.308 Help!

[tomzuki]

Bought a new one in .308.  New set of Redding dies.  Picked up some (50) range cases.  Full length sized, trimmed and primed. after loading 150 gr. Remingtons none would chamber.  Pulled all, and resized, trimmed, and reloaded. None would chamber.  Some of the primers looked a little high which would effect O.A.L. pulled all and re-set primers on the press instead of a Hornady hand held priming tool.  Only two chambered.  Cases are within spec., O.A.L. is spec. primers are now all flush.  I'm out of answers.  If all cases were different I could understand, but this seems to have too little variables to solve.  Any comments from you ?

[huntswithdogs]

Have you tried any factory stuff in it yet? You didn't say what kind of 308 it is. Some of the semi-autos, like the Remington, needed small base dies to make reloads work in them. My wife has a Browning in 243WSSm that I've had the worst time getting reloads to chamber in. I finally had to turn the sizing die in so far that the ram hits the bottom of the die at the full up stroke. Hornady rep had told me I wasn't setting the shoulder back far enough. I started with one case and kept screwing the die down until the bolt would close easily. It worked for me. You may check on yours to see if this part of your problem.


HWD

[Coyote Hunter]

Bought a new one in .308.  New set of Redding dies.  Picked up some (50) range cases.  Full length sized, trimmed and primed. after loading 150 gr. Remingtons none would chamber.  Pulled all, and resized, trimmed, and reloaded. None would chamber.  Some of the primers looked a little high which would effect O.A.L. pulled all and re-set primers on the press instead of a Hornady hand held priming tool.  Only two chambered.  Cases are within spec., O.A.L. is spec. primers are now all flush.  I'm out of answers.  If all cases were different I could understand, but this seems to have too little variables to solve.  Any comments from you ?

A couple of comments here, the first two about safety.

You mention picking up ‘range brass’.  As a reloader I’m always cautious about doing that unless I talk to the shooter and confirm it is new brass.   The problem with old brass is you don’t know how many times its been reloaded or to what pressures.  I’ve seen guys discard well-used brass by simply not picking it up.  Early loads for my 7mm Rem Mag (back in 1982) gave me case head separations after only 4-5 firings.  Backing off a little on the powder, with no other changes, raised that number to 18.  The brass history is important.

Also, brass from different manufacturers will have different internal capacities.  If you are loading up to maximums then you need to develop the loads individually for each type of brass.  Even if loading to lower pressures, do not expect mixed brass to give optimum results in the accuracy department.  I pick up a lot of new brass at the range but brass of the wrong type gets given or traded away.

Finally, check your brass before loading any bullets.  It should chamber easily.  If not something is wrong.  In a bolt action, the most likely culprit is the shoulder is too far forward and needs to be set back.

Start by full-length sizing the brass.  Your die should contact the shell holder just before the ram hits the top of the stroke.  There should be a gentle camming action after contact as the ram rises the last few thousandths of an inch. 

You don’t mention it you fired any factory ammo.  I’d give that a try, too.  If it doesn’t chamber you have a problem not related to your reloading procedures.  The fired brass should rechamber pretty easily as well.

If factory ammo chambers and full-length resized brass does not, you may have a problem with your dies.  There are multiple ways to fix this but I would contact the manufacturer and ask for replacement dies.  Otherwise you can grind down the shell holder or the bottom of the die.



 

[jhalcott]

  I had a 22-250 rebarreled and MY old brass would not allow the bolt to close I checked and the brass was within specs .I turned the die in till it hit the shell holder at the end of the stroke. This saved quite a few cases for me. but I still had about 20 of 500 that were no go's. Factory ammo fits perfectly as does new component brass. I am leery of "range" brass also.I like to know the history of my components.

[Duckdog]

I would look at the sizing die adjustment.  It sounds like the chamber is a bit tight and you may need to make sure your sizing the entire case to "new brass" specs.

I just went through the same thing on a Rossi 308 and that's exactly what the problem was.

