30-30 brass prep problem

[popper]

Shot 120 RD311165 Marlin, GC with 30 gr LeverE. Evidently I loaded about half a hair long, had to jack 2-3 times to get into battery. Extracted a few and rechambered fine. I looked at a couple and the engraving was on one side, so something is crooked. I'm using a Lee FL die to size only, which I honed out, 31 M die to expand and Lee seater with the flat side of the plug. I don't have a V block and dial indicator the check runout. I blew out ~ 1 1/2" of the target, many holes in 3" many fewer outside @ 50. What is the best guess as to what is crooked? CB, neck, chamber? BHN is > #2 without tin. No, I won't work on the chamber if that is the problem. I'm thinking I honed the sizer crooked but think the M expander should correct that problem. Right or wrong?

[OnHoPr]

Is the engraving always in the same place? I didn't see you mentioning how you sized your boolits. With the slightly higher BHN without sizing boolits, this could of expanded your neck while seating and possibly distorted the neck. If I run my boolits too hot and don't size they can run as high as .314 with certain alloys, not allowing me to chamber in a 94 winny. I, myself have to hone a lee boolit sizing die to .311. For me .309 -.310 is a little small and .313 -.314 is a little to big. Just possible input.

[popper]

Lee .311 sizer. Thought it might be bending them also, no way to check. I want to load a little long for accuracy. Yes, best I can tell, same place, ~ .020" engraving just forward of the front band. The nose could be out of round too, it is a Lee mould. I assume always on the same side, I should have marked the case, I can try that when I load some more. Food for thought.

[stocker]

Mark a cartridge with a felt pen and seat it in the chamber. Take it out and rotate it 180 degrees. Rechamber it. Do you now have opposing marks? Wondering if the chamber has enough play that the cartridge is setting on the bottom of the chamber each time it's chambered and engaging the lands at the bottom of the bore.

[popper]

stocker - yup, will try that. I FL but it only pushes the shoulder and NSs. Over 15 reloads on this brass and annealed once, but I got a split neck yesterday so I'll anneal again next time. Time to anneal my 308 brass next week too.

[mpmarty]

Extractor cocking the cartridge to one side?

[subsonic]

Extractor cocking the cartridge to one side?

Probably.

Make the nose bigger... problem solved!

[btroj]

Too many possibilities to say. May not be anything crooked, could be a case that doesn't fit the chamber snug and it allows the bullet and case neck to lay on the bottom of the chamber.

Seating a bit long for accuracy is not a good idea in a lever action. Without the camming power of a bolt action you won't easily chamber the loaded round. The accuracy potentially gained isn't worth the reliability lost.

If the gun shoots 2 inch groups at 100 yards it is doing what it was designed to do.

[runfiverun]

it's a lever gun, look at how the case is presented to the chamber.
the boolits nose hits the roof of the chamber and finally tips over after skidding along then rides on the bottom of the chamber till it's fully seated.

[10x]

Try sizing the bullets to .310 and see what happens.
Try seating the bullets a little deeper in the case as well.
a) sized at 0.311
b) sized at 0.310
c) sized at 0.309

[popper]

Cast a pile of CBs this morning so I can load some and try to figure if my tooling has a problem. Yes, I can just seat where they should be but I want to find a possible problem or at least decide if it is a problem. I'll post my findings.

[popper]

Problem resolved. Marked cases, drop into chamber, marked side top and close the bolt. Engraving the ejection port side, 3 small grooves. So it's not loading procedure or my tooling. Probably is the extractor pushing the rim to the side. Not going to worry about that anymore. Thanks mpmarty you nailed it.