Question on reloading 308

[br2121]

just started reloading 308 and I'm having problems with the round not fully going into battery on my ar10. You pull the trigger and it just goes click. Then the round is really hard to get out. It happens around 10-15% of the time, always with federal brass. The factory federal cycles great. I'm using Lee dies. The OAL looks okay. And the brass has been trimmed to the proper length. I tried two different seating dies to see if that made a difference but it really didn't. Any suggestions will be appreciated.

[Timberwolf]

You need to full length resize with a small base die. That'll cure your problerm.

[The King]

1. Use the full length size die, not the collet size die. You might even invest in a small base sizing die.
next:
Check the shoulder of the loaded round. If it looks like padded shoulders it might be your seating die screwed in too far.

I use lee dies for my bolt action 308, nothing wrong with the product.

[joelogic]

Do you have a case gauge? Size a piece of brass and try to chamber it. Sounds like your sizing die may not be dialed in correctly if your test brass fails.

[br2121]

die

Thanks for the advice,
I just read up on small base dies. I think that will solve the problem. I've been using the Lee full length resizer die and it works good with the bolt gun but not so great on the semi-auto. I'll give it a shot.

[FLIGHT762]

Unless you're completely bottomed out with your F/L die, you should try to turn your sizing die down(in) just a bit more before you buy a small base die. I shoot 5.56 AR's and 308 SR-25. I don't find the need for small base dies, although years ago I bought them. My regular sizing dies work fine in the autoloaders.

Sometimes just a 1/16th turn or less of moving your sizing die in will do the trick.

Here's a recent thread discussing sizing.

http://www.calguns.net/calgunforum/showthread.php?t=366517

[bohoki]

my lee 308 dies load fine for my m1a

[J-cat]

You buckled the case by overcrimping. The case body is now wider than the chamber and the case is wedging itself in there. You can fix this with a body die.

[thai562]

Your problem might be at the shoulder of the round, it might be a little high in relation to the base. Use Lee FL die and push that dies all the way down until it made contact with the holder. If you buy used brass, use the FL dies after they been fire through your gun you can use the collet die. Remember not all chamber are the same size, when the round is fire the case will expand to fill the chamber of the rifle.

[slopoke]

I would get a .308 case gage like a previous poster said and if you are still having chambering issues then go get a small base die set. No need to overwork your brass with the small base die if the problem is that you are not bumping the shoulder back enough. You won't be wasting your money on the gages because it is something you need to use to properly set up your die. An example of a gage is the first url. The second is how to use the gage.

One tip is instead of eyeballing your case head to see if it is above the high step or below the low step, use a metal ruler and lay it across the case head and try to rock it from side to side with the ruler across both high steps, if it dose rock from side to side you need to screw the die in more. Then lay the ruler across the case head and see if it rocks from side to side on the low step if it dose rock on the low step but not the high step, you are in business.

http://www.dillonprecision.com/#/content/p/9/pid/25547/catid/3/Dillon_Rifle_Case_Gages

http://www.dillonhelp.com/manuals/english/Accessory-Manual-May-2007.pdf