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reloaded .308 jammed ar10 and pulled the bullet from case when trying to extract
- Thread starter wtfmansloth
- Start date
On the presumption that factory ammunition works: set up your seating die on a factory round in small steps until you change OAL by .005" or so. Then take one of your resized cases and seat one of your bullets. See if that sticks into the rifling. There are so many possibilities here that unless you find some glaring error you might never find the cause.
Wrong bullet vs. loading manual
Faulty sizing of case to include oversizing/undersizing/banana/off center. These could be faulty dies or improperly set dies.
Bad calipers
Bad chamber
Operator error
Faulty bullet
One of the worst things is assumption that e.g. calipers are correct. We tend to believe what we see because we don't understand principles of operation.
So let's focus on your measurement since your loaded round is obviously too long as it's engraving the bullet when you chamber it. Find another caliper.
Calibrate it. Calibrate yours. Do they compare within a few .001" to each other? Especially digital calipers. Especially cheap digital calipers.
Every reloader needs to have a 2" gage block, a ring gage and a gage pin. Why? Because measuring equipment wears or is faulty from the git. There is a thing in mechanical inspection called precognition, at least that is the term I've heard it called, where you get measurement results based on what you expect to see.
Many years ago, when I knew it all, Paul, I reloaded some .357 Magnum for a friend as I was a, by God, RELOADER and this poor sap wasn't. Smug to the extreme, I handed him a box of my freshly made, gorgeous I might add, .357 reloads, made properly of course because I used the manual as source. The cylinder of his Colt wouldn't close. Now some of you might be aware that some/all Colt cylinders are substantially shorter than the cylinder of my Security-Six. Then, I wasn't. I forget the exact bullet now, but loaded properly for MY .357, they were appreciably longer than the typical 125 GR HP load you'd ordinarily encounter as they were much heavier and just plain loaded longer.
If you've read this far, attack your measurement of loaded cartridge as your first step. Don't settle for the quick fix. You'll be a better reloader for it. .025" should not cause what you are seeing. The ogive length could be faulty as could your measurement as could be the leade on your rifle. It could also be several problems.
Primer failure these days is extremely rare. Small marks on a primer is common and not ordinarily cause for alarm. Fully seating of primers would be another thing to look at especially using military brass. You do not want to seat a primer fully with the bolt.
Wrong bullet vs. loading manual
Faulty sizing of case to include oversizing/undersizing/banana/off center. These could be faulty dies or improperly set dies.
Bad calipers
Bad chamber
Operator error
Faulty bullet
One of the worst things is assumption that e.g. calipers are correct. We tend to believe what we see because we don't understand principles of operation.
So let's focus on your measurement since your loaded round is obviously too long as it's engraving the bullet when you chamber it. Find another caliper.
Calibrate it. Calibrate yours. Do they compare within a few .001" to each other? Especially digital calipers. Especially cheap digital calipers.
Every reloader needs to have a 2" gage block, a ring gage and a gage pin. Why? Because measuring equipment wears or is faulty from the git. There is a thing in mechanical inspection called precognition, at least that is the term I've heard it called, where you get measurement results based on what you expect to see.
Many years ago, when I knew it all, Paul, I reloaded some .357 Magnum for a friend as I was a, by God, RELOADER and this poor sap wasn't. Smug to the extreme, I handed him a box of my freshly made, gorgeous I might add, .357 reloads, made properly of course because I used the manual as source. The cylinder of his Colt wouldn't close. Now some of you might be aware that some/all Colt cylinders are substantially shorter than the cylinder of my Security-Six. Then, I wasn't. I forget the exact bullet now, but loaded properly for MY .357, they were appreciably longer than the typical 125 GR HP load you'd ordinarily encounter as they were much heavier and just plain loaded longer.
If you've read this far, attack your measurement of loaded cartridge as your first step. Don't settle for the quick fix. You'll be a better reloader for it. .025" should not cause what you are seeing. The ogive length could be faulty as could your measurement as could be the leade on your rifle. It could also be several problems.
Primer failure these days is extremely rare. Small marks on a primer is common and not ordinarily cause for alarm. Fully seating of primers would be another thing to look at especially using military brass. You do not want to seat a primer fully with the bolt.
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Steve says 0.025" doesn't matter, but that is not true.
People keep saying AR-10, but that's not what you're shooting and they are thus missing a key point.
