Oh god I hope cmp does not try to make rules on how a rifle functions. As far as I can tell no one will question you while hand cycling a AR
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What did you do in the reloading room recently?
- Thread starter DW357
- Start date
Take some measurements of cases just forward of the rim.
Make sure your cases are not egged shapped in that area.
Then use you FL die to slowly resize the case until it just chambers easily.
Do you have a case headspace comparator to measure your fired cases.
I don't see any deformations above the rim, no bulges or anything. I've been doing just above minimum charges.
I don't have a comparator. I'm going to just try to do a little sizing until it chambers.
I don't have a comparator. I'm going to just try to do a little sizing until it chambers.
For haha 's mark a piece of brass on the case head face at 12oclock place it in your chamber and try to close it. Then rotate case 90' and see if chamber gets easier at any of the rotations of the case.
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- Aug 21, 2016
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Had a brass processing party on Saturday with a bunch of my fellow Hopkinton Heavy Hitters.
We cleaned & roll sized SO MUCH BRASS. Cleaning was done with a cement mixer and lizard litter (plus nu-finish & dryer sheets soaked in mineral spirits). Roll sizing was done with this machine fed by my Dillon case feeder: Electric Drive Brass Rollsizer Base Unit - Rollsizer.com
Was a good time & plenty of beer, food and general ball busting.
Hoping to do it again soon!
We cleaned & roll sized SO MUCH BRASS. Cleaning was done with a cement mixer and lizard litter (plus nu-finish & dryer sheets soaked in mineral spirits). Roll sizing was done with this machine fed by my Dillon case feeder: Electric Drive Brass Rollsizer Base Unit - Rollsizer.com
Was a good time & plenty of beer, food and general ball busting.
Hoping to do it again soon!
That was a suggestion I had read somewhere else, that it's possible the chamber has some sort of angle or something. I sized the 20 cases and trimmed them (first time tossing the trimmer in the drill and it made a huge difference, that will be my method moving forward) and they are still pretty tight. I can close on all of them, but there is still more resistance than I'd expected.
I'm almost wondering if something else is going on. I double checked the bolt to make sure I didn't reassemble it incorrectly (didn't underthread it something) and didn't see anything unusual. The fact the sized and trimmed brass was still tight confuses me a bit, but I didn't want to put a loaded factory case in there at home.
It kind of stinks since necksizing is so easy and they are probably the easiest/nicest seating rounds that I have. This is either the third or fourth loading of this box (fourth I think), so it's not like I didn't get anything out of it, but still...
Mystery solved, operator error.
As I previously chronicled, the last round in my Enfield's magazine pops up out of alignment causing me to need to give it a gentle nudge in the right direction. In my stupidity, I started just putting it right into the chamber, causing the bolt not to overcome the rim of the case without me forcing it. This was the trouble with closing the bolt (plus probably some case growth not helping matters). Today, when using the magazine, they all chambered without issue as I was able to snap over the rim before closing the bolt.
So, mystery solved. Now I'll actually have to address tweaking the magazine to feed correctly.
As I previously chronicled, the last round in my Enfield's magazine pops up out of alignment causing me to need to give it a gentle nudge in the right direction. In my stupidity, I started just putting it right into the chamber, causing the bolt not to overcome the rim of the case without me forcing it. This was the trouble with closing the bolt (plus probably some case growth not helping matters). Today, when using the magazine, they all chambered without issue as I was able to snap over the rim before closing the bolt.
So, mystery solved. Now I'll actually have to address tweaking the magazine to feed correctly.
The feed lips get banged up. I used smooth nose jewlers plyers to tweak min e .
223 and trailboss first run was so so . Just under 4moa.
Not sure why Hodgdon has a low max charge as the case could fit more per trailboss instructions. Only thing i can think of is the goal is to be subsonic? Email off to hodgdon.
The following might be useful regarding Enfields...
Headspace 101 for .303's
Headspace 101 for .303's
Yeah, that's the plan. I know there are some spare Lee Enfield magazines out there, but I'm going to try to tweak this one with pliers. I think I'll take a case and seat a bullet only and use it to try to fine tune. I'm just glad that it appears the problem was me and not the chamber/cases. I got some new projectiles to try out, planning to load them tonight and go tomorrow since the weather looks nice.
Good a range report , something for me to read
You'll actually have to wait until Thursday, I checked the club calendar and they're doing roof maintenance on the rifle range tomorrow. Hopefully will give me some time to get my ducks in a row and remember targets/spotting scopes etc. Trying to decide what powder, last batch used Accurate 2520. I've also used IMR3031, Varget, and some others.
This also reminds me I need to start keeping track of load data, and what works well and what doesn't, and particulars for each rifle. I've been extremely lax in that regard, relying on memory..."I think Varget worked well last time..."
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Kind of boring, I know, but I decided that I had enough .357 magnum brass by now in that there was no sense anymore keeping any of the brass with head stamps I had less than 100 of each. All good brass, easily primed, but using it for test rounds or whatnot just makes sorting more work. So I gathered those up, sorted them (more or less) by decreasing length, and loaded them up one last time. Just 130 rounds. Helped keep my mind off the election results for awhile. Last weekend I sort of did the same with 45C, though in that case all I had to get rid of was just 17 or so scavenged Winchester brass cases that obviously had come from their 255 grain LRN loads. Couldn't get decent neck tension with the 250 grain XTPs I was loading into them, and couldn't load my usual 300 grain lead bullets at all, owing to the deep rear crimp in the case they put there. So guess I'll be loading those one at a time when I get around to shooting them.
