bolt hard to close....
 

I was wondering what causes your bolt to be hard or not close at all ,after reloading your ammo. i asked a few people at the range one guy said your cases are not resized right and someone else told me its your over all lenth or your bullet ,does anyone really know what causes this

RE: bolt hard to close....
 

They told you right, these can be culprits.......

the case isnt resized enough, the OAL of the case is to long, the OAL of a loaded round is to long and in some cases, if your chamber was cut on the minmum side the necks might be need to be turned.

The fix would to be sure your sizing die is adjusted properly , check your OAL with a dial caliper and see if they are in spec, if you have reloaded them 2 or 3 times chances are that they need to be trimmed.

RE: bolt hard to close....
 

When adjusting your sizing die, put shellholderon the press ram. Run the ram all the way up. Screw the die down till it touches the shell holder. Lower the press ram. Screw die down another 1/4 to 1/2 turn and set lock-nut. Know run the press back up and make sure it will still cam over although it should be a little tight. If it won't cam over, the die is down to far, if it cams over with very little or no resistance, the die is still up to far. Also check the adjustment of the seating die. If it's down to far it can deform the case right behind the shoulder and cause this problem. Put a resized empty case in shell holder and run ram all the way up. Screw die down till you feel it touch the case. Back up 1/2 to 1 turn and set lock nut. This should cure your problems. I personally resize my cases to give a slight resistance when closing the bolt. This tightens up headspacing and gives better accuracy in everything I load for.

RE: bolt hard to close....
 

I really can't give you much more advice than what has already been given, which was good. Something is basically wrong with your reloading operation, whether it be mis-adjusted dies, bullet seated too far out and bumping the rifling, thick necks, or as I feel may be the case, elongated casings from not being trimmed properly or not at all. Check your loading manual for trim-to-length spec, and using dial calipers, make certain you are adhering to it. If you are loading without using dial calipers to check critical dimensions, you are playing with fire.

RE: bolt hard to close....
 

All great advice. The only advice I can add is how to find the culprit. First, make sure your FL die is set upas described above. Lube a piece of brass and don't forget the inside of the neck. Run it through the sizing die. Wipe off any excess lube. See if this empty brass will chamber. If it does great, if it doesn't then your die may still need to be adjusted. Once you get a plain piece of brass to chamber then set your seating die as described above. Seat a bullet, no primerno powder. Make sure the COL is correct. See if the round chambers, if it does great, if not your seating die or COL needs adjusting. After you get a round/bullet to chamber then load em up.

RE: bolt hard to close....
 

For a problem like this, you really need the proper tools to diagnose. You need to measure the the distance to hit your lands. You could be shoving the bullet in lands and grooves. You can do this with a split case or stoney point OAL gauge.

Are you shooting brass from someone else's guns or new brass? That can cause you issues there. A Stoney point head and shoulders gauge can help you with that.

do you have a set of calibers? You can compare a fire formed piece of brass to what it is after you size.

RE: bolt hard to close....
 

Only shouldered cartridge I load is the 22-250. I had the same problem at first. After going all over the place with bullet seating and resizing dies and realized I just needed to break down and buy a case trimmer. Just a hair of difference makes all the difference in the world. (I don't even want to think what could've happened if I had been stubborn and kept trying to be cheap.)

RE: bolt hard to close....
 

I would check my OCL and bullet seating depth and measure the distance from the lands to the bolt face.

RE: bolt hard to close....
 

I'm not sure if it's just my imagination or if it really matters, but I had some brass that didn't always chamber well (I usually only neck resize). So I started puttinga witness mark on the base of the case. That keeps the fire formed case oriented to the chamber. Like I said, I don't know if it makes any difference or not, but the problem went away. Maybemy chamber is a little bit egg shaped.

RE: bolt hard to close....
 

Any one or all of the three causes you were given are very possibly the problem. If you are having this happen with cases that were originally fired in your gun, some testing is necessary to determine which cause is your problem.

Test #1: Take some once-fired cases that were fired in your gun, and before you do anything to them, see if they will rechamber and allow you to close the bolt easily.If they are OK, then meausre the cases' O/A lenght before sizing them. If they are within specs, they don't need trimming. If they are over length, trim them. Now lubricate them and size them full-length as you did with the ones that are giving the bolt-closing problem. Now clean off the lube, and measure the cases' overall length again. Is the length within specs?? If it is, OK. If not, it is likely that the case mouth expander button is dragging so that the cases are too long again. If this is happening, trim them again. If not, you can proceed to Test #2: chamber them in the rifleagain to see if they will allow you to close the bolt on them easily. If they do not chamber easily and let you close the bolt w/o too much effort, the sizing was incomplete and the die needs to be screwed into the press a little more. Screw the die down about 1/4of a turn at a time, and retest by sizing one case at that setting, etc., etc., until the case will chamber freely, but just barely! Such a die setting will now allow you to size each case just enough, but not too much soheadspace is kept correct for your rifle. (Screwing the die all the way down onto the ram CAN and often does, set the case shoulder back TOO MUCH-a bad situation! Ruins cases too soon!! You want to set the shoulder back JUST THAT AMOUNT REQUIRED FOR EASY CHAMBERING, AND NO FURTHER!!

Test #3. Once you find that the bolt will close easily, prime the cases, add the powder charge, and seat the bullet. Test #3 has to be done at the range with the muzzle pointed in a safe direction-test the loads now, and see if th ammo will chamber freely. If it doesn't, smething you did whien seating the bullets is causing the problem. Look at the bullets on the rounds that caused problems-do you see any marks from the rifling?? Believe me, IF your bullets are touching the rifling, it will be obvious!! If so, the bullets are seated out too far, and need to be seated deeper.

Let us know what you find to be the cause!! Good luck!!