Need some help, very confused, trying to load some hammer hunters

[longrangebob]

Just gave Quik look - so do not know if this was mentioned -- so, if brass is proper length, if shoulder is set back, if case has been full sized --
Is the dimension in front of the BELT correct ??
I know it sounds like you haven't fired the brass enuff to cause the expansion I'm speaking to - BUT check the cases that won't chamber easily & Smoothly when empty -- if you have some that won't -- check that dimension!! It may be the brass expanded too much there or dimension of those is too much !!!

That is a problem that will develop with repeated firings of belted Magnums --- Larry Willis has a die that will fix that !!!

LRB (been loading my 300Winny since 1974 & after a time, you just have to replace some brass !!! But I think that should be way too soon for you)

 

[longrangebob]

LRB again -- are you feeding primed brass that you have emptied?? If you are doing a lot of feeding & checking - consider removing the firing pin -- just saying !!!

 

[Wieslaw Blonski]

The Nosler brass I'm using is once fired that I resized and chamfered and deburred. Anybody have any ideas? I'm kind of at a loss and standstill. I guess I could try using some Hornady brass(I'd rather not).

Try larry willis belted magnum collet resizing die! WWW.LARRYWILLIS.COM
I had exactly same problem-no more!

 

[jimma123]

View attachment 121797 View attachment 121796 Alright guys quick back story: recently bought a browning x-bolt long range in 300 win mag with a 1-8 twist. Shot about 15 rounds through it following Browning's barrel break in procedure. Just used cheap 180 grain federals. Gun shot fine.
I've now taken some measurements using my Hornady oal gauge and 181 grain hammer hunters. I'm using the Hornady modified case and 30 cal insert so my measurements are base too give. I've came up with 2.952 base to ogive.
Went to reload some of these sweet hammer hunters, started about .080 of the lands so they would load out of my magazine and made sure they would load out of the magazine, all good. But my problem is the bolt will not close. Feels like the bullet is contacting the lands. I kept seating the bulllets deeper and deeper and was checking to see if I could get the bolt to close. I have to seat the bullet at 2.760 to be able to close the bolt. I'm using Nosler brass. What is going on? I'm very confused. I double checked my measurements again and have the same base to ogive measurements using the Hornady oal gauge. Please help I don't know what is going on. I've included pictures to show what I'm describing. Full disclosure: I've only been reloading for about a year, so I'm by no means an expert. Thanks in advance.

 

[jimma123]

Did you use the same bullet to make the measurement or the cheaper brand , not saying the cheaper bullet is of poor quality. but the comparators don't measure the same as the exact bullet diameter .

 

[cajun]

I would get a hornady headspace comparator as mentioned and measure a fired case versus resized. If you have a spent 9mm case you can use that in a pinch. Also the case head above the belt looks pretty rough. Hard to tell.

 

[Ted Sierocinski]

Yes it chambers also. I might have just figured out what the problem is. I just tried a bunch more of my resized pieces of brass and discovered about 1/3-1/2 wont chamber or chamber very difficult. But I still have no idea what to do or what's causing this? Is it my resizing die? Almost new rcbs. And I used Hornady one shot for lube.

 

[Ted Sierocinski]

Try adjusting your dies to maximize the depth to which the case will go in and the try rechambering them while they are not loaded. If they chamber and later won't chamber with the bullet seated, then you may have neck diameter issues

 

[Ted Sierocinski]

Also check the bullet diameter.

 

[Wieslaw Blonski]

Guys just go to www.larrywillis.com there's yours answer!

 

[truck driver]

You really should sacrifice a case fired in your rifle to use with the comparator since it will have the proper chamber dimensions for your rifle. Using the Hornady case will get you close but no cigar.
I do believe if you send them a case fired in your chamber they will drill and tap it to fit the comparator tool and this might the way to go for you.
Also get a #10-35 bushing so you can measure your cases off the datum line to see just how much your setting the shoulder back.
If you notice in my pictures I only set my shoulders back .0005" to reduce case stretch and ware, one case is sized and the other isn't.
Also if you notice the set screw which holds the bushing leaves a rough gouge on the bushing which cause the the bushing to be off set.
I lightly stone the tip of the set screw to get ride of the burr that causes this and make sure the dial on my caliper is set to zero with the bushing install and the caliper closed on the bushing.

