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hard to chamber 30-06 loads - 165 gr, Accubonds
yukon100jack
Member Posts: 51 ✭✭
I ran into a strange situation yesterday... after loading 50 rounds of 165 grain Accubonds into RP cases with a COL of 3.335 inches, approximately 15 rounds were difficult or impossible to chamber. When it came time to close the bolt, I encountered moderate to very significant resistance in closing the bolt. I removed the difficult round to find abrasion marks on ONE side of the bullet which indicated contact with the rifling. What would cause that??? I pulled the bullets and reseated them again. About 12 would not chamber again. I believe the problem is either a bad RCBS die (which has worked with lots of other bullet types), a bad batch of Accubonds, or some bad RP cases which have been once or twice at most. Has anyone out there had a similar exeperience and/or found a solution to this problem????
Comments
Try some of the hulls in the chamber after you have pulled the bullet! I would guess that it's the hulls due to the bullet seating die body setting being just a little too far downward! Try backing off the bullet seating die body a 1/2 turn, if it's the hulls that are tight! Also make sure that your hulls are trimmed with-in specs! If some hulls are slightly longer than others and your seating die is set at the critical point, some hulls will slightly enter the crimp stage and may result in a slightly swelled shoulder on the brass and cause snug chambering when tested!
What you mention is not un-common when re-loading 06 brass! another guy has a similar thread in the forum!
This is not your problem, just additional info for 30/06's below!
Also some 30/06 reloaders are not aware of the Headspace gauge FOR RELOADED BRASS SIZING!
Also for 30/06 calibers their is a Hull headspace gauge FOR RELOADING!
THIS IS NOT the chamber headspace gauges for checking the rifle! It's for checking the brass to make sure it's not oversized (the shoulder pushed back too far)
Anyone loading for 30/06's should use one of the headspace hull gauges when setting up their sizing die! You can actually OVERSIZE 30/06 brass (push the shoulder back too far) if the sizing die is screwed in too tight! This oversizing can result in a VERY dangerous situation, whereas for example the rifleman opens the bolt to extract the LAST ROUND and nothing is extracted, so he thinks the rifle is empty and the oversized case is still in the chamber because the extractor did not REACH OVER the rim of oversized (shoulder of brass pushed back too far) LOADED HULL for ejecting!
After reading the replies and doing some experimentation the problem has been solved! The problem was with the bad RP case; they wouldn't chamber when empty which indicated a neck that had been pushed back or altered in some way when when re-sized. I tossed out the bad ones and replaced them with better cases. The bullets seated well and the loaded cartridges cycled through the bolt action flawlessly. From now on I will pay more attention to the brass before loading and even cycle a few through the chamber before charging and seating. Thanks to all who replied!
You have me a bit concerned. If you are throwing away cases it can get expensive! I would resize the "bad" cases, that would remove the issue with a pushed back shoulder.
If you are shooting these cases several times a neck annealing may be needed too. If you do a search on neck annealing there are several threads on the subject.
It sounds like you have your seating die set very close to a critical spot. If the case is just a few thousandths longer the die will shove the shoulder back when seating the bullet, making chambering hard or impossible. I would definitely back the seating die out by 1/2 turn to reduce the chance of it happening again.
quote:Originally posted by yukon100jack
After reading the replies and doing some experimentation the problem has been solved! The problem was with the bad RP case; they wouldn't chamber when empty which indicated a neck that had been pushed back or altered in some way when when re-sized. I tossed out the bad ones and replaced them with better cases. The bullets seated well and the loaded cartridges cycled through the bolt action flawlessly. From now on I will pay more attention to the brass before loading and even cycle a few through the chamber before charging and seating. Thanks to all who replied!
You have me a bit concerned. If you are throwing away cases it can get expensive! I would resize the "bad" cases, that would remove the issue with a pushed back shoulder.
If you are shooting these cases several times a neck annealing may be needed too. If you do a search on neck annealing there are several threads on the subject.
It sounds like you have your seating die set very close to a critical spot. If the case is just a few thousandths longer the die will shove the shoulder back when seating the bullet, making chambering hard or impossible. I would definitely back the seating die out by 1/2 turn to reduce the chance of it happening again.
Normally when this tight chambering happens to hulls, you would do the following to correct the brass INSTEAD OF THROWING IS OUT! REMEMBER THAT IT HAS LIVE PRIMERS IN THE HULL!
Wear safety glass's, pull the bullet, dump the powder, take the decapping pin out of the Full length sizing die, (this prevents pushing out live primers which can ignite) slightly lube the INSIDE of the case neck and the outside of the hull! I use a lightly oiled cotton swab and lightly lube inside the neck of every other case. This helps prevent the hang squeak of the sizing die neck spud distorting the shoulder of the hull as it's being pulled back out of the case, which can also cause your issue! (30/06 rifles headspace off of the front shoulder of the case)
Then full length resize the case, remove oil from outside of case and make a test fit in the rifle chamber!