canon breech chamber??

[jhalcott]

I have a Lone Eagle in .308 . After loading about 40 cases with 311466 bullets. I tried to seat one in the chamber. ???? It didn't go in all the way?! I have 20 empty rounds left so I tied one in the chamber,IT DIDN"T FIT.! I trimmed the brass to 2.005" ,Still no go! Tried a .358 win die (figured the 243 die would ruin the neck) and it JUST fit with a bit of help.I had to bump the case in with a brass rod. These cases are once fired IN THIS GUN! I'm wondering if a small base .308 die will help, or would I be wasting my time and money?

[waksupi]

I'd do a chamber cast, and check the headspace. Lots of people are chambering match type chambers now, and in my opinion, they are too damn tight for a hunting rifle.

[fishhawk]

chamber and bore could be off center also

[Bass Ackward]

I have a Lone Eagle in .308 . After loading about 40 cases with 311466 bullets. I tried to seat one in the chamber. ???? It didn't go in all the way?! I have 20 empty rounds left so I tied one in the chamber,IT DIDN"T FIT.! I trimmed the brass to 2.005" ,Still no go! Tried a .358 win die (figured the 243 die would ruin the neck) and it JUST fit with a bit of help.I had to bump the case in with a brass rod. These cases are once fired IN THIS GUN! I'm wondering if a small base .308 die will help, or would I be wasting my time and money?


You do not want to purchase a small base die at this time because you have no idea if that is the problem. You can make a chamber cast, but it is going to be hard to decipher measurements or why the cases are now a problem. You may have to take it to a smith to run gauges on it cause it could be your dies. And you NEED to know.

[anachronism]

Is this the first time you've tried cast in this gun? You could have a tight neck, too. I'm assuming you have already reloaded for this gun with the reloading dies you used this time

[Ben]

The fact that you sized the .308 case in a 358 sizing die and it helped the situation leads me to believe you just have a real tight chamber. This probably sounds too simple, but what about trying a 2nd set of 308 Win. reloading dies. All 308 Win. sizing dies are similar but no 2 are PERFECTLY identical.

I once owned a SAKO, A-5 , 30-06. You couldn't get a N/sized case back in the chamber. Had to F/L every case.

Ben

[jhalcott]

NOW I have a REAL problem!!! My grandson was watching me run an EMPTY case in the die. He did NOT notice that I wiped the case with a lube rag. He is VERY interested in ALL my reloading and helps me resize the ,45 brass. He thought he'd help me and ran a LOADED case in the die. It STUCK and I pulled the rim off trying to extract it! I was in the bathroom when he did it. I wanted to scream at him, but i'm afraid it would break his 6 year old heart!
I did tell him not to touch ANYTHING till I got back. I'm still wondering HOW he got the case so far into the die. He can barely get the .45's in and out. I'm afraid to pound on the bullet attempting to eject the case. I can't drill thru the primer and how do I get the powder out??

[jhalcott]

This has been one of those WEEKS where not much goes right!!

[waksupi]

I would take that die out somewhere I could build a fire, and let nature take it's course.

[anachronism]

What caliber? It is still the .308? Throw the die with the case stuck in it in the freezer overnight. How much of the case is still sticking out of the die.

And finally, take the kid out for ice cream. Get extra hot fudge for yourself. It ain't no big thing... This can all be fixed.

[Ben]

Your life or your vision are worth a lot more than $27.

I'd " deep 6 " the die and the stuck loaded round and order me a new set of 308 Win. dies.

Ben

[jhalcott]

Well I can get the decapper pin and expander rod for the .308 but that seems a waste of $$ as it is too large to resize the cases to what I need. The .358 sizing die body Is a left over and can be trashed. It LOOKS like I'm going to get an early Christmas present of a small base .308 die. A friend who shoots a semi auto .308 uses them for all his reloads. We ran a few cases thru it and they almost fall into the chamber.The REsized cases are .001+" over factory just above the edge of the shell holder using MY die.HIS brings them down to factory specs. I still have to push them over the extractor/ejector with a finger. The chamber has been polished. How hard would it be to polish an extra thousandths or two from the chamber? Would this be very expensive?
I'd never believed that 0.0015" extra diameter would keep a shell from chambering.

[Ben]

If it were mine, I'd fit the cases to the chamber , not the other way around.

Ben

[oldhickory]

I'd do a chamber cast, and check the headspace. Lots of people are chambering match type chambers now, and in my opinion, they are too damn tight for a hunting rifle.

I'm in full agreement with you, waksupi! I had a #7 Hart barrel reamed for .308 a while back that wouldn't accept some factory and any NATO ammunition. The shop assumed I wanted the tightest match chamber I could get...I had them re-ream it to accept NATO rds.

[Bob Krack]

NOW I have a REAL problem!!! My grandson was watching me run an EMPTY case in the die. He did NOT notice that I wiped the case with a lube rag. He is VERY interested in ALL my reloading and helps me resize the ,45 brass. He thought he'd help me and ran a LOADED case in the die. It STUCK and I pulled the rim off trying to extract it! I was in the bathroom when he did it.

I wanted to scream at him, but i'm afraid it would break his 6 year old heart!

J,
I agree. It would probably break his six year old heart. There has to be a way to keep things like this from happening in the future, but my grandkids hearts are much more valuable to me than any or all of my belongings. Looks like you did good.

Vic

[Doc Highwall]

jhalcott, when a case gets sized in a full length die it starts to squeeze the sides of the case first causing the shoulder to move forward, and as the ram reaches the end of it's stroke it then contacts the shoulder pushing it back .002" to .004" from the fired dimension. I use the stoney point head space gage now owned by hornady to set up my dies. What I do is measure 10 cases that have been fired in the gun and find the average headspace. Now when screwing the die down in the press checking the headspace as I go, I will see the shoulder start to move forward then start to get shorter. Now I turn the die a small amount and measure the headspace and set it to be .002"smaller then my fired dimension for bolt gun, single shot etc. and .004"smaller for a semi auto. With a 7/8x14 thread pitch on dies there is .071" movement per full turn, so as you can see you do not need much of a turn to make a big difference. I think you have not gone down far enough with your die by just a few thousands of an inch. If the die touches the shell holder you might have to take some material off the top of the shell holder or the bottom of the die or a little of both.

[lar45]

You didn't mention which brand of dies you have. Or atleast I didn't notice....
Anyway, I think that RCBS will remove stuck cases and or repair a damaged sizeing die.
If you sent it to the factory with the short story... they might just send you a new die.

Have you thought about the Lee collet size die? You might be able to squish the round just enough and avoid neck stretching with the expander button.
I like Lee's expander buttons, they are very smooth and have a nice gradual taper to them.(FWIW)

For the thought of the chamber being off center from the bore. You could take some loaded rounds and put a dot with a sharpie on the base of the case, then put all the rounds in the chamber with the dot on top, then fire. You can then see if the case will go back in when oriented the same way and try turning it also. If it makes a difference on how the fired case will chamber or not, that should give you a clue about the chamber being on or off center.

It would probably be a good idea to do a chamber cast and see what the neck dimensions are, then check your loaded rounds against it.