I was hoping someone could shed some light on a problem I'm having. First, I've been reloading for a bit over 3 years, but only for pistol. I've just started loading my first bottleneck rounds for my AR.
The rifle is new, and has had maybe 200 rounds through it, mostly Privi Partisan and 20 reloads. The problem manifested itself for the first time when I attempted to chamber a dummy round, which I'd resized in an RXBC X-die and seated a bullet in. After the round chambered, the bolt was locked up solid. I was only able to open the action with considerable force, so much so that I actually tweaked the ligaments in my index fingers. But, doing this again (stupid!) caused it to seize so bad that I was going to bring it to a gunsmith, but had the idea of putting some gun oil down the bore and letting it soak over night. The next day I was able to open the action with work gloves on. The thing is that right after, I tried a factory round, and it cycled fine.
I then cleaned the hell out of the gun and the chamber, and tried it again. The result was the reload cycled fine, but I could feel it just slightly biting the chamber. The next day I brought some of my reloads to the range and fired them all without incident.
Well yesterday, I brought 30 of my reloads to the range and maybe 15 or so rounds of some Privi I had left. The gun was freshly cleaned and lubed. Stupidly, I shot the 15 Privi's first, and then went to chamber my reloads to try them, and the bolt locked solid. I put some oil down the bore last night and the bolt opened with a little fight today, so at least I have that part down to a science.
Ok, fine, I obviously have a resizing issue, but for the life of me can't find anything out of spec with a pair of calipers. I remember early on when I started reloading, that .40 S&W reloads that would chamber fine in my gun wouldn't go into the case length gauge I bought, but they went in fine after I started running everything through a Lee FCD. So, I'm guessing that even though everything measures ok, I have a dimensional issue, and while new factory rounds are working, the debris they're leaving behind is tightening up the chamber so much my reloads are getting stuck.
I have a Lyman gauge on order, but I'm at a loss about what to do.I just looked at a 7.62x39 Lee FCD I have, and apparently, unlike the pistol versions, they won't post size the cases. So, does anyone know what's going on? Is my problem being caused by filthy commercial ammo? To tell the truth, the gun didn't look that bad before I started loading and had put a hundred and fifty of so rounds of the stuff through it without cleaning.
The rifle is new, and has had maybe 200 rounds through it, mostly Privi Partisan and 20 reloads. The problem manifested itself for the first time when I attempted to chamber a dummy round, which I'd resized in an RXBC X-die and seated a bullet in. After the round chambered, the bolt was locked up solid. I was only able to open the action with considerable force, so much so that I actually tweaked the ligaments in my index fingers. But, doing this again (stupid!) caused it to seize so bad that I was going to bring it to a gunsmith, but had the idea of putting some gun oil down the bore and letting it soak over night. The next day I was able to open the action with work gloves on. The thing is that right after, I tried a factory round, and it cycled fine.
I then cleaned the hell out of the gun and the chamber, and tried it again. The result was the reload cycled fine, but I could feel it just slightly biting the chamber. The next day I brought some of my reloads to the range and fired them all without incident.
Well yesterday, I brought 30 of my reloads to the range and maybe 15 or so rounds of some Privi I had left. The gun was freshly cleaned and lubed. Stupidly, I shot the 15 Privi's first, and then went to chamber my reloads to try them, and the bolt locked solid. I put some oil down the bore last night and the bolt opened with a little fight today, so at least I have that part down to a science.
Ok, fine, I obviously have a resizing issue, but for the life of me can't find anything out of spec with a pair of calipers. I remember early on when I started reloading, that .40 S&W reloads that would chamber fine in my gun wouldn't go into the case length gauge I bought, but they went in fine after I started running everything through a Lee FCD. So, I'm guessing that even though everything measures ok, I have a dimensional issue, and while new factory rounds are working, the debris they're leaving behind is tightening up the chamber so much my reloads are getting stuck.
I have a Lyman gauge on order, but I'm at a loss about what to do.I just looked at a 7.62x39 Lee FCD I have, and apparently, unlike the pistol versions, they won't post size the cases. So, does anyone know what's going on? Is my problem being caused by filthy commercial ammo? To tell the truth, the gun didn't look that bad before I started loading and had put a hundred and fifty of so rounds of the stuff through it without cleaning.