broke one of Bob Milek's rules the other day

[john keyes]

I remember poring over a big fat Lyman book when I started reloading twenty sumpin years ago. I was fascinated by Bob Mileks articles and he always had stories of mishaps and noob know it alls that backfired.  He had a picture of his son with an antelope and a caption that "my son killed this antelope and his rifles have never fired any factory ammo".  Man, I thought that was the coolest thing ever.  Anyway the artilce said to chamber some, maybe all, of your handloads at the house before you get out in the field.

Fast forward to 2011:  I bought a new to me .308 and was dying to shoot it.  since I work shift work I decided to pack up my stuff before work thursday night and when I got off at 0600 the next morning I would go to the ranch and shoot it!  I found some mounts in my garage, a Weaver K4,  and mounted the scope.  For ammo I had a big batch of speer 125 gr/H322 loads that I used for my savage 99.

well it was a stressful night an I was so glad thinking of a relaxing morning shooting.  0600 finally arrived and instead of going home, I headed to the range with a gorgeous sunrise.  I was the only one out there.  put the target stand up at 50 yds to start, sand bag rests laid down, little piece of carpet underneath, etc.

couldn't close the bolt on any of the rounds. I had the shoulders pushed back just perfect for the savage 99 and no more.    nothing to do pack up and go to the house.  broke out the RCBS precision mic for 30-06 that I put a spacer in and start comparing new brass and some odd factory ammo I had accumulated.  ended up pulling the decapper out of my sizing die and ran em all through just enough to chamber in the bolt gun.   


 

[jedman]

    I did the same thing once.  I have a Sig / Sauer bolt gun in 9.3 X 62 and had some brand new Norma brass.
Loaded a whole box full without sizing the cases and guess what ?   Same thing I couldnt even close the bolt on any of them.       Jed

[Tom W.]

I did it with my Colt Government model. I always run my handloads through the pistol to make sure they'll chamber.....except once last summer. I had cast some RNL bullets from a Lee mold, measured the finished rounds against some factory loads, got the same measurements, so off to do some plinking I went.


None of the rounds would chamber.


I had to re-seat all my rounds, then I checked for fit and function. And have continued to do so since..

[Savage]

Just want to throw this out there for those who might be loading for AR, or any other semi auto:
The only center fire rifles I own these days are AR/AK platform rifles. THE most important thing for me is that my ammo will function not only in all my rifles, but any other I might have occasion to use it in. To insure this, my third die is the Lee Factory Crimp die. If I were loading ammo that I would never need to use in but one rifle this third die would not be necessary. There are those who will tell you quickly that the FCD die in not required if the sizing & seating/crimp die is properly adjusted. They would be correct, IF all chambers in a given caliber were identical.  For hunting purposes and for use in one particular rifle, just chamber check all your loaded rounds prior to hitting the woods. For ammo that will be/might be used in more than one rifle, an auto loader, or for serious social situations, I'll perform that extra operation. Guess I should mention I also use small base sizing dies. Accuracy has not been a problem with this system. My ARs will shoot close to 1 MOA with my handloads, I have a couple that will do better than that.
Savage

[41 mag]

Similar thing happened to me on  hog hunt. I had purchased a big batch of once fired  factory 308 cases. I ran them through my standard die which was set up for this particular rifle. Loaded them all up with a nice 150gr CL and was ready for this hunt for sure. Got to the woods and got into a nice pack of 150 or so pound hogs, first round dropped one on the spot second locked up the action while trying to close the bolt.

Ended up out of 50 rounds about 15 were all that would chamber. After that I came home with my one hog, and pulled bullets, then promptly ordered a small base die.

I have used it since for any other range brass or cases that I acquired that have not been though this process. Not that it was a major let down as we ended up with plenty of hogs, but it sure did ruin my overall feeling about how it all started off. 

[jasonprox700]

I also did the same thing.  I bought a bunch of once fired .308 brass and went through and sized about 300 rounds.  I was doing some load testing out to my parents and I was not able to manually extract shells.  This was out of my DPMS AP4.  I polished the chamber, it helped, but I still had problems.  It crossed my mind that I may have not sized them enough, but I figured I should try a few.  I went home and sized some more brass, but this time I made sure I pushed the shoulder back enough.  Voilą!  Problem solved.  I then went and pulled the decapping pin out of the sizing die and resized everything again.  

It's one of those things that you learn by doing.  I screwed up, therefore I learned my lesson.  Luckily, this is the first time this has ever happened and it will be the last!  

