hi anyone

loading a new BLR 7mm-08 down here in New Zealand and shooting red deer with it. Just new to reloading and notice that with my Lee reloading gear that when I chamber a handloaded round that it is a lot tighter to feed than factory stuff. Am full length resizing so dont know whats going on. the rounds are the same overall length as the factory and using the same bullet and cases. The lever has to be shut real tight for the last 1/8inch to fully chamber the round

Could it be a dud die?

Hard to say. Dud die not impossible but uncommon. Are you driving the cases in to the Full length sizer till the die contacts the shell holder?
Are the cases clean?
Are you useing .308 bullets not .311 made for the .303?
Are the cases only once fired or could they have streached by firing a number of times? I'm not sure what the max length is for the .308.
Are the cases easy or hard to remove after firing?

[QUOTE=South Islander]hi anyone

loading a new BLR 7mm-08 down here in New Zealand and shooting red deer with it. Just new to reloading and notice that with my Lee reloading gear that when I chamber a handloaded round that it is a lot tighter to feed than factory stuff. Am full length resizing so dont know whats going on. the rounds are the same overall length as the factory and using the same bullet and cases. The lever has to be shut real tight for the last 1/8inch to fully chamber the round

When you eject an unfired cartridge look for marks on the ogive (part where bullet becomes progressively bigger in diameter until it becomes the size of the bore) that would indicate the bullet is seated out to far and is touching the lands. Or, you could also measure the overall length before being inserted into chamber and after to check if the bullet is being pushed into the case. Comparing the overall length of a factory round to one of your only means something if the same bullets (and sometimes if the same lot ) are being used in both. Becasue their ogive could be entirely different casuing one to fit and the to be too long even though they are identical in length.
If that's not it, check the case length dimensions to make sure that the overall length is within the specs for the cartridge. If too long the case has to squeeze down past the throat of your chamber thereby causing hard chambering for the neck of the cartridge to fit.(It can also cause excessive chamber pressure as the bullet pulls out of the tight fit). And if so, you'll need to trim the case to size.
And if that's not it, try another set of dies or even a small base die set. Autos, pump and lever gun actions don't have as much camming power as a bolt, the small base dies size the base of the cartridge a bit more to ease chambering the round in those types of actions. That's what most commercial cartridges that commony fit such guns are loaded with.
That's the order of attack I'd take. Good luck.

[QUOTE=South Islander]hi anyone

loading a new BLR 7mm-08 down here in New Zealand and shooting red deer with it. Just new to reloading and notice that with my Lee reloading gear that when I chamber a handloaded round that it is a lot tighter to feed than factory stuff. Am full length resizing so dont know whats going on. the rounds are the same overall length as the factory and using the same bullet and cases. The lever has to be shut real tight for the last 1/8inch to fully chamber the round

When you eject an unfired cartridge look for marks on the ogive (part where bullet becomes progressively bigger in diameter until it becomes the size of the bore) that would indicate the bullet is seated out to far and is touching the lands. Or, you could also measure the overall length before being inserted into chamber and after to check if the bullet is being pushed into the case. Comparing the overall length of a factory round to one of your only means something if the same bullets (and sometimes if the same lot ) are being used in both. Becasue their ogive could be entirely different casuing one to fit and the to be too long even though they are identical in length.
If that's not it, check the case length dimensions to make sure that the overall length is within the specs for the cartridge. If too long the case has to squeeze down past the throat of your chamber thereby causing hard chambering for the neck of the cartridge to fit.(It can also cause excessive chamber pressure as the bullet pulls out of the tight fit). And if so, you'll need to trim the case to size.
And if that's not it, try another set of dies or even a small base die set. Autos, pump and lever gun actions don't have as much camming power as a bolt, the small base dies size the base of the cartridge a bit more to ease chambering the round in those types of actions. That's what most commercial cartridges that commony fit such guns are loaded with.
That's the order of attack I'd take. Good luck.

thanks for that...i loaded some 'dummy bullets' made up the same way to look for ogive marks but there are none. i even deliberately seated some bullets deeper to test this but with these deep seaters i still have the same problem so it has to be a case rather than a bullet issue

its occuring with once only fired brass and I have been going thru the nmotions of case trimming although very very little is coming off. i haveent been cleaning any excess dried lube off the new rounds so i'll take that advice on board.

the aussie raises a good point about the die needing to touch the base plate when using the die. it does but there is a slight mark about 5mm up on the cases when finished on all the cases.

anyway will go use some meths to clean the new rounds up and try that first. thanks for the help. will let u know. will also look up what a base die is from the web

