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Posted: 4/12/2013 7:28:02 PM EDT
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Hi All
I was cleaning and lubricating the BCG on my Colt AR and placed a sized .223 in the chamber to see if it would eject. I closed it and now I can't get the bolt out. it comes out maybe 1/4 to 3/8 of an inch and then stops. Any ideas? |
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Would like to point out since you are new that we have a great reloading forum ...
http://www.ar15.com/forums/f_6/42_Reloading.html |
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If a sized case, then either you did not trim the case length correctly, or you do not have the sizer set correctly, and not getting a full resize of the case.
If the press is a single stage unit, then make sure that you have the bottom of the sizer set to kiss the top of the shell holder under actual ram sizing tension, and not just free tension before you are actually sizing cases. If a progressive machine, then break out the test gauge/mic since it will be needed to get the sizer set correctly against the turret shell holder instead. |
| I went back and resized all 200 rounds of the brass -Lake City- and Winchester through my Dillon carbide sizing die, including the one that got stuck. I then trimmed the case to 1.75 inches. I had the shell holder touching the die and then screwed the die down 1/4 turn more. I did not mention the fact that this was used brass and supposedly it was cleaned and resized. Amateur mistake, I know. Do you think I should try it again? |
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Quoted:
I went back and resized all 200 rounds of the brass -Lake City- and Winchester through my Dillon carbide sizing die, including the one that got stuck. I then trimmed the case to 1.75 inches. I had the shell holder touching the die and then screwed the die down 1/4 turn more. I did not mention the fact that this was used brass and supposedly it was cleaned and resized. Amateur mistake, I know. Do you think I should try it again? If you have the cases sized correctly, the cases OAL trimmed correctly, and have cleaned the chamber out of assembly grease and debris with a chamber brush and CLP, then you should be able to drop in a case through the ejection port into the chamber, ride the charging handle about half way, then let it go to lock the bolt home. Being that the bolt and barrel extension have not mated in yet, the bolt unlock via charging handle pull may be a tad on the hard side as the bolt goes to cam around to unlock on the face of the barrel extension lugs (until you get some live fire through the rig to self polish out the surfaces), but you shouldn't need to mortar the rifle to get the sized case back out with an unlocked bolt. Also a basic FYI, when you go to crimp the bullet in place, only a light crimp pressure is desired. To much crimp pressure that you would use on say a pistol round, ends up with the shoulder of the case slightly buckling instead ( the case to be no longer sized correctly). Granted that the case lot trimmed all the length allows for a standard bullet crimping die to be set for the unified lot of brass to be bullet crimped correctly to be begin with, but since you only trim about every 3 to 4 firings on the brass, there is always the chance of a longer case slipping into the mix during one of the off reloading batches when the cases are not being re-trimmed. With a single stage press, the harder feed back at the handle is a dead give away that you have this problem and can short stroke the handle to keep the round in play, but if you are reloading on a progressive press, then get a Lee FCD for bullet crimping instead. The Lee FCD does not crimp the same way as standard dies crimp (it pressures off the shell holder, instead of just down on the top of the neck at a fixed heigth), and so you don't run into the problem of buckled case shoulders when the brass when a longer case slips into the mix. Note: depending on the progressive press, you may have to lathe reduce the bottom OD of the Lee FCD to get the needed clearance to the side of it. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bQGTFkklSTk |
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make a few dummy rounds when first reloading to see if they cycle, safer to muck with than live rounds if something like this happens. Easy to pull the projectiles and salvage them from the dummy rounds with a simple kinetic bullet puller afterwards Better to just get a test gauge from the start, This will allow you to check the cases as they are being sized, then as well after they have been loaded as well, instead of having to cycle live rounds through the rifle instead. http://www.midwayusa.com/product/456614/le-wilson-case-length-headspace-gage-223-remington |
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