Hard to chamber and sticky bolt lift with empty brass

[Cz455guru]

I have a 20 br that has always been Abit hard to chamber I narrowed it down to my brass not being sized down enough with the Redding 20 br dies. So I sent whidden a copy of my reamer print and got a custom die made and that didn't fix the problem. Then I started marking on my brass to see where it was rubbing in the chamber and found out it's rubbing quite hard on the bolt face the area around the primer pocket specifically. Anybody ever see this and know what's causing it. Also how to fix it?

 

[Supersubes]

Are you neck sizing only, or are you bumping the shoulders with a FL die?

 

[Cz455guru]

Are you neck sizing only, or are you bumping the shoulders with a FL die?

Bumping with a fl die

 

[supercorndogs]

Is your shell holder hitting the bottom of the die and your not quite getting should bump? Shave a few thousandths off the shell holder.

 

[Supersubes]

Is that the only place it’s rubbing? How much are you bumping the shoulders? Can you bump them more? Is the whidden a bushing die?

If it takes a bunch of bump to make them fit, I’d look closely at the radius between the neck shoulder junction as a culprit. I had PT&G send me a reamer with zero radius there(thanks PT&G?). This would cause interference because the sizer left a relatively large radius.

 

[Cz455guru]

Is that the only place it’s rubbing? How much are you bumping the shoulders? Can you bump them more? Is the whidden a bushing die?

If it takes a bunch of bump to make them fit, I’d look closely at the radius between the neck shoulder junction as a culprit. I had PT&G send me a reamer with zero radius there(thanks PT&G?). This would cause interference because the sizer left a relatively large radius.

That is the only spot that I can tell it's rubbing but clearly it is hitting somewhere else to cause that. It is a bushing die. But that is a interesting idea I'll check that out.

 

[Supersubes]

That is the only spot that I can tell it's rubbing but clearly it is hitting somewhere else to cause that. It is a bushing die. But that is a interesting idea I'll check that out.

How much are you bumping? And why not just bump more?

 

[Cz455guru]

That is the only spot that I can tell it's rubbing but clearly it is hitting somewhere else to cause that. It is a bushing die. But that is a interesting idea I'll check that out.

The die don't allow me to bump anymore I have experimented all the way to about 8thousands bump but it don't change anything.

 

[Supersubes]

Look closely for other interference points then. Below is one of my test cases for the chamber i mentioned above. This case has been bumped about .006 but still shows a contact point at the neck shoulder. The other lower rings were from two different size headspace comparators. These cases were fired in another chamber(with a .125 radius), and when I was trying to transition to the new barrel, neither of my dies would remove enough of the radius until i had sizes them a bunch.

 

[Cz455guru]

Look closely for other interference points then. Below is one of my test cases for the chamber i mentioned above. This case has been bumped about .006 but still shows a contact point at the neck shoulder. The other lower rings were from two different size headspace comparators. These cases were fired in another chamber(with a .125 radius), and when I was trying to transition to the new barrel, neither of my dies would remove enough of the radius until i had sizes them a bunch.

View attachment 7184108

I feel like this is exactly my problem. This brass has been fired from another 20 br barrel. I would get some new brass but I'm afraid with the necking down process I would run into the same issue

 

[Supersubes]

New brass would likely fix your issue, it did for my barrel.

 

[E. Bryant]

Maybe this a dumb question, but how is your brass overall length?

 

[Cz455guru]

Maybe this a dumb question, but how is your brass overall length?

It's plenty short for the chambering as far as I know I actually tried triming one a bit shorter to make sure and that didn't help.

 

[PATCO]

I've had this problem for several different reasons. I am currently sizing for three 6.5 CMs and one of them has to be sized differently to keep it from sticking on the extract and lock-up. They all headspace exactly the same with PT&G go/no-go gages. I can live with this since I hand load all my rounds. The problem is the neck/ shoulder joint. I had a new Ruger RPR that was hanging brass on the extract and hard to lock-up. I finally sent it back to Ruger and they replaced the barrel. Sometimes its just best to swap them out and move on. Some problems are just so finite in nature we may never find them. You said the reamer was custom. Who chambered it and will they try to fix it?

 

[918v]

The die don't allow me to bump anymore I have experimented all the way to about 8thousands bump but it don't change anything.

If you had bumped the shoulder .008” then you would not have rub marks on the case bottom.

Is it a hard stop or a progression of resistance until the bolt closes?

Did you measure the diameter of the case at the head, shoulder, neck pre and post sizing?

 

[whatsupdoc]

I feel like this is exactly my problem. This brass has been fired from another 20 br barrel. I would get some new brass but I'm afraid with the necking down process I would run into the same issue

Mark your brass from the extractor groove forward about a half inch. The case is too wide you would need like a small base die and I dont believe anyone makes one for that cartridge.