Help… what is going on? Not full battery…AR10

[NobullSKS]

At range….it was cold but not that cold…I've fired couple hundred rounds through this rifle and over 100 hand loaded.

Had issues with these new loads (every other round) not going into full battery and if I had forward assist…. Not enough strength. Had to mortar un fired loads out. Within spec. And dies set to previous loads. If I tried to re chamber and RE chamber few times I could fire.

But these show smashed neck….2 on left were attempted chambering…. Hand load on right same batch. Double checked…. I'm below max on OAL. Throat..case length. These should chamber. Light shining into breach.. clean. No markings on bolt lugs.

I'm going to look closer at this when I'm home but I'd like perspective here please, if you will. I do not have a way to measure inside….(go , no go)?

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[brucekr]

Had this happen when I made some 300BLK brass, so bought a case gauge.

If these are all handloads, are you deburring after resizing? There's not a ton of extra tolerance with the bullet diameter and neck thickness.
Maybe measure the bullet diameter just to doublecheck?
The one on the right looks taper crimped slightly. If so, maybe too much crimp so that when you try to seat the bullet to depth, it's possibly collapsing the neck slightly?

But the first place I'd probably start is the case gauge.

 

[Member 34319]

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[TTSX]

At least one of those looks like it has a REALLY long neck. And since the shoulders are crushed in, it's clearly contacting something ahead of the shoulder, like the bullet is jamming into the rifling or the neck is jamming into the chamber.

 

[TTSX]

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Choose between SLOTTED or NON-SLOTTED. AMMUNITION GAUGES are uniquely designed to check loaded ammunition, giving you the ability to check your factory ammunition or reloads against a spec chamber. The gauge is machined to the SAAMI minimum chamber spec for the 308 WIN caliber. This…

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I have a gauge for every single bottleneck cartridge I make. Well worth it, helps find problems before problems find you

 

[Local Loader]

If there is was/is nothing wrong with them after you loaded them. Than I'd check the chamber and see if it needs cleaning or it's damaged.
If they do seem squished or slightly pushed down on the shoulders after loading than I'd back the die out about 1/4 to 1/2 turn and lower the bullet seater pin 1/4 to 1/2 turn to match and adjust more as necessary.
Checking the neck lenght is a good idea as well.

 

[Pepe-lepew]

Those are not going to chamber with the shoulders crushed like that. Even the round on the right has a crushed shoulder besides looking over crimped.

I have seen shoulders crushed like that from people trying to crimp or neck sizing improperly. I would recommend not crimping, it is unnecessary for 308. Make sure your brass is trimmed 0.010" under max case length. When seating, ensure your seater die is set high enough to not start a crimp.

If you feel compelled to crimp, only crimp enough to push the case mouth into the cannelure. Use your calipers to check case neck OD behind the crimp to ensure it is not bulging and make sure the shoulder is not getting crushed. The press should not have much resistance or camming felt when crimping. Until you get crimping figured out, seat the bullets with the die backed out to not crimp. Reset the die with the seater backed out to crimp in another step.

 

[ageingstudent]

At range….it was cold but not that cold…I've fired couple hundred rounds through this rifle and over 100 hand loaded.

Had issues with these new loads (every other round) not going into full battery and if I had forward assist…. Not enough strength. Had to mortar un fired loads out. Within spec. And dies set to previous loads. If I tried to re chamber and RE chamber few times I could fire.

But these show smashed neck….2 on left were attempted chambering…. Hand load on right same batch. Double checked…. I'm below max on OAL. Throat..case length. These should chamber. Light shining into breach.. clean. No markings on bolt lugs.

I'm going to look closer at this when I'm home but I'd like perspective here please, if you will. I do not have a way to measure inside….(go , no go)?

View attachment 1351935

On the ones you could fire what did the case look like after?

 

[NobullSKS]

On the ones you could fire what did the case look like after?

Normail….sligh under Saami..
reforms it really close to u fired round..
left new load, center is jammed round, right is formed case

 

[drstrangelove]

Some things that will mess you up…
1. unannealed brass resizing won't get shoulders down to spec and bolt won't close… you need a shoulder comparator to know, and measure against a factory load that ships.
2. neck not trimmed… will jam base of neck into shoulders and do what we are seeing in your pics. The shoulder expansion then jams the chamber walls and u have to mortar.
3. crimping before bullet fully seated… that's an amateur move and causes the rumpled foreskin.
4. case necks too thick for projectile… common in 300blk, not so much in 308. Mortaring required.

I'm voting #1 or 2.

 

[ageingstudent]

On the ones that jam in those are some ugly shoulders. They almost look like an Ackley improved. If you're sure there's no obstructions in the chamber I would have to guess that either your projectile is seated too long or the necks are either too long or too fat. Have you reloaded these cases several times? The necks get fatter every time you reload.

 

[Local Loader]

Normail….sligh under Saami..
reforms it really close to u fired round..
left new load, center is jammed round, right is formed case
View attachment 1352116

Center one looks like the neck is too long and the shoulder got squished.

Some things that will mess you up…
1. unannealed brass resizing won't get shoulders down to spec and bolt won't close… you need a shoulder comparator to know, and measure against a factory load that ships.

I'd have to say that that's not true, I don't do annealing and I still get get the brass to meet SAAMI spec and match factory rounds. You just have to set the die correctly and have lots of patience to do it cause it's a lot of tiny changes and testing each change.

3. crimping before bullet fully seated… that's an amateur move and causes the rumpled foreskin.

I'd have to admit that I've had this happen when I first started loading and took a lot of tweaking to get it how I wanted it.

 

[drstrangelove]

I'd have to say that that's not true, I don't do annealing and I still get get the brass to meet SAAMI spec and match factory rounds. You just have to set the die correctly and have lots of patience to do it cause it's a lot of tiny changes and testing each change.

Well it was true for me… I had 308 that would not ship in my Ruger GSR Until I pulled, deprimed, annealed, then and only then, would my resizing die get the shoulders to hold Instead of spring back. Comparator proven.

 

[Local Loader]

Well it was true for me… I had 308 that would not ship in my Ruger GSR Until I pulled, deprimed, annealed, then and only then, would my resizing die get the shoulders to hold Instead of spring back. Comparator proven.

Yeah, it took a lot of trial and error for me to get it right. I haven't done it with my 308 yet, haven't had the time but I did do it with my 223/5.56 and 300WinMag. To make it easier I do trim the necks to mid-range SAAMI before sizing since the neck increases during resizing than recheck.

 

[DizzyJ]

Looks like you've collapsed the shoulders. That will put a bulge in the case.

 

[Koda]

first I would -safely- cycle factory ammo thru the same mag used. If the went fine then I would ask what you trimmed the case length to?

 

[homeuser6]

by your photo , looks like you are crimping on a bullet that has no cannelure.

 

[fstdraw]

Ugliest reloads I've ever seen. Your rifle is rejecting them on that alone!

 

[Koda]

by your photo , looks like you are crimping on a bullet that has no cannelure.

Ugliest reloads I've ever seen. Your rifle is rejecting them on that alone!

at first I read it as if the crused case was from chambering, but now Im not certain if he attempted to feed them that way. Ive heard too much crimp can crush the neck areas.

 

[deadeye]

As others have stated buy a gauge and I would recommend a Lee factory crimp die. Make sure you are not over using lube when sizing as too much can cause the neck to not form properly. The gauge will tell you if it will go before fulling loading and also tell you if your dies are set properly, well worth the investment. If and in your case you are running it thru a semi auto a case gauge will also help you to not have a slam fire as well, along with but not necessary in my opinion using CCi 34 primers.