Hard to say. Dud die not impossible but uncommon. Are you driving the cases in to the Full length sizer till the die contacts the shell holder?
Are the cases clean?
Are you useing .308 bullets not .311 made for the .303?
Are the cases only once fired or could they have streached by firing a number of times? I'm not sure what the max length is for the .308.
Are the cases easy or hard to remove after firing?

hi thanks for the reply

they are 7mm-08 factory cases ive saved and only fired once.

a few may be fired twice and act the same. i heard that i should get plenty of shots per case with this mild calibre

to be honest i havent cleaned them so will try that

once they are in and fired they have no problem extracting again

cheers

The likeliest cause is not having that resize die set properly. My RCBS have to be screwed in to where they JUST touch the shellholder, and then another 1/8 turn. If you're short of that, the bases may not be getting sized at all...that's about all I can think of. Oh, how about OAL of the case itself? They do grow a tad, wouldn't think much unless they've been fired a lot, but measure that case and make sure that you're not over length just a tad. I use a BLR and .308 and roll my own. No problems...it's usually something simple.

I would agree with JR1 my 06 will not chamber unless I turn the die 1/8 beyond the shell holder to make the ram cam over.
Albert

A lot of the semi-autos, pumps and leverguns require a Small Base FL die to resize the brass back to near factory dimensions. Some folks don't find this necessary, but a lot do.

The bolt guns exert a lot of camming force to chamber the reloaded cartridge - those mentioned above don't have as much muscle to do the job and getting the round chambered can be a chore. If squeezing your FL die down as tight as possible and the once-fired (fireformed to your chamber) case is still sticky, it would be best to invest in a SB die.

Was the once-fired brass fired in a different rifle than the one you're using now? I had some problems awhile back using 30-06 brass to use in an 8mm-06 rifle. The rounds would chamber hard and extract hard after firing. And that was with mild rounds per the loading manuals. I finally started with some new 30-06 brass never fired, and all problems disappeared. Sounds like your's is behaving a bit differently though with easy extraction. But I might try some new brass to eliminate that variable. Good luck.

This is a wild shot, but take a look at your bolt face. ARe there any rough spots, machining marks, that could catch the case head ever so slightly?

I had problems chambering in my 30-30 AI . Polishing up the bolt face allowed the brass to slide into alignment with the chamber, slick as snot.

If the BLR is a short action in 308, the angle that the cartridge is feeding may be steep and requires that the cartridge slide up the bolt face to get aligned with the chamber. If the bolt face is rough, the cartridge can't slide easily.

If your problem really is too large a diameter on the cartridge, then my suggestion won't solve the problem.

GOod luck.

Sounds like the wife's .308 BLR. It required the use of a small base die. Problem solved. Sure wish Dillon made a small base die.

I guess you are taking the burr off the neck after trimming.
Does a resized case chamber ok before you seat a bullet? if so is your bullet seating die touching the sholder and deforming it ever so slightly?

Try the small base die. The Lee dies are supposed to work for any action but would not work for my Remington 760 pump gun. Got a SB die from RCBS and that cured the problem. Could be your rifle has a minimum chamber.

aussiecollector may have nailed it. Try cycling the cases through your gun after resizing but before charging. If you have the same problem you know it's the resizing step. If it cycles through the action cleanly you know the problem is brought on with the bullet seating or crimping step. If you have too aggressive a crimp you can malform the case. This would cause sticking or if too extreme it wouldn't load at all.

Hi everyone

Thanks for the replies. Had someone who knows what they are doing take a look. The spindle shaft in the resizing die had too much of the decapping pin sticking out. So we screwed this to a shorter position and then it allowed full resizing. I had been missing out on sizing the last fraction of the cases as the depriming pin was bottoming out and preventing a full resize. It was a very small amount so was hard to notice at a glance. Have to throw out the incorrectly sized brass but at least its all working now. Shot my first deer with reloaded ammo on thursday. Good feeling to roll your own and find that they actually work.Thanks

No need to through out the brass is there? If it is loaded just fire it if you can or get a bullet puller for about $30 and pull them. You will find plenty of use for the puller.

None of us picked up on the idea of a long decapping pin to be the source of the problem. This is one to store in the back of the brain, I will have to task one of my two brain cells to remember it. Problem is, both of them are already overloaded. Thanks for sharing the lesson learned.

Yes it can happen. But if you set the FLS die up with no case in it you shouldn't be able to push the lever to the end of the travel if the decapping rod bottoms out with a case in it.