Poor day at the range with my new 22-250

[TD-Max]

I think I know the initial answer, but wanted to ask here to be more certain.

I started with a 10 rounds of factory Remington in the shoot a couple, push a patch etc in the wind on Monday. Just wanted to get on the paper from 35 yards at home. Yesterday I went to my shooting spot to see what I could do with the bench at 100yds. I started with Winchester white box 45gr jacketed hollow points. These are rated 4100fps I believe. I saw from 4040 to 4100+. Shoot clean, moving to a good zero I shot 10 of these. All in all they did not group too badly.

Then I got out my test loads and here is where it got interesting. Cleaned it with 2 quick patches, fired another Winny as a fouler and chambered my first round. Bolt worked much harder than it should have to close. Not much I could do but try them. Most did not shoot worth beans. Effort to open the bolt was also quite significant. The extractor was gouging the rim. To be certain that it was not load related, I chambered and extracted one and it acted the same way.

So I think what got me here is that the brass that I used was once fired and came from a Howa 1500 that I used to own. The chamber must have been large or long.

Chrono conditions were favorable for a while then it got too dark. What I saw was 3600's using H380 (starting at 36.5gr and working up) and 55BK's as well as 55 Noslers seated .010 from the lands. ES was 20 on the one group and 8 on another so I think I am doing my thing just need to get past the tight brass?

Brass was full length sized with my Forster die. Come to think of it this is the same die that was giving me grief with the decapping pin. This die has been repaired and returned.

I did have some of my 3 shot groups that put two in teh same hole, but the 3rd was a flyer. Wind was near non existent. I did have a couple of loads that put all 3 near touching but horizontally strung.

So how do I get my now twice fired brass to fit? I guess I need to crank down the sizer die so it pushes back the shoulder and see how they chamber? I do have the Hornady lock-n load tools that I believe check this.

Or do I write this brass off and use only new?

[TD-Max]

Out comes the Headspace gauge that I bought some time ago and never bothered to use...

[Clint E]

TD-Max let me know what you find out i have a 12fv in 22-250 that does the same thing every now and then With new and reloaded brass . Full lenth sized and the bullet isnt getting crammed in the land either.I just have to remove the bolt and clean the face off and it will start working properly again

[TD-Max]

As stated above I have dug out my Headspace gauge and am bumping the necks back just a touch from what a round that is fireformed to my chamber measures. Advice came from a friend who is/was a 1000yd BR shooter. It is quite likely that I was pulling the necks long and probably crooked as well.


Begin advice:
The best way is measure to shoulder of a fired round then adjust the FL size to push the shoulder back .001 to .002." That provides as least as good as--if not better--accuracy than neck only sizing. Bumping the shoulder ensures the neck is straightened and keeps you from having to FL size every 5-6 firings like you do with neck only sizing. The fussiest people in the world with brass prep are 1000 yd BR shooters, and almost all of us chose to bump the shoulder vs neck only sizing.

Hornady makes some neat tools for measuring shoulders as well as for measuring ogive length. These tools used to be made by Stoney Point. If you don't have any by all means get a set with inserts to measure both bulelt ogive and shoulder length for the calibers you load. To do a quick test to see if the Howa brass just has long shoulders, set up the sizing die so it just touches the shoulder, then adjust the die 1/4 turn shorther and resize. The see if the case chambers properly. Keep sizing in 1/4 turn increments until the bolt closes with the amount of tension you want.

If you don't know where the set the die to start, the set it long and work down. If you do set it long and work down, the shoulder will actually lengthen before it's pushed back.

[TD-Max]

Looking more closely at my once fired brass I've been finding bent rims on many of them.