 

[BeaverHunter]

This has been said earlier, but I want to emphasize that comment for clarity.

It's NEVER a good idea to chase two problems at the same time. You will end up chasing your tail.

I would stick with using one brass that fits "easily" to debug the seating problem, then deal with the sizing problem later. You can (and should) sacrifice one good brass to do this. Cut the OAL short intentionally to make sure that brass length isn't the issue. I'd take maybe 0.025 off the length of the neck. This will not affect seating depth as long as the bullet still reaches the neck.

This brass should be a once fired brass that fits easily (bolt closes) with no bullet in it.

Now put a tiny little dent in the edge of the neck at the mouth with a needle nose plier. The purpose of the dent is to hold a bullet in place but not so firmly that it can't be pushed in by hand. Make sure the case will still fit before inserting the bullet.

Now push a bullet into the brass just enough so the bullet is held in place by the dent, and then manually insert the brass and bullet into the chamber and carefully close the bolt, then extract the round using your fingers to hold the round aligned with the bore as the bolt is slid open to make sure the extractor doesn't whack the bullet against the action port opening. And then examine the overall length and compare with what you learned before.

This is the basic method that was used before the stoney point gauge was introduced. (I love the hornady/stoney system but sometimes you have to go back to basics).

You may have to repeat this process several times to make sure that the bullet isn't sticking in the lands.

Sometimes I use a long wooden dowel down the barrel to help push the bullet out with the case as I open the bolt or lextract the case. This is especially true if I am "jamming" the bullet seating depth.

A few other points - I make all my own overall length gauge cases out of once fired brass. You can buy the required tap on line. The rest is easy.

Digital calipers can lie..... The old verniers were hard to read, but they never lied. Dial calipers fall somewhere in the middle.

For your purposes, I'd forget about using the ogive bushing system for measurement. Just measure the full overall length from case head to bullet tip. Bullets do vary slightly from one to the next using tip length, but not enough to matter for your purposes debugging this problem.

One last thought - are you sure you understand that ogive measurements can vary wildly from one bullet make to another? I hope you are not comparing the ogive measurement for two different bullets. I re-read your first several posts but could not convince myself that you were not doing that, so I thought it was worth clarifying. For example, I can easily see a full tenth or two difference between a Berger vld and a Hornady spire point. I even saw a difference of 50 thou once on two sierra bullets of the same part number but different lots. This ogive measurement only really applies within a single lot of the same bullet. Changing to a new lot generally requires checking the length over again and then "hoping" that nothing changes.

There is a lot to take in here on this thread now. Especially since I'm not a seasoned vet at reloading.
To respond to a few of you guys at once here goes:
1. The brass I'm using is once fired Nosler brass
2. The brass was fired in a different 300 win mag than I'm currently trying to reload for
3. The oal measurements I've been taking have been using a 181 hammer hunter from the same lot I'm using to reload.
4. I'm full length resizing because this is a hunting gun and have always understood full length resizing makes it less likely to have issues like this
5. I've only been reloading for about a year so some of the headspacing/more technical questions are kind of going over my head
6. You guys have all been very helpful and I can't say thank you to you all enough!

 

[BeaverHunter]

I have to work today so I won't be able to get home and try and figure out whats going on until later tonight but here is what I'm thinking about trying, tell me what you guys think.
1. I might have more than one problem but until I get the brass issue figured out, no reason to mess with the oal issue
2. Im going to chamber a piece of empty resized brass and compare that to one that wont chamber and see/measure where the differences are.
3.I'm going to try and seat my resizing die a little deeper and see if the brass will chamber(on the pieces that wont chamber)
4. If number 2 or 3 doesn't work, I'll try developing this load with brand new brass(which in hindsight is probably what I should have done to begin with)
4. If none of that works, I'll give up on reloading all together, admit I'm an idiot to my wife(who I convinced buying all this reloading stuff would save me money), sell all my reloading stuff for 50 cents on the dollar and go back to paying $50-$90 a box of ammo.
Obviously I'm kidding about number 4 but this has been pretty frustrating and I can't say it enough, THANK YOU to everybody that has commented on this thread.
What do you guys think about my plan of attack?

 

[bigngreen]

Your doing fine, don't let the learning process frustrate you, take one issue at a time and focus on that till it's solved then move to the next.