.338 lapua loading help needed.

tannerman338 · #1 10-07-2012, 05:29 PM

i'm having trouble with cases getting stuck in the chamber of my rifle and im not sure if its the brass or if im overlooking something when sizing it. has anyone loaded black hills brass? i have a few cases that i shot once and seemed to sitck a little from factory. and when trying to load them the empty cases seemed like they were extremely tight in the chamber even after sizing( neck sizing only). i had hornady brass that sized ok but again once fired that stuck in the chamber. from posted that i read on here that is a common problem with hornady brass and i plan on getting lapua brass to replace it. but just can't help but wonder if i'm missing something. heres what i;m loading. black hills armory brass with Fed large mag primmers, hornady dies, and 96grs of h1000 for 250 gr hornady HPBT. the brass is trimmed to 2.714 and OAL is 3.58. any suggestions???

HoytFlinger · #2 10-07-2012, 05:47 PM

Try full length sizing them. Is it a custom tight neck chamber?

tannerman338 · #3 10-07-2012, 06:12 PM

No custom.its a factory savage 110BA. from what I've read these are known for not liking hornady brass but haven't heard anything about the black hills brass.

HoytFlinger · #4 10-07-2012, 06:15 PM

I would run them through a FL sizer die. Full length resizing is your friend.

tannerman338 · #5 10-07-2012, 10:17 PM

i take it your not a big fan of neck sizing then. i also noticed that when seating the rounds that it was really tight. and that i could not put a round in back in the case after it was fired. again seems to be a common problem with hornady brass.

green 788 · #6 10-08-2012, 06:51 AM

Winchester makes the Hornady brass... and Winchester makes the Black Hills brass... so I'd say it's the same brass. Weigh some against the Hornady and see if it's about the same.

If it's getting stuck and not wanting to pull out of the chamber, that's one thing...

If it's simply staying in the chamber when you pull the bolt back, that's another...

In the first case, I'd check scope base mount screw being too long... see if there's a scratch or rub mark on the bolt lug where it turns upward when you close the bolt (that'll be the left lug when the bolt is removed from the action).

In the second case (if brass is just staying in the chamber, and the extractor won't seem to catch it)... that's more of a brass issue, being incompatible with the reach of the Savage extractor. Savage will send you another extractor which may be an upgrade that'll hook the Hornady (Winchester, likely Black Hills too) brass.

The Lapua made brass is about .002" larger in the case rim diameter, and that's why it extracts without an issue in the Savage. Newer Savages are not having the same issue with Hornady brass... maybe because they're using a little bit longer extractor (?)... just a guess.

Dan

HoytFlinger · #7 10-08-2012, 08:34 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by tannerman338

i take it your not a big fan of neck sizing then. i also noticed that when seating the rounds that it was really tight. and that i could not put a round in back in the case after it was fired. again seems to be a common problem with hornady brass.

I am not a fan of it with hunting rifles. A good rule of thumb for me is full length size all the time and you won't have a problem at the wrong time.