Re: Bolt won't close on cold ammunition???
Guys it might be a sizing issue, but the fact that it is closing fine after he gets home and the rig and ammo warm up is what is intriguing.
I would guess that after a few rounds the action is warm enough to swell slightly, and is offering resistance against the ammo that may be near max tolerance.
Another possibility is that it is not ammo related at all, and the rifle is changing in another dimension itself....ice in the lugs--that's a new one on me after a rifle has been shot a couple of times, but heck, maybe the first couple of rounds cause the chamber to heat up, and then there is condensation built up due to the cold temps contrasting with the warm chamber and them oila..never heard of that, and frankly would think you could close a bolt over a fair bit of ice, the camming force on a bolt is pretty darn high.
Did the bolt close fine without a cartridge in the field when it wouldn't chamber a round?? I saw that the OP stated that the bolt closed fine on a empty--is that an empty from one of the fired rounds? and did it close fine on one just fired when in the field when the subsequent loaded rounds wouldn't chamber? If you can measure a fired case shoulder position, vs one of your loaded rounds, that will show you if you are too long on your shoulder position--meaning you didn't size the brass quite enough--the shoulder can actually move FORWARD if you size the case and the die is just hitting the body, but not the shoulder at all--guess how I learned that one--can you say hour trip to the range with 100 freshly loaded round for one of my rigs, of which NONE would chamber!!! WTF!! at least I was consistent in my process--HA
Hmmm.........