Hey guys,

Just a few questions here. I just finished up my first rifle reloads. They were all chambered in .308 for a browning BBR. Components were as follows:

1. Win. Brass
2. Win. WLR primers
3. Varget/2520 (seperate loads) 41gr,42gr,43gr,44gr ea.
4. Sierra 165gr. SPBT

Upon completion of the work I went to the range to send some metal flying. To my dismay a few of the rounds would not chamber. Out of 40 total rounds 5 would not chamber and I was not able to fire.

What caused this? All of the cases were tumbled, full length sized, trimmed, deburred, camferred, tumbled again, washed, and loaded to O.A.L of 2.790.

Overall I was pretty happy with the results. At 50 yards both powders at 42 grains produced the same result of all five holes touching eachother. The others surprisingly the results were not as good. They produced 1.5-2.5 inch groups (I am not impressed with this at 50 yards). I am wondering if the gun was getting fouled. Is this Possible? How often should I scrub the barrel? Between how many shots?

Thanx,
Markhpb

I assume all the cases where new? if they where used, make sure they are going all the way into the sizing die and that the shoulder is in the right place.

Take a fired case and partialy seat a bullet in it, chamber, and remove it, being careful to not let the bullet stick on the lands. it does not hurt to chamber it a several times if you have doubts. Compare its length to what you are seating the bullets to, the dummy round should be approx .020 longer or even more. Make sure you use the same bullet as you load. This brute force method of checking head space is fairly fool proof for quick and dirty verification. Even if you use another method of checking head space, I still recomend doing this as a safety check.

Make sure you are fully raising the ram on your press, I make sure the handle goes down with a solid thump.

And last but not least, make sure you are properly crimping the bullet. If the bullet is not crimped and loaded into a magazine, recoil can cause the bullets to creep out of the cases causing them to not chamber.

2.790 in under max OAL but not by alot.

Take a permanent marker, mark the round that will not chamber. Try to chamber the round.

Where does the marker rub off?

quote:

Joshua43214

Joshua43214,

The reason for the length is not my choice, but rather that is the longest OAL that will fit in the mag. As I am trying to find the most accurate loads for hunting, I want them to chamber from the mag.

Thanx,
Markhpb

ddunn,

I will try that and let you know.

Mark

Joshua43214,

The Lyman manual I have been using stated the max OAL for .308 is 2.810. The length of the mag. is 2.797 inside. I know that you said I wouldn't be able to place the longer rounds in the magazine, but here are the measurments of my bore.

Sierra 165gr SPBT cantacts the lands at an OAL of 2.911

Nosler 165 BT contacts the lands at 3.030

these seem to be a little long just by looking at them. Is there something wrong with this picture or my gun?

new or fired brass????
like was stated make sure when full lengh resizing that the case goes all the way up. also use enough lube on the inside of the necks so the decapper does not pull the sholder back out.
may want to clean the chamber real good if its a semi auto, if you are crimping an over crimp may cause the neck to buldge if the bullets were hard to set they could be causing a buldge just below the sholder,.
Dave

I didn't see that anyone had mentioned that you may need a small base die (if you did, forgive me).

If you crimped the bullets, that will sometimes put a wrinkle in the neck that will prevent easy chambering.

quote:

Originally posted by Markhpb:
Joshua43214,

The Lyman manual I have been using stated the max OAL for .308 is 2.810. The length of the mag. is 2.797 inside. I know that you said I wouldn't be able to place the longer rounds in the magazine, but here are the measurments of my bore.

Sierra 165gr SPBT cantacts the lands at an OAL of 2.911

Nosler 165 BT contacts the lands at 3.030

these seem to be a little long just by looking at them. Is there something wrong with this picture or my gun?

The difference in length is just a nice demonstration of why verifying headspace with the same bullet you are firing is so important. its all a matter of the shape of the ogive rather than where the tip is. Nothing at all wrong with the gun, it only means that if you are sold on the bullet being in contact or near contact with the lands, you will have to use a spire point to do it.

I did not say that the round would not fit in the mag if too long, I was saying that if the bullet was not crimped well, the bullets in the magazine can creep out of the case from recoil. My thinking was that perhaps it was the last or near last round in the mag that was not loading and maybe it was caused by bullet creep. I have heard stories of bullets coming entirely out of cases and dumping the powder load into the mag.

I like the other 3 posters thoughts alot as well. Keep us posted on what you find.