Empty cases jamming in gun.HELP needed

[Jos]

I have been having problems with some empty shells jamming in my gun when fired.
I have checked all the seating depths with each reloaded bullet I have made but some of them seem to jam even though they are all the same size.
Has anyone else ever had this problem and how did you cure it.
Any helpfull information will be greatly appreciated
Thanks in advanse
Jos

 

[mjjl]

Hi.
Are you full length sizing or neck sizing?
is the bolt harder than usual to close when you chamber these rounds?
is your chamber corroded/dirty?
is the extractor on your bolt as it should be?
are you using a hot load?
sorry for all the questions but should help people to suss it out better.

 

[Jos]

I'm using neck sized.
Yes the bolt is harder to close.
The chamber is clean.
The extractor is fine
and no I'm not using a hot load.
So I cant work out why this is happening.
Questions are fine the more info people have the easier it will be to get the right answer
Thanks
Jos

 

[finnbear270]

What calibre, & what make of rifle Jos?, Is the brass all one headstamp?

 

[Jos]

Calibre is .222
Its a CZ American only 5 months old
and yes all the cases are the same make Remington

 

[mjjl]

i'm no expert but i would hazard a guess that as you are reloading cases that are already a tight fit in your chamber, when fired again the already tight fit becomes even tighter hence causing your extraction problems. i would try full length sizing and see if it makes a difference. i may well be wrong but that is where i would start.

 

[Jos]

I will give that a go.
Anything will be better than it jamming on me.

 

[finnbear270]

If it is odd cases jamming, look for anything out of the ordinary compared to those cases that eject ok, such as marks on case heads or walls, general neck thicknesses, you may have a bad bit of brass, were they all new, or once fired?

 

[Jos]

They were once fired.
So maybe that is the problem and I should stick to using new instead

 

[splash]

Full length size , trim and reload !
You will then be able to neck size again until it starts to get tight to close the bolt .
then full length once more !
The case is most likely tight at the shoulders in the chamber.

 

[RICK O SHEA]

My first port of call would be why is the bolt hard to shut to start with ,i recently had a similar problem and it was cured by seating the bullets 4 thou deeper
This was despite the book saying i was well inside the safe peramiters and being well short of my oal [ram fit]
Next i would try full length re seized brass and see if that cures the problem either way i would be a bit dubius about discharging a round if i had only just managed to close the bolt on it.
I measured my bullets [heads ] and found they all varied in length and that would explain why some cases extract and some dont with the longer heads giving a tighter fit and hence a slight increase in pressure to the case before bullet release
just a thought
ATB
RICK O SHEA

 

[Mauser66]

If you've bought or acquired once-fired brass (brass fired in a rifle other than your own) then you should clean and full-size the cases. Then check trim length just for the sake of doing it. Most chambers vary in size and if your cases are oversize then they'll stick, even after necksizing.

When you've fired your full-sized cases then you can start neck-sizing again as they'll be fire-formed for your chamber.

I think full-sizing is the solution. Let us know how it goes.

 

[Muir]

Once the cartridge is fired it is sized to the chamber and should extract easily if there are no mechanical difficulties with the gun.

Most important is: Were your cases trimmed to length before reloading? Long cases will cause pressure spikes varying from mild to catastrophic. Was your primer flattened to any degree? What exactly was the load?~Muir

 

[Jos]

Thanks for all your help guys.
I will full size them from now on.
The load is
Hogdon 4198 @ 18.5 grains
Head is Hornady 52 grain A-Max
Primer is CCI
with remington brass

 

[Moe 243]

Hi Jos, Even when brand new brass is bought "un-fired" it is recomended that you Full-lengh size it, i use to neck size all my brass for .243 & .308, people said the brass will have a longer life span? and better accuracy?, it's quicker and no messy lube to clean off.

I full-lengh size all my brass now with no tight bolts, or ejection problems and it dosen't take much longer to size, & cleaning the lube off is easy and as for accuracy! they both still shoot sub 0.75". More than good enough for Stalking.

Atb
Moe..