I have also run into it on my 7.62 x 25 TOK pistols and have just found a sizing die adjustment that fits in all of them.

I  also load lots of range brass, and have never had one give me grief that I have not been able to cull out of the lot by looking carefully at them.

Good Luck!

[warrior1]

a wild guess, is that redding die a neck sizer die. if it is that's your problem. get a full length sizer die
and resize the brass , it should fit. if it is an automatic get small base sizer die.  again ,you did not mention the gun you are shooting, but if it is the new 308 marlin lever action, i believe that case is a bit different size than the 308 win. good luck dan

[SteveADK]

"Range Brass".  How much money have you wasted in bullets, powder, and primers?  New brass is not that much.  Does the case chamber in the gun after sizing, before loading?  If you can't get it to chamber after sizing it there is no reason to go any further.    I had the same problem as huntswithdogs, with my 25 WSSM.

[tomzuki]

Thanks for your comments.  I can see that an old dog can learn a-new.  I've been reloading for decades, seen and solved many problems as all chambers are unique, one of a kinds.  This was especially frustrating as I did want to go to the range this weekend. You see, the range out here in Kali-Fornia is about one hours drive, so you make a day of it, and shoot all you like.  Sometimes I bring a sack lunch and always something to drink ( Especially in the Summer when its very hot).  Maybe six or seven rifles to shoot and handguns for more fun. 

I shot a couple of boxes of store bought cartridges in this bolt action, and yes there were some empties that I picked up.  Please dont forget the first chore of reloading is to inspect the cases, before even cleaning them. You dont want to waste time or money on something that wont work for you.  The factory case primers when shot had really flat primers, so I thought that I had a pressure problem.  This was factory stuff, so it was probably loaded conservative and it concerned me that the primers were so worked.  I used copper remover cleaning solution that I like for all my rifles.  You let it soak in the barrel over night and all the green flushes out afterwords.  So I know that the chamber and barrel were clean as a whistle.

Because I shoot alot, I tend to use bulk bullets for sighting in and shooting paper, and switch to a premium bullet (mostly Speer G.S.) for hunting.  For this I was using a Remington 150 gr. S.P.. If it has a crimping groove I tend to use it so I set this up to crimp.  Well after these several attempts I backed off the die not to crimp, and left the O.A.L. to Max.  You know, son-of-a-gun if after this they all slid right in!  Something in this Bolt Action didn't like the crimp.  So I'll see how it shoots next time out.

P.S. Note to SteveADK, Ya do know that you can remove the projectile from a cartridge w/o firing??  Just buy yourself an inertia bullet remover.  Saves lots of powder and bullets for re-work when you can pull them.  I'm sure you've seem these in the catalogs and magazines.

[Duckdog]

Tomzuki,

Now that you mention it, I have also seen where the crimp from the seating die has caused some trouble.  If I remember right, I also backed off on the crimp and got a factory crimp die, as I do personally like something of a crimp.

As far as the flattened primers, i shoot lots of reduced cast loads at reduced pressures, and some primers just flatten out.  case being, I just loaded some 7.62x39 cast bullets in the 17,500 psi range and the Wolf primers that I was using looked flat.  I am sure that they are just made of a softer material, as I had no other pressure signs and also had a nice black ring around the case mouth from the low pressure.

I am like at least some people, as I can not walk by a bunch of brass and see if they are worth picking up.  In fact, I hope no one else pick em up, so there's more for me!  Here in northern Wisconsin, we're pretty lucky as we can shoot almost anywhere. There's a county range just thought the woods from me, but I still shoot in one of the many gravel pits, should the mood strike me.  It would really suck having to drive an hour to shoot.

[huntswithdogs]

 You probably had your crimp set too tight and the necks were bulging right behind the crimp. I'm surprised to hear that you were crimping shells for a boltgun. Most of us only use the friction between the bullet and shell to hold the bullets. Guys that I know that crimp rifle shells are generally shooting a lever action or an auto of some type.

Glad you got it fixed though.

HWD