Mike

The bullets you bought are of the new, easy-loading variety. Your bore should not load these bullets with grunt force. You say the barrel is clean -- but is it dry as a bone? The reason I ask is because some cleaners have lubes in them that get tacky when the weather is warm... making it more difficult to load sabots. Some bore oils like Ballistol do the same thing. Did you swab the bore with rubbing (isoprophyl alcohol before loading to remove remnants of storing oils and/or solvents/lubes?