7.62 .308 FTE help!

[TheWalkingDead]

I went to the range over the weekend to shoot some reloaded 175smk.
1 out 5 casings failed to eject.. The Ejector ripped the rim of the brass and the case got stuck in the chamber. The case easily came out when I used a rod to poke it out. I checked the ripped case when I got home with a Wilson case gauge and it checked out fine.
All ammo was reloaded to Lee reloading manual specs using once fired military LC brass.
I started from the starting gun powder grain and worked my way up .3 grains.
I also shot 100 rounds of factory ammo with no problem... So I know it's my reloads.
Any ideas?

[cpatbay]

Maybe weak brass near its end of useful life??

[CK_32]

How many rounds through that gun since last cleaning? Also how clean was the brass? Have you checked for burrs in the rifle? Burrs would cause the case to swell around it making it not want to let go.


Also ripped case heads usually means weak brass or old brass.. If it's new once fired brass look at the lot number and see if maybe it was a bad lot # or something.

[joelogic]

Seems odd your fired brass case gauges fine.
What was your load?
Trim length?
Do your reloads work in another gun?

[TheWalkingDead]

Fired out of a brand new Larue predatobr.
Shot 40 rounds of factory ammo to zero in, then started on the 175smk reloads.
Trim length 2.005
OAL 2.800
Now that I'm thinking about it, I'm pretty sure it was the brass. I remember seeing a few in the lot that looked to be too dirty to reload.
I'll try reloading with better brass and throw out the dirty ones.
Thanks for the help guys.

[clipofblanks]

Maybe wall is thinner in the breAk spot than rest, seen it happen before. Or too much lube when resizing

[baih777]

did you use a small base die

http://www.gandermountain.com/modperl/product/details.cgi?pdesc=RCBS-Small-Base-Die-Set-308/307-Win&i=424415&r=view&cvsfa=2586&cvsfe=2&cvsfhu=343234343135

[TheWalkingDead]

Maybe wall is thinner in the breAk spot than rest, seen it happen before. Or too much lube when resizing

The rifle came really wet. So wet that the ejected casings had a good amount of lube on them after being fired.
I sonic clean the cases after they have been re-sized an deprimed.
Could it be the excess lube from the rifle?

[TheWalkingDead]

did you use a small base die
http://www.gandermountain.com/modper...u=343234343135

I used a FL RCBS die set. I've been using this set for about 500rds with no problems. Is it a big difference between the FL and Small base set?

[TheWalkingDead]

This is not my picture but this is basically what it looked like.

[ducky_0811]

+1 for the small base sizing die, I occasionally will run into this with my m1a, a small base sizer will resize he entire case all the way down to the case head, and provide for much more reliable feeding in semi's, the flip side is does work your brass a bit more. But if you're using LC brass, it probably won't matter since they're probably shot out of a machine gun and need considerable sizing to begin with

[popeye4]

The rifle came really wet. So wet that the ejected casings had a good amount of lube on them after being fired.
I sonic clean the cases after they have been re-sized an deprimed.
Could it be the excess lube from the rifle?

You do NOT want any lube or oil in the chamber! The case needs to expand and "grip" the chamber walls when firing, otherwise you can have some dangerous pressures on the bolt face (which can lead to unpleasant results). Make sure your chamber is clean and dry and the ammo lube-free before firing.

What powder did you use? Is it in the proper burning rate range for your gun? You could possibly get this result if your burn rate is not correct and the gun is trying to cycle the action before the pressure has bled off the chamber.

[electric7]

I have read somewhere that it's recommended to only reload 308 brass that came from your own gun. Otherwise, you'll never know if it was shot out of a 308 or 7.62 chamber originally.

[DelDanko]

same exact thing happened to me, i was running some machine gun brass and i though i could bump the shoulder back enough, but i was wrong. The FL doesnt bump it far enough. I ended up getting the RCBS small base and like butter my rounds load and eject. Im guessing there was a slight increase in pressure required to lock the bolt in place. (thats what i had, and i didnt think anything of it)

[TheWalkingDead]

I'll give the small base a try.
I'm using IMR 4895.
I guess it was a combination of things that caused the fte. Chamber was too wet, brass was too dirty/beat up and FL die didn't re-size far enough.
Hopefully by changing to small base die, it'll fix the problem and I won't have to throw out the brass.