The DPMS LR-308 is a match-style rifle, and has a tight chamber and short throat. The 0.025" is obviously a problem, and if the brass (even new brass) was not fully sized AND trimmed before reloading then it still might not fully seat in the chamber and the bolt won't fully lock.
Is it chambered in 7.62 NATO or .308 Winchester? If you're not using a small base die in the correct cartridge to resize your already fired brass then you will have problems too. Look that up and order a small base sizing die now. This will limit your brass life to 3-4 reloadings but will ensure the brass itself chambers. If it is chambered in .308 Win then you want to use .308 Win dies and NOT 7.62 NATO. Same goes for vice versa. Make sure your cases are trimmed to the proper length after sizing but before you start seating primers on the new cases.
Also, the LR-308 needs to be lubed well to function properly.
So seat those bullets to the proper overall length.
I had written a blurb about the fired primer but unburnt powder troubling me, but I see that was someone else posting and not you. The rounds didn't fire because the bolt didn't fully lock because the round didn't chamber completely. In that sense the rifle worked as intended, otherwise you would have fired out of battery = destroyed gun. So be careful.
You sure didn't pick the easiest scenario to learn reloading on lol. But once you get the problems taken care of then you'll be off to a good start.
edit: This is also a good lesson to learn about researching the specifics of *your* particular model firearm, and paying attention to the quarks and characteristics that make it unique. Like how you shouldn't assume Kimbers and Rock Islands are the same 1911.
Good luck!
People keep saying AR-10, but that's not what you're shooting and they are thus missing a key point.
The DPMS LR-308 is a match-style rifle, and has a tight chamber and short throat. The 0.025" is obviously a problem, and if the brass (even new brass) was not fully sized AND trimmed before reloading then it still might not fully seat in the chamber and the bolt won't fully lock.
Is it chambered in 7.62 NATO or .308 Winchester? If you're not using a small base die in the correct cartridge to resize your already fired brass then you will have problems too. Look that up and order a small base sizing die now. This will limit your brass life to 3-4 reloadings but will ensure the brass itself chambers. If it is chambered in .308 Win then you want to use .308 Win dies and NOT 7.62 NATO. Same goes for vice versa. Make sure your cases are trimmed to the proper length after sizing but before you start seating primers on the new cases.
Also, the LR-308 needs to be lubed well to function properly.
So seat those bullets to the proper overall length.
I had written a blurb about the fired primer but unburnt powder troubling me, but I see that was someone else posting and not you. The rounds didn't fire because the bolt didn't fully lock because the round didn't chamber completely. In that sense the rifle worked as intended, otherwise you would have fired out of battery = destroyed gun. So be careful.
You sure didn't pick the easiest scenario to learn reloading on lol. But once you get the problems taken care of then you'll be off to a good start.
edit: This is also a good lesson to learn about researching the specifics of *your* particular model firearm, and paying attention to the quarks and characteristics that make it unique. Like how you shouldn't assume Kimbers and Rock Islands are the same 1911.
Good luck!
Last edited:
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thanks for the info guys. been doing some reading on what you said noddaduma and the die i have is a case neck resizing die. the brass im using was fired from another gun as well so thats another problem. didnt realize that reloading for semi-autos would be different than bolt action. i just ordered a small base die set and a block guage. gonna have to pull all the bullets and start over. im using a hornady handheld primer and all the primers were seated fully within the pocket so im not too worried about that.
Especially from another gun....
I necked sized for my garand with cases fired from the same rifle. Little attempt at accuracy gains.
I had zero issues although once you sling up and drop into prone rapids for a score that counts I'm sure there will be problems... any how there where no gains in neck sizing only so I gave up on that.
I,don't have a AR 10 just a AR with a wylde chamber. For my match Rifle I use brass shot in that gun only. Set the shoulder back around .003-005"
For my plinking ammo I have a separate die set up to match what my hornady gauge reads measuring PPU M193
DPMS is pretty good at stamping their barrels on what chamber it has.... 308 vs NATO bottom of barrel just ahead of gas block.
I'm doubting that the LR 308 has a "match" chamber. DPMS knows people will generally cram every conceivable ammo available out there in it.
55_grain
NES Member
As others have said, that's definitely a problem. But do a test with your projos seated to different depths in fully-resized-but-uncharged cases to see the distance from your bullet to the rifling. I had a factory rifle in .308 that had such a short throat that the bolt wouldn't close on some milsurp ammo.
55_grain
