Won't chamber after seating projectile

[dabeechman]

I will preface this by saying that I am new to reloading. I have done a lot of reading, and decided to start off with a Lee single stage press.

I am currently trying to reload .338 and since I am new, I wanted to chamber all of the resized cartridges before seating the projectiles. They all chambered very well, so I went and began adding powder/projectiles.

My problem though, is after seating the projectile to the OAL, about 30% of the rounds do not chamber without what I deem is excessive force.

What could be causing this?

Thanks in advance.

[Fordtrucks]

Exsessive COAL, ir ur bullet is hitting the lands.
Or ur case necks need turned.
Take a fired case and squez the neck just enough to hold a bullet loosely, then place a bullet in it by hand sticking way out and chamber slowly, now unchamber and be carefull that the ejector doesn't mess u up, and mic the CAOL. And use that as ur absolute max. U should load .002 lower or less than that reading.

[Dutch Henry]

Not a lot to go on here but if you're crimping the bullets, you are probably crimping too much and crushing or collapsing the shoulder of the case. Use your calipers to check the diameter of the shoulder and neck of the resized and loaded cartridges.

Try raising the seating die to decrease the crimp.

[drdarrin@sbcglobal.net]

You've provided enough info for some great speculation but a little more will help identify your issue.

You chambered every case after it was sized and you had no problems with any of them?
Did you crimp the bullets?
Did you trim all of these cases to the same length?
Was your seating/crimping die locked down?
Do all the cases have the same head stamp?

[LynnJr]

If the cases fit without any trouble before seating the bullets either the bullets are seated to long or the neck is now too thick.
If the gun is a factory gun the necks shouldn't be too thick but you can look at them and see if they have rub marks from tough chambering.
If its the bullets being seated too long the bullet will have land marks on it from the barrelthe easiest check for this would be to simply take a snug fitting round and seat the bullet 0.020 deeper and see if that solves the problem.
Bullets especially big 338 bullets have larger variances than smaller bullets.
Always seat your bullets using a comparator tool which attaches to a $10 caliper and your guns accuracy will improve greatly.

[Grunt81]

Since you're new to reloading, this is probably the only bullet you've ever used. I'm presuming you trimmed the brass to a uniform length? As other members have mentioned, you need to find out what the maximum OAL for each bullet is, when the ogive of the bullet is touching the grooves (rifling which engraves the bullet) of the barrel. Once you've determined this, substract a few thousandths of inch (I like to subtract 0.005 - 0.010") depending on experimentation for accuracy. Published data usually shows the shortest OAL you'd ever want to load. If you're anywhere near the minimum, the rounds should chamber fine.

Each time I get a new bulet, I seat a dummy round (no primer or powder) incrementally shorter until I can force the bolt closed by hand. If you mess up, and seat too short, then pull the bullet, resize the case, and start over. Another technique is to cut a slit on one side of the case mouth down towards the neck, so a bullet can go in and out with your hand. I like the first technique since there's enough neck tension on the bullet that it doesn't matter if the dummy round ejects harshly.

[Fjold]

Your seating die is adjusted down to far.

If the die is screwed in to far the mouth of the case hits the inside step in the die, pushing it back and causing the shoulder to bulge. Your only hitting the longest cases, that's why only a few are hard to chamber.

Screw your seating die out 1/4 of a turn and then readjust the seating stem to set the COAL.

[Divernhunter]

To add to the above adjust the seating die so NOT to crimp then seat the bullets so they do not touch the rifling. As Fjold said back the die up a bit then adjust the seating stem to insert the bullets to the needed depth.
You do not need to crimp the rifle cartridges. I load for 338Win mg and to not crimp. Never had a problem.

If you are located near me(the Modesto area) I can help you out and give you some good data for the 338Win mag. I do not have data for the 338Federal.

[Mirac]

Hope you dont mind me piggybacking..

I've got an issue with that on some 211 Fireball, bulged shoulders. Is there a way to salvage it without pulling all components ?

[drdarrin@sbcglobal.net]

OP must have moved on...

[Enfield47]

As others have stated, it's most likely your seating die causing the problem. Unscrew it a quarter turn than you should be fine. I had a similar issue happen to me and the seating die was the culprit.

I've got an issue with that on some 211 Fireball, bulged shoulders. Is there a way to salvage it without pulling all components ?

If you can get them to chamber, firing will fix it for you. As I stated above, I had 50 cases that had slightly bulged shoulders. I was able to chamber them in my Savage 99 and they worked just fine. If they won't chamber then you will need to pull them apart and resize the cases.

[LynnJr]

Here is a quick way to test wether your seating die is screwed down too far.
Pull a bullet out of a tight round and after dumping out the powder chamber it in the rifle.
If its still hard to chamber its most likely the seating die.

If it chambers easily its the seating depth

[Fjold]

Hope you dont mind me piggybacking..

I've got an issue with that on some 211 Fireball, bulged shoulders. Is there a way to salvage it without pulling all components ?

Pull the bullets, dump out the powder and then remove the decapping pin from the expander plug. Resize the brass case and you can reload the cartridge.

If the decapping pin won't come out of the expander plug, you're going to have to slowly press out the primer and throw it away as it will deform the primer anvil when you press it out. A safer way to do it is to spray a little oil in the flash hole to inert the primer prior to pressing it out but I usually just press them out slowly.

[Lucky Scott]

"Your seating die is adjusted down to far.

If the die is screwed in to far the mouth of the case hits the inside step in the die, pushing it back and causing the shoulder to bulge. Your only hitting the longest cases, that's why only a few are hard to chamber.

Screw your seating die out 1/4 of a turn and then readjust the seating stem to set the COAL."


__________________

So, the entire die get's screwed out about a 1/4 turn, and then the seating stem gets screwed in until the COAL is right, correct?

[Fjold]

So, the entire die get's screwed out about a 1/4 turn, and then the seating stem gets screwed in until the COAL is right, correct?

Yes