Possible head space issues

[ACLakey]

Last year I had a barrel put on my Savage 12 action chambered in .223AI and it has never shot all that well. With extensive load development, bedding and a recrowning job the best I can get it to do is a 1" average at 100 yards. I picked up a neck sizing die and ran some brass through it and found that they would not chamber(could not close the bolt). That got me thinking that possibly there is a head space issue. If I FL resize the brass the rifle chambers just fine. Any thoughts? Possible solutions?

[Kevin Cram]

There could be several factors why the rifle won't better. I don't believe headspace would be it. It could be the crown is not cut square to the bore, the bedding is not stress free, or the barrel is not free floated. The rings and bases may have a loose screw, the scope might be bad or even in a bind. The chamber could be out of round, or worst case you got a bum barrel. You pretty much have to diagnose it one by one and see what's wrong.

Even if the headspace was a little long once you fire a piece of brass in the chamber the brass will match the chamber ( unless the headspace was very excessive ) Some rifles need to have the shoulder bumped back about .001" - .002" and it will re-chamber perfectly. If you use a Hornady Bullet Comparator Body and Hornady Headspace Bushing Gauge you can measure a fired round from the base to the addendum on the shoulder then re-size just enough to bump the shoulder back a few thousandths by using a body bump die.

[ACLakey]

Originally Posted by Kevin Cram

There could be several factors why the rifle won't better. I don't believe headspace would be it. It could be the crown is not cut square to the bore, the bedding is not stress free, or the barrel is not free floated. The rings and bases may have a loose screw, the scope might be bad or even in a bind. The chamber could be out of round, or worst case you got a bum barrel. You pretty much have to diagnose it one by one and see what's wrong.

Even if the headspace was a little long once you fire a piece of brass in the chamber the brass will match the chamber ( unless the headspace was very excessive ) Some rifles need to have the shoulder bumped back about .001" - .002" and it will re-chamber perfectly. If you use a Hornady Bullet Comparator Body and Hornady Headspace Bushing Gauge you can measure a fired round from the base to the addendum on the shoulder then re-size just enough to bump the shoulder back a few thousandths by using a body bump die.

Thanks for the reply. I have systamaticly eliminated all of the items on your list and am down to the chamber being out of round or possibly a head space issue. I will be indexing some brass this evening to see if is possibly out of round.

[bigngreen]

Have you asked the someone that chambered and set the headspacing what it is set at and have you shot it at 200 or 300 yrds to see what the groups are doing there.

[ACLakey]

Ok, I blackened the neck and taper as shown below then neck sized the case as recommended.


It appears as if I have the die set properly as it is sizing the neck with out effecting the shoulder.
I also marked up a neck sized case and put numbers in each quadrant. I started with the number 1 faced up and tried to chamber the brass, then went to the line between 1 and 2 then number 2 up ect.


The results of this little test are as follows
1 - chambered fine
1/2 - bolt pushes home, tough closing bolt
2 - will not allow bolt to push home
2/3 - will not allow bolt to push home
3 - will not allow bolt to push home
3/4 - bolt pushes home, tough to close bolt
4 - bolt pushes home, tough to close bolt
4/1 - chambers fine
It would appear the chamber is either out of round or not square with the bore...any thoughts or suggestions?

[ACLakey]

I just called the gunsmith that put the barrel on and he said the threads on the barrel looked as if they were cut a little off center. I asked what he ment and he stated that one the threads on one side of the barrel were deeper than the other......that would have been nice to know. He is retired now for medical reasons and sold the business but is a family friend that always did good work for me in the past. I think that little bit of information explanes a lot of the issues I am seeing. I am going to fire form a bunch of brass with this turd and get a quality barrel for it soon. Thanks all for the help thus far.

[Movin]

Deprimer a spent round and mount in a lathe between pintles. Check the chamber end for both lateral runout and out of round and the midsection for out of round.

This problem shouldn't be possible?? How did you wind up with that?!!