I have a home built AR10 6.5 creedmore. The gun shoots great with factory loads and with my reloads with new brass. The problem comes in when I reload the once fired brass. The gun just goes click and I have force the shell to eject. I have taken a micrometer to the brass both new, factory and the once fired brass. Every measuring point is the same across the board. I would be pulling my hair out by now if I had any. Any and all comments and recommendations appreciated.
Reloads not firing.
- Thread starter Gary9
- Start date
Welcome to the hide...possibly way oversizing your brass comes to mind. Round has enough room to move forward when firing pin strikes and therefore no boom....
Check your primer depth and visually inspect the primers to see if your getting light primer strikes; that would be my starting point for what to check.
Did you install a new primer when you reloaded the shells?
How do you oversize brass, all measurements are exactly the same and who doesn't use new primers.
How did you set up your sizing die?
Oversized brass is brass with a casehead-shoulder datum significantly less than its fired casehead shoulder datum measurement after being ran through a f/l sizing die
Example (6.5 cm): fired case is 1.558” without the primer / primer removed.
You size the brass.
New measurement is 1.545” or something like that instead of 1.556” (bolt gun) or 1.554” (gas gun).
Use Hornady’s headspace gauge and dial calipers to confirm your measurements on both fired and sized brass to confirm or deny that’s the problem.
If the unfired round is hard ejecting, your brass may also not be sized enough (ch-shoulder on sized brass is too long) and is jamming into the chamber and bolt not fully going into battery.
Just a guess at this point.
eta: pic of hornady tool
Last edited:
Use a shoulder bump gauge to measure your case before sizing. Zero your calipers(*assuming you use a digital pair) while measuring the case and then size your brass down until the reading with the gauge reads -.003. I use this gauge from Whidden
www.whiddengunworks.com
Shoulder Bump Gauge - Whidden Gunworks
The Whidden Gunworks shoulder bump gauge enables you to adjust your sizing die to the desired measurement. The bump gauge is attached to your calipers with a set screw and determines the measurement from the base to the shoulder of the case. We now offer a Thumbscrew Pack that will fit the...
www.whiddengunworks.com
Its taking more force than usual to eject? Acting like it's stuck usually indicates the brass is not sized enough since the bolt smashed the brass into the chamber when slammed home.
That's the other side of the sizing coin. If way undersized the case can jam in the chamber leaving the rifle out of battery. But if these are once fired in his rifle would it do this?
If you undersize the brass then what could be happening is the bolt cannot rotate into battery completely which prevents the firing pin from being able to go all the way forward. The bolt is wedged stuck between the bolt recess and the case head, making the case difficult to extract.
Now that I think about it, the exact same thing happened to me when my bolt got dirty. It was just barely not locking in. Click/no bang. Tapping the forward assist or even just tapping the side of the rifle would give it that last little nudge to lock-up completely. Of course in my case, cleaning it solved the issue.
- Nov 3, 2010
- 10,505
- 22,988
Do you own a case headspace/ chamber gauge? Would be a quick check to see if they even match sammi specs after you reload
Sure, when FL sizing the body gets squeezed and pushes the shoulder "forward" extending the length.
I'm thinking his "measurements are the same" is not accurate, or needs the shoulder bumped back a couple thousands more.
OP, you haven’t given us much info as to your brass prep, bullet, dimensions, etc.
This doesn’t compute. New unfired and once fired cases shouldn’t be the same and new and resized cases are rarely the same.
As 918v noted, One possibility is the round is not fully chambering and the hammer is falling but the bolt is not in battery so the hammer doesn’t hit the firing pin. Cause may be the base of the cartridge is undersized.
This doesn’t compute. New unfired and once fired cases shouldn’t be the same and new and resized cases are rarely the same.
As 918v noted, One possibility is the round is not fully chambering and the hammer is falling but the bolt is not in battery so the hammer doesn’t hit the firing pin. Cause may be the base of the cartridge is undersized.
I will get myself a headspace kit and check the brass again but I have been setting my dies up the same for the last 25 years and have not seen this problem before. I started reloading for the grendel and the creedmoor in AR's and set the dies the same and the grendel worked fine, The creedmoor is the only one I have ever had a problem with,
Well it would be kinda a pain but you could pull the barrel, put a round in it and see if you can put the bolt in and turn it into battery. That would definitively rule out the undersized theory. You could maybe see if it rattles possibly pointing to the oversized theory. Are there any impact marks on the primers that did not fire?
No impact marks on the primers and I have already placed a shell in the and everything looks good and no rattles.
I suspect that the sized cases are still a bit too long from case head to datum. This can keep the bolt and carrier from going all the way forward, so the bolt does not rotate fully into place, resulting in a failure to fire and the case being hard to eject.
If the sized case were to be too short from case head to datum, it would not be hard to eject.
Here are a few things to check:
- When sizing a case, there should be no gap between the top of the shell holder and the bottom of the die at the top of the stroke. If there is a gap, turn the die in about 1/8 of a turn and check again.
- If there is no gap, put a 0.005” feeler gauge between the case head and the shell holder and size another case.
- Deck height of shell holder from bottom of case head slot to top of shell holder should be 0.125“.
Get a small base die I don't think you are sizing your case body down enough and it's not sitting all the way into the chamber which is causing your bolt to not lock up.
I want tp thank all who responded, being stubborn I couldn't believe my die set was not set right but it was. A few tweeks that were suggested here did the trick. My problem is now fixed and everything is working just fine. Thanks again for all the sage advice.
Headspace was the issue. I didn't have the sizing die screwed down far enough. Probably would work in a bolt action.
The use of a feeler gauge did the trick. Thanks again.
The use of a feeler gauge did the trick. Thanks again.
