# Difficulty closing bolt??



## Huge29 (Sep 17, 2007)

I picked up a slightly used A-Bolt in 270 WSM a few weeks ago and took it to the range for teh second time on Saturday. I had bought some once fired silver plated Winchester brass and loaded it with the Accubond LR bullets. Pretty much all of the loads required some real pressure in closing the bolt and two took about 5 tries and more pressure than one should ever have to apply. They fired fine. So, I tumbled them and checked the length of all of those plus some new Winchester (non nickle plated) brass and there were a few that were about .007 or so over spec. So, I trimmed them and I try chambering the nickle plated brass (no powder or bullet yet) and same problem even on one that I trimmed to the shortest of the new brass' length. Most of this brass was very difficult to resize (FL dies) also. I tinkered with all of the different dimensions and they seem to be identical. None of them are quite as bad as yesterday, but still pretty difficult. 
Any recommendations?


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## DallanC (Jan 13, 2009)

Try chambering a factory round, it could be a issue with the reloads. Remove a difficult to chamber round and look for rub marks. Check for marks on the shoulder, and along the olgive of the bullet. Mark it with a sharpie if you have to to get the rub marks to show up.

You might need to have a chamber cast done to really know what the dimensions in the chamber are.


-DallanC


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## waspocrew (Nov 26, 2011)

Wa the shell holder contacting the die when you were sizing a case? WSM brass is pretty thick. You made want to check that out- it sounds like the case isn't getting fully sized all the way to the bottom. It took me a bit to get my dies set up correctly for my 270 WSM. Loaded up 20 rounds one time only to find that maybe only 5 would chamber. Definitely frustrating! Once I figured out my dies- they have been smooth sailing ever since.


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## Kevin D (Sep 15, 2007)

I suspect some rifles just have tighter chambers than others of the same caliber. I know my 7 mag only likes the brass that it has fired. Factory rounds and new brass chamber easily, and even the brass that have been reloaded a half a dozen times or more also chamber without incident, but once fired brass coming from any other rifle are generally trouble. No amount of full length resizing seems to cure the problem. Hence, at least for this rifle, I never mix my brass with rounds fired from another gun .


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## Huge29 (Sep 17, 2007)

waspocrew said:


> Wa the shell holder contacting the die when you were sizing a case? WSM brass is pretty thick. You made want to check that out- it sounds like the case isn't getting fully sized all the way to the bottom. It took me a bit to get my dies set up correctly for my 270 WSM. Loaded up 20 rounds one time only to find that maybe only 5 would chamber. Definitely frustrating! Once I figured out my dies- they have been smooth sailing ever since.


Good points by all, I did notice some marks on the shoulder. but nothing on teh bullets. On the dies, the instructions I read were to always get it right to the die and then back it off 1/2 turn, do you leave yours right to the die? I have done that on all of the cartridges I load including 300 WSM and never had an issue, but I haven't used once fired on my 300 wsm, so that is a possibility. Thanks again for the input fellars, your insight helps!


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## Springville Shooter (Oct 15, 2010)

Short mags are known to do this. I have a friend that has to "bump the shoulder" every other loading or so which is basically taking the die down slightly past the full length size setting. Beware of nickel plated brass as well. If you find any sharp spots on the plating, do not run the case into your die. I'm sure many will disagree with me, but I personally don't reload nickel brass.-----SS


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## Critter (Mar 20, 2010)

Try sizing a case and then see how it chambers. If it is tight screw the die down another 1/4 turn and then try it again. Once it chambers without force you have the die set for that chamber.


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## Mojo1 (Sep 8, 2007)

Huge, I tried to reload some of those silver cases for my 270Wsm once, I had the same sizing trouble you described. I checked them over; mine were touching on the case shoulders. I never did have much luck trying to properly re-size those silver cases in any caliber. Since I didn't have even a full box of them in the wsm, I just dis-guarded them and went back to the standard brass cases.


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## DallanC (Jan 13, 2009)

Huge29 said:


> On the dies, the instructions I read were to always get it right to the die and then back it off 1/2 turn, do you leave yours right to the die?


No ... sizing die its tighten till it touches then an additional quarter turn.

SEATING die, go till it touches then back it off X amount (personally I tighten the seating die down on a sized case until it just hits the shoulder, then I adjust the bullet depth down until I reach my specified COL).

-DallanC


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## Bo0YaA (Sep 29, 2008)

I had a 300wsm at one time and had several boxes of that nickle plated garbage. I tried and tried to get them to size right and they never seemed to. I've read on other forums that they flex to much and do not hold the size when resized. Not sure if I believe it but after 3 attempts at resizing them to no avail I tossed them. As for the brass stuff, it sounds like a shoulder issue bump it back a tiny bit at a time. 

Other things to check would be head space, and check to see if the cartridge necks are concentric. They may need to be turned due to a tight chamber. Check and see if a bullet slides easily into a fired cartridge. If it does then most likely the chamber is fine. If it requires some effort to slide a bullet into a fired cartridge than that could indicate a tight chamber and necks may need to be turned to allow for enough release space for the bullet. To little release space forces the neck walls out on a loaded cartridge making the action difficult if not impossible to close.


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