in???.. thanks..jim

quote:

Originally posted by jimatcat:
i picked up a used BAR in .270... safari II... nice steel-receiver rifle...a friend loaded a few 150 gr sp's to try it out... he was telling me that the bolt did not want to close completely, but would with a little more bump... at first i thought it might be that he was feeding it by just dropping a shell in the receiver and not letting the bolt pick it up.. and that the extractor was keeping it open... he made some dummies up and it still was not closing completely... i think i'm goning to need small base dies to make it work...any other BAR shooters want to chime in???.. thanks..jim

Doubt you need SB dies. I've loaded for a lot of semis, including that one, and never found SB dies necessary. One of two things are causeing your problem; cases aren't trimmed or the headspace is tighter in the rifle chamber than the dies are sizing the cases to. The solution to the first is obvious; trim the cases. The solution to the second is to chuck the FL die in a lathe and remove a small amount from the bottom of the case. This will allow the shoulder to be set back further. I wouldn't take off more than .003" without trying cases sized in die. A better long range solution is to get the RCBS X-die and use it. You won't need to trim cases then and case life is extended.

Larry Gibson

Ive loaded for one or two BARs, If I use my Lee dies, which I sent back for adjustment today, Id have some rounds that would not chamber completely, happened to my bro-in-law with his 7400 06. Once I got Redding dies, the factory fit was back. So no, SB dies are not needed, Regular redding dies work just fine, stay away from Lee for loading autos. Course, they are going to adjust my 06 and 270 dies free of charge, we'll see how they work when I get them back.

Did the brass he used come from that rifle, or from another rifle?
How do factory rounds feed?
Rounds that were previously fired in another rifle may be to oversized in the base area to allow tham to chamber in your rifle.

BTW, the "small base" dies are the same as regular dies EXCEPT for the entry radius at the mouth. The only part of the case they work that a regular die dosn't is the area of the expansion ring (that's where the "base" of a cartridge case is). IOW they size the case a little closer to the shell holder than a regular die does.

i'll clarify some on what i've got... the BAR looks nice...havent checked the chamber with a borescope yet, but i will...the brass is once fired range pick-up, remington... i don't know what dies jim is using to load for me... and i don't think he checked the OAL... i'll look into the x-die from rcbs...

I've loaded for several auto loaders both Browning & Remington. If the cases were originally fired in that rifle you can usually get away with std dies. If you are using brass fired in another rifle get yourself a set SB dies and save a whole lot of headaches.

It's my 3rd BAR and I can say that they have short, tight chambers; I always had to "shorten" the FL sizing die by grinding 0.1-0.2 mm from the bottom. You can first try to screw the sizing die a max. to avoid any play between the shell holder and the die, then try to carefully chamber a couple of sized brass; if the bolt doesn't close easily, you have to shorten the die a little to push the shoulder back. No need of SB or other "strange" dies IMO.

P.S. Carefully clean the chamber and the bolt head before everything else.

You do not need SB dies. It's a factory chamber.

I found two things for SB dies. My Sako in 308 likes SB used for reloads avery 3 loads or so. I use the 308 SB dies on Military LC 7.62 cases to prep the cases to go in the 358 Winchester dies. Then I never seem to have problems in the Savage 99. I don't seem to need the SB in the mini-14 or Garand in '06. Good luck. Packy

Because shell holders are cheaper than dies, I would prefer to take off the small amount needed off the SHELL HOLDER.

And mark it carefully.

Also one SH might then be useable for semi´s in 270, 06, ... you get the point!

H

I have had a couple remingon7400 and the only way to get them to feed reliably was to use small base dies.