Reloading for a new custom-built rifle, never mind who built it, I need to find out what I'm doing wrong. 308 Hart barrel with a competition chamber. Will fire brand new Lapua brass all day long. Using once fired Lapua brass, full length sized, shoulders bumped back .002(1.622), Sierra 165 gr BTSP (2.251 to the ogive). Got it shooting .298 groups. Now the cases are sticking in the chamber. Annealing the brass, full length resize, and still at 1.622 shoulder. 2nd to 3rd time on these I have to tap the bolt with a mallet. I've rechecked all my case dimensions, nothing has changed. Yes, I've cleaned chamber and barrel, several times. Bumped the shoulder back to 1.617, no help. It will fire factory ammo and eject these just fine. Builder says it will not shoot reloads, I've never heard of this. Does this happen? I've tried to include all the info, if you see something else, please let me know. I know it's something simple, but I'm missing it. Thanks in advance!!!

I’ve had a carbon ring do what you’re describing. It doesn’t clean out easily. You’re loading to far tighter tolerances than factory ammo. A “competition chamber” will likely have a tighter neck.

If your builder says you can’t shoot reloads then you need to be a little more selective the next time you have one built. He should be all over helping you resolve this problem even if it’s a problem you’ve created. It’s his name on the line.

The obvious question I forgot to ask is are you running hot? How do your primers look etc.

WP is ahead of me on this. Some chambers will make more pressure than others (been through it myself). Even official reloading data cannot always compensate for this. Maybe what your gunsmith meant was don't use published reloading data. In any case (sorry) you can drop 2 grains of the powder charge and see if your extraction problems go away. I am assuming your loaded cartridges chamber easily.

Hodgdon shows max of 43.5, this load is 42.4, so no, not pushing max. No signs of overpressures! Also, it's not my rifle, no way I would've had a competition chamber. I don't need another equation to throw in the mix. It's for hunting.

Yes, they chamber easily. Will try dropping the powder charge, I should have already done that.

Lapua brass, in my experience, has rather thick neck walls. That caused me a problem with reloads for my 223 when I got a new barrel. Factory worked fine, but reloads didn’t. On that new barrel, the gunsmith put in a tight match chamber that I had not asked for, or knew I had. Measure the thickness of the neck of a reload and then measure a factory round. I turned the necks of the Lapua brass until I finally realized I just needed to get the chamber enlarged a hair. All is well now.

Definitely sounds to me like maybe it’s a tight neck issue. Simple way to check would be try some Winchester brass which is thinner and see if issue goes away. Your other option would be go ahead and turn the necks on the thicker Lapua brass,

Are there any marks on the brass after it gets stuck and you get it out? If so might point to the problem area, my guess is in the neck area. Measure the neck of factory and he reloads it might not be much difference but in a tight chamber it doesn't take much to make a difference.

Are you using the factory brass that functions fine for the reloads? Haven't bought factory for most of my rifles but haven't seen Lapua brass used in much factory ammo, but there are a few that do.

Have put 16 rounds thru it today. Last 8 fired and ejected just fine. What I tried was turning the case 180 degrees in the press and resizing again. I think the problem is the base of the case sticking. Will order another die tonight. Has anyone had trouble with bases on Lapua brass? Would a small base die take care of this problem for this rifle? No experience at with one. I know they're for semi-autos, but I've seen where people use them. Thanks for all the help!!

In a tight chamber it could be that is the problem, if it is really tight dimensioned chamber in that area

What are you defining as the base? That may be a silly question but a full length sizing die never touches the base as it is protected by the shell holder.

Thought about that but didn't ask. A lot of FL dies do not size any at or right above the web and are larger for a bit than the specs for the cartridge. Had that issue with a slightly over size chamber on one rifle, went through 2 sets of dies before i figured it out. But I of course could be thinking wrong.

Well, I couldn’t say if my die is sizing my brass properly directly above the base but for what it’s worth, I’m using a Forster full length die and Lapua Brass with no problems.

Your neck could have grown and causing your sticking may measure the oal of the case

I THINK I have it narrowed down to the base of the case above the shell holder. It will fire brand new brass just fine, but after 2-3 firings the case directly above the base swells out. This does not happen with any other 308 I reload for, so I'm pretty sure the chamber is too tight right there. Again< I want to thank everyone for their help.

You could very well have figured it out…something else that can create extracting issues is if the chamber is polished too much. Good luck, these problems suck.

who built your rifle? local builder? he would be the first place i would look. luckily, we have some amazing members here who are VERY good at this.

Have you tried a small base die? There are times a small base die will get the brass down small enough to chamber and not hang up.

I would ask the gunsmith what neck clearance the reamer was. If it’s a tight neck competition chamber the reason your base is swelling is pressures caused by not enough clearance in neck....been there got the tee shirt.

Buzz- That's the reason I'm asking here

Deans-Ordered one today

DStroud-Will talk to him about that

I had a very similar issue recently on a Savage prefit barrel, see the link below. Turned out to be a couple issues, tight chamber and the original smith who chambered the barrel didn't cut the threads correctly. Tony from this forum contacted me and reamed the chamber and recut the threads, now its perfect. He's a great guy and excellent gun smith, he'll be doing all my work from here on out.

In fact, I did some load development with a new bullet yesterday and its shooting pretty good. Now if I can just figure out how to get rid of those fliers, LOL.

https://texashuntingforum.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/topics/8592389/re-sticky-chamber#Post8592389

Thanks, BigDad, very informative! Ordered a hone today.

What are you going to hone, the neck of the chamber?

The issue is the difference between your virgin brass to your fired brass. When you load virgin brass with 42.4 grains, and then put the same 42.4 in fired brass, you will ALWAYS get more pressure than you had to begin with. There's something about fired brass that causes a higher start pressure on the second and after loadings. I have to drop my powder charges about .4 to .8 grains less from virgin to fired brass to equal the same velocity and pressure I had with the virgin brass. With a match (tight) chamber, this will magnify your issue some. Also, Hodgdon load data is based on a standard 308 Win (full size) chamber and Winchester brass (which is very thin with a larger internal case capacity). If you have a match/tight chamber, you will need to back the load down some to account for the tighter chamber (about a grain or more) and thicker Lapua brass. There's less room inside the chamber, so a book max charge of 43.5 could easily be over pressure in a match/tight chamber with Lapua brass. Tight chambers are fine, you just have to work with them a little more. My PBR (parts build rifle) is a match chamber, and I like using it for testing my 308 Win ammo, since it will show pressure sooner than a standard 308 Win chamber will.

The sizing problem could be from setting up the die incorrectly. The sizing die MUST make hard contact with the shell holder for a proper FL size. If you raise your ram on the press all the way to the top, then screw your die down to touch the shell holder, then lock your die down, this is the INCORRECT method for properly sizing a case. By the time you insert a case to size, the press will flex enough to cause a few thousandths of an inch gap between the shell holder and die. If you set up your die in this manner, the case will stick in the chamber at the case web area (just above the rim). This is the most common reloading mistake reloaders make. I'm betting this is your chambering issue. I would retry sizing with a FL die first, before going to a small base die.

The proper way to size a case is to lower the die down until it hits the shell holder just before the press cams over (to get max leverage) and lock the die down. The ram should not cam over and the shell holder will make hard contact with the bottom of the die for a FL size. (If you are shoulder bumping, then you can set it up with the die much higher until you get the desired shoulder bump you need. But I would not shoulder bump on a tight chamber, especially in a hunting rifle.)