308 win problem

[pdg929]

hey guys i have a question i have a rem 700 sps in 308. my uncle gave me some military surplus rounds for it. they would load fine but would not eject. so me and my uncle pulle all the bullets and he had once fired 308 brass there so we resized the brass and tranferred the powder and the bullets and now i went to load them in the gun and now the bolt will fully close but not lock. now my uncle has been loading for years and im jus starting and we cant figure out what the issue could be do you guys have any ideas...factory brass loads fine

[soundguy]

did the once fired come from that gun?

did you check trim length?

[Alpo]

If I'm deciphering that correctly

You have some 7.62 NATO ammo and are shooting it in your 308 bolt gun, but the fired cases will not eject. The ammo fires fine, but the cases will not eject.

You have some commercial 308 brass. You resize the commercial brass, prime it, pull the bullets on the NATO ammo, pour the powder charge from the NATO ammo into the primed commercial brass and seat the NATO bullet.

Now, when loading them into your 308 bolt gun the round will chamber, the bolt will close, but the bolt handle will not go down?

Two things come to mind.

The commercial brass is once fired. Possibly the resizing die you used to resize this brass was not set up correctly, and therefore did not completely resize the case, and this prevents it from completely entering the chamber, and with it not all the way in, the bolt won't close.

The bullet could be seated out too far. When the round is chambered the bullet is pushing against the rifling, which could also prevent the round from completely entering the chamber, and again, the bolt won't close.

[pdg929]

@soundguy no it was not fired from that gun and yes case length was within spec

@alpo yes you are correct we resized them twice cause this happened before but this time we took the depriming pin out and resized them again but, overall bullet length was correct i also painted the bullet with a marker to see if i could see where it was rubbing to see if it was rubbing any where i did not see anything ....its just a pain because its close to 100 rounds

[soundguy]

roll crimp to agressive and not allowing it to enter the chamber fully?

[soundguy]

as a side question.. do you have a mic or neck gauge to check the case dimensions?

any damage at the shoulder?

[jbrescue]

Was the once fired brass fired from a semi-auto rifle? The should could have shifted and won't chamber into a tighter bolt chamber.

[soundguy]

speaking of picky chambers.. I was given a bunch of old 30-30 brass, many times fired.. etc. some were primed empties. i wanted to deprime before working on them.. none would chamber in my savage 340 bolt gun.. most WOULD chamber in my marlin 336 less picky chamber.. etc...

[pdg929]

@ sound guy didnt crim the bullet it would roll the neck into the case and did not see any damage, we use a caliper to do the measurements

@jb rescue i dont know what it was fired from.....

could it just be a finiky chamber?

[soundguy]

just to be clear.. you did no crimping at all?

[jbrescue]

I know that some of the 700 chambers are pretty tight for tactical use and accuracy. If it was fired in a M-14, for example, it could have elongated and will never be able to chamber correctly in your gun.

[cycloneman]

Originally Posted by pdg929

hey guys i have a question i have a rem 700 sps in 308. my uncle gave me some military surplus rounds for it. they would load fine but would not eject. so me and my uncle pulle all the bullets and he had once fired 308 brass there so we resized the brass and tranferred the powder and the bullets and now i went to load them in the gun and now the bolt will fully close but not lock. now my uncle has been loading for years and im jus starting and we cant figure out what the issue could be do you guys have any ideas...factory brass loads fine

I bet the sizing die is not installed correctly. I take it you are full length sizing? Well you have to be if that brass was not shot out of your rifle. Ok take your full length sizing die out and follow the instructions for installation to the TEE. Exactly as it says and try again. When this happens to me my sizing die lock has come out of adjustment and i must restart. Good idea to do so anyway. Your problem sounds all to common to me and I believe this is what you need to do. Your brass neck is not positioned just right. A case gage is also a great tool for this kind of stuff. Buy yourself one and check each and every case before you proceed to charging the case.


One more thing. YOu may have a short chamber in that rifle. Maybe just maybe but probably not. Anyway if you do you can order a special full length sizing die from lee to the short end of the tolerance. I have a rilfe like that and i special ordered one from lee. Was not expensive and only took about 2 weeks. Comtact Lee dierctly and speak to someone over there if all of the above does not help.

[soundguy]

ditto on the case gauge.. very usefull....

[cycloneman]

Here is the senero. YOu have the sizing die set with the lock ring. YOu use it here and there and years go buy and you simply run the die into the press untill it hits the lock ring. Well eventually you will loose your adjustment. You must install that die to specification and relock the ring each and every time you use it. Failure to do so is what causes these types of problems. I bet money on it. I have seen it too many times.

[Alpo]

Try this.

Size a piece of that brass and see if it will chamber and the bolt lock.

Not a loaded cartridge. Just a resized piece of brass.

[pdg929]

thanks guys for the advice i will try it when i go to my uncles again really appriciated

[cycloneman]

Keep us posted I am interested

[medalguy]

I'd put my money on the brass not being properly sized, and the shoulder is not set back correctly. Get a case gauge, don't reload without one.

Oh yeah, like most of us found out a long time ago, size and check a few pieces of the brass before you load a lot of ammo. Saves a lot of aggravation.

[soundguy]

saves wear and tear on that kinetic puller..

[pdg929]

i will let you know what we come up with when i go over my uncles

[pdg929]

whelp guys we remesured everything everything checked so we marked one with a marker and seen it was hittin around the shoulder so we bought a new sizing die and re did one case put it in the chamber and it worked so i guess we got a bad die...how often does that happen

[soundguy]

just curious.. die set manufacturer?

[pdg929]

lyman

[soundguy]

interesting... old or new?

[pdg929]

it was an older set but never used