[drdougrx]

Did the same thing with my .270 years ago, 1986 I think.  Loaded up some to take on a Canadian whitetail hunt and when I got into the woods the first morning, I'll be darned if I could get more than 5 rounds of the 30 I brought to chamber with force.  Serves me right for not checking ahead of time and I never forgot it....oh and to add insult to injury...my beloved wool hunting pants "miraculously" shrunk and could not be buttoned.....and I didn't getta deer.......

[Land_Owner]

my third die is the Lee Factory Crimp die

Do you trim to length each case too?

[Savage]

Land Owner,
You bet!  The cases can normally be fired several times without exceeding max length, but I run them all across the trimmer anyway. Frequently when picking up range brass I get brass other than mine in the mix. I check primer pockets for crimps as well.
Savage

[shot1]

I had something similar happen once. It was the first time that I had ever bought NEW CASES  . I had a new Rem 700 varmint in 243 Win caliber. I only had about 25 or 30 Rem cases that I had picked up at the range in the past. I had found the load I wanted to use for ground hogs with Nosler 75 gr solid base bullets. This was before the ballistic tip came along. I got a deal on a 100 bag of new nickle Rem. 243 cases. I had been loading for years and had never loaded new cases before and never thought that I needed to run them through a sizer die first. I loaded up 50 rounds and did notice when seating the bullets they seemed to seat a little stiff but nothing really hard. I went ground hog hunting a few days later. I loaded up the rifle and everything was OK. I went into the field and set up and watched a hill side across a pasture field and soon out popped this ground hog about 250 yards away. I lay down and set my homemade shooting rest and settled in and popped this ground hog. All of a sudden another one pops out of his hole and I go to cycle the bolt and chamber another round. It will not allow the bolt to close. I discovered that over half of the rounds had a slight bulge where the shoulder of the case meets the body of the case. The necks on the new cases were too tight and when seating a bullet before it would allow the bullet to start seating it would bulge the case at that point slightly. I learned really quick to ALWAYS RUN NEW CASES THROUGH A FL SIZING DIE.

I also found out the hard way not to seat bullets for a hunting rifle really close to the lands. I was measuring OAL from base to nose of the bullet. I was loading my bullets to just kiss the lands. I got a new box of bullets and loaded them up to the same OAL and used them to deer hunt with that year. Opening morning I get to the tree stand well before shooting hours and climb into the stand and then load my rifle. I sat in the stand till about 3 hours after shooting light and saw nothing. My body decided that it needed to get rid of the two cups of coffee I had for breakfast. When I open the bolt of my rifle to eject the round before I climbed down from the stand all I got out was the case missing the bullet. You guessed it, the bullet had a little different O-give than the other lot I had been shooting and it stuck in the bore and the powder from the case had dumped all down into my rifle. Guess what I did hot have with me. Yep! a cleaning road to poke the bullet out with. I had to drive 70 miles round trip back to where I was staying to get the cleaning rod and clean out my rifle and borrow my buddies loading room to seat my bullets deeper and then drive back to the hunting land for the late afternoon hunt.

[gypsyman]

I did the same thing. Had 40rd.s loaded for a Winchester .270 for an elk trip out west years back. Never got a shot, didn't like the way the Winchester shot, so sold it. Couple year ago, bought a Savage in that caliber figureing I already had dies,brass,bullets. First trip to the range, none of the stuff I had loaded for the Winchester fit. Only got to fire about 10 rds., as that was all I had full lenght sized. Pulled the bullets on the other 40, full lenght sized them, reloaded them, and they all went in and functioned/fired just fine. Just for peace of mind, went thru and F.L. sized all the .270 brass I had, just so I wouldn't waste another trip to the range. gypsyman

[Dand]

Thanks for the warning.  I'm loading up for a buffalo hunt in a month.  I better run every round thru the chamber before I leave - after putting everything out in the cold for a while.

Had a strange thing this Dec.  Using the exact same ammo from my Sept hunt (never shot anything), went out in 0 weather. When I went to chamber a round, I couldn't close the bolt. This same ammo had been thru the action several times before with no trouble in 25 to 55 degree weather. But in Dec. I could only close the bolt with no round in the chamber.

Finally after snapping the trigger on an empty chamber, I could close the bolt on the ammo. Only thing I can think of is that either a little snow drifted into the action early in the trip as I drove out of town on the snogo and may have iced something up before the gun was fully cooled off.

Or maybe I had more oil on the gun than I thought.  I know to keep the guns without oil in the cold - I've had other actions "freeze" from too much oil but that was at -20 or colder.

[Tom W.]

I loaded up 100 more .45 acp rounds today, and every one went through the chamber... I learned.....