Two offerings for tomorrow (or later today, strictly speaking). .311 Prvi 150gr BT with 32.5gr IMR3031 versus .312 Hornady soft point over 35gr Accurate 2520.
My bet is on the .312 to do a little better.
My bet is on the .312 to do a little better.
The .312 hornady did best in my mosin but I used H4895 and pushed them faster.
I’m not familiar with those powders but they seem light?
I did not have much luck with 3031 . I played with it with 8mm Mauser and it leaned towards max charges to get the 200 grain CCs to start grouping. No thanks for 200 yard hole punching I don’t need that.
Lightish, yes. Manual had 30 as the min on 3031, and I think 32 or 33 for the 2520. So just 2-3 grains over the mins. With 303 especially I have been going light to try to preserve the cases. Plus at 100 yards, I don't know how much difference it will make.
With these boxes 303 Brit became my second most loaded caliber behind 30-06. This weekend I might do some 8mm Mauser and begin testing those. Want to try to get some things tested before Winter Warrior
Couple nights ago I loaded the .431" 240 gr Zero bullets over H110. Hoping to finally test and chrono them in the Dan Wesson 744 this weekend...
Or see what Norm has?
gerrycaruso
NES Member
The Goose probably already knows this but my son just made brass 410 shotgun shells out of .303 British. He loves old doubles and has them in 410, 20, 16 and 12. He's loading brass shells with black powder for all of them.
not exactly cheap but .32 cal 100 grain pistol bullets will keep you entertained at 100 yards.Lightish, yes. Manual had 30 as the min on 3031, and I think 32 or 33 for the 2520. So just 2-3 grains over the mins. With 303 especially I have been going light to try to preserve the cases. Plus at 100 yards, I don't know how much difference it will make.
With these boxes 303 Brit became my second most loaded caliber behind 30-06. This weekend I might do some 8mm Mauser and begin testing those. Want to try to get some things tested before Winter Warrior
He’s got 303 Brit 200 gr gas checked coated SP bullets for $12.70 per 100 plus shipping.
8mm 180 gr gas checked coated FP bullets for $12.05 per 100....just an FYI
Loaded up some light 44 mag rounds with the coated zombie bullets I bought a few years ago. Except this time instead of using the trusty Bullseye powder, I tried N320 powder. I figured these should burn much cleaner.
I just wanted to see how N320 compares to bullseye in light 44 mag loads. I’ve only used N320 for my 9mm loads. Hoping I can try these out on Saturday along with the full house magnums I loaded the other day....
Not familiar with Norm, if someone wants to PM a link that's fine. Not really aware of the pros/cons/process of cast.
This was the Hornady at 100 yds, with a 9mm casing for reference. Not bad, I'd say. This was the last splatter target with contrast that I had. I had to use paper with the triangular targets for the Prvi and it got ripped, it shot kind of to the right, unless it was me. If I recall, I've not had good success with IMR3031. Not sure if it's the projectile or the powder. I did have to contend with a guy who setup literally three feet from me with an AR with a big muzzle brake. It actually knocked my empty ammo boxes off of the table I was using, which was kind of annoying. Kept blowing my hair around. It might've affected my shooting.
Tumbling the brass now.
This was the Hornady at 100 yds, with a 9mm casing for reference. Not bad, I'd say. This was the last splatter target with contrast that I had. I had to use paper with the triangular targets for the Prvi and it got ripped, it shot kind of to the right, unless it was me. If I recall, I've not had good success with IMR3031. Not sure if it's the projectile or the powder. I did have to contend with a guy who setup literally three feet from me with an AR with a big muzzle brake. It actually knocked my empty ammo boxes off of the table I was using, which was kind of annoying. Kept blowing my hair around. It might've affected my shooting.
Tumbling the brass now.
Got any Unique? Try 8.5gr with those for a light accurate load.
If you go on Hodgdon Web site they 3031 does not have a lot of data. 3031 seems to do well with heavy bullets and close to case capacity? i was glad to use up the last of mine but i used it up in a 30/30 .
I Have some 8208XBR i want to try for 303,8mm and such.
Most likely going back to H4895 and Varget for almost everything. H335 and some W844 for 223
I've used 3031 on 303, .223 and 7.62x54R, and I don't feel like it gave good results in any of those. Although I was using light bullets (150, 55, and 110 respectively) so maybe that's part of it if it performs better with heavier projectiles. It's hard to beat Varget for me, both in terms of performance and versatility... I do like 4895 as well and 4064 has been fine, too. In .223 I have some more experimenting with CFE223 to try. It measures well for me, it's like sawdust.
I've been reading a few recommendations for 9mm, seems like N320, Power Pistol and a few others are popular. But for rifle I might just do Varget and whatever catches my fancy on a given day.
Perhaps next I'll use the same projectiles but 3031 (just to use it up, the 1lb jug is almost gone) versus another powder, so it takes any deviation in projectile out.
