Sticky Bolt

[ZSteinle]

i am some what new to reloading and i have been having some problems with my ammo. I resized properly and all my cases are exactly the same size but when i chamber a round one in every five seems to be hard to close the bolt with. I am shooting a 300 WSM 208 gr. Amax. 3 inch COAL and not yet touching the lands. Should i buy new brass and try that?

 

[grit]

Is your brass trimmed to length?

 

[ss7mm]

I resized properly and all my cases are exactly the same size but when i chamber a round one in every five seems to be hard to close the bolt with. I am shooting a 300 WSM 208 gr. Amax. 3 inch COAL and not yet touching the lands. Should i buy new brass and try that?

How do you know you resized them properly?

Do you have and use headspace gages like the Stoney Points so you can measure a fired case and set you sizing die accordingly?

Do you have the proper gage to measure your chamber OAL?

How did you determine that the Amax is not yet touching the lands?

Unless you have a bad set of dies you should be able, with the proper measuring tools, to determine your critical chamber dimensions and set your dies accordingly. You should also be able to very accurately measure the distance to the lands and also be able to accurately set you seating die to the proper setting.

Do you have any problems with factory ammo chambering in your gun?

Just some things to consider and some questions that might help a little.

 

[Bravo 4]

After you size the cases did you run them through the chamber? Check them first, if you have a hard bolt you may need to bump the shoulder back more.

 

[britz]

Have all the cases been fired the same amount of times with similar charges each time? I ask this in order to rule out the possiblilty that some of your cases are tempered and are "springing back" more than others when you resize them.

Are all of the cases you are using the same brand? same reason for this question.

 

[Frazer28]

Same as ss7mm said, I had the same problem on a 300 WSM, it turned out to be the FL sizing die not set properly. I now check in rifle before charging and seating the bullet. Live and learn

 

[ZSteinle]

I am pretty sure that my dies are set properly because some that i resize fit just fine and others that i resize just seem too big. I used a dial indicator to measure 5 diffrent points on the cartridge and the sticky ones seem to be exactly the same size as the non sticky cases. The seating depth is the same on sticky and non sticky cases alike. I will be trying a few things tonight and see what happens.

 

[britz]

Whenever I have had problems with sticky bolt on the cases it was just the the shoulder was starting to get a little too far forward which is impossible to measure w/o a headspace guage of some sort. I was neck sizing and the cure was to partial fl resize using the redding competition shell holders and a stoney point headspace guage.

 

[boomtube]

Z, if they were actually the same size they would fit your chamber the same way. Something isn't right about your method and I doubt that new brass will have any effect on that.

 

[PEI Rob]

My advise is to adjust your die down another 1/8 of a turn. The shellholder is supposed to contact the die when you are actually resizing a case.

 

[gamedog]

I was having similar problems on my 300Wby. My problem was insufficient lube on the inside of the case. After resizing, the neck and shoulder were getting pulled out slightly as the case was being pulled out of the sizer die.

 

[crittergitter]

Similar problem with 338 - 300 RUM. Turned out to be neck thickness. You might check to see if you need to turn them down a touch. Does an unsized, once fired case allow a bullet to pass freely into the neck without binding?

 

[sjadventures]

I had this same problem and it was because the shoulders needed bumped back a hair more than I had my FLS die set to. Find one of the worse cases and turn your FLS die down 1/8 turn and resize the case agin and see if the bolt is still sticky feeling. Keep tryin this until the bolt closes freely. You only want to bump the shoulder back just enough to get the bolt to close freely but you don't want to bump the shoulder back too much because then you will get a headspace problem and start having flatten primers and other problems.