Tight chamber on lrpv ?

[zap]

I have this posted in another forum as well.

I have a new to me lrpv in .223. Previous owner said only around 200 rnds thru it.
The first time I tried a reload in it, ( which is a load for my other savage bvss ), i was able to close the bolt, but felt a little resistance. I took the shot and when i went to eject the spent round, i could not get the bolt open. So I get into this forum and immediately get a few responses. The 1st one said to hit the bolt handle lightly with a rubber mallot.
I got it out with a few light taps, no problem. At the time, i just figured that i will need to make sure to resize my brass. I figured that the head space could be different than my other rifle, which it probably is.
Well, today I resized a case in my body die as much as I could cam the press over and i am still getting cases stuck in my chamber. ( just unprimed brass ). It is not a head space problem, as i measure the case bottom to the shoulder angle with a gauge. I have some factory lapua loaded ammo that fits no problem at all. I can chamber those empties and eject them no issue at all. So I took the measurement from those rounds that do fit, so i have something to go by for reference.

The only thing that I see that is an issue is the diameter of the cases right near the case head. The ones that will chamber are .001 - .002 smaller.

I believe that either my chamber is too tight or the die is too big in diameter. I am leaning to the chamber being the issue, since the body die works fine in other 223 guns i have.
My die set is the reading bushing die set.
I took about .010 off of my shell holder so the brass would go up into the die farther and hopefully squeeze the case down some more. I can just get it to chamber and eject but it is going so far up in the die now, that the bottom shoulder angle is getting slightly rounded. So that is not good.

Also, when I push a pc of resized brass up all the way into the chamber with my finger, and look up in there, it looks like it is sticking out more than the.125 that is the norm. But I cannot verify that without having my action off to measure.

Has anyone ever experienced this issue with the lrpv chambers ???

[zap]

I got a few replies to get a small base die. I watched a video on what they do exactly, and that is what I will need to get.

[CFJunkie]

There is a difference between a 'tight chamber' and a 'short chamber' in my vernacular.

A 'tight chamber', to me, means the chamber, especially the neck transition to the rifling is narrower than spec so it increases pressure on the round as it fires. That causes higher pressure on ignition and that shows up in flattened primers and tight bolts on extraction.

A 'short chamber', to me, means that the length from the bolt face to the rifling is shorter than the 'cartridge base to ogive' as loaded. It could be because the bullet was loaded out too far in the brass or that the distance from the bolt face to the rifling is shorter than SAMMI recommended length. I had one rifle that was short by about 0.010 and it would not load factory ammo that was 0.005 short of SAMMI recommended O.A.L length.

Since you can load and shoot factory ammo, you don't have chamber that is shorter than standard. And you don't have a tight chamber because you didn't say that you had any pressure signs with factory ammo, tight bolt movement or flattened primers. Since factory ammo is loaded for velocity and is generally near enough to Pmax, it would cause issues if the chamber was bored too tight. I had those issues with a chamber on a new rifle that was probably bored with a reamer than was at the end of its useful life. Boring the chamber out a few thousandths reduced the pressure and solved the problem completely.

Therefore, I sounds like your brass is not sized for your chamber. I am assuming from your description that you didn't load your bullets too long for your rifle's chamber and the bullet ogive wasn't touching the rifling.

It may be that your die is not seated down far enough for the brass to get all the way into the die to be resized. Or you need to try another die.
Even a standard full resizing die should get the entire brass body within the specs that match factory ammo.

Do you know anyone who resizes .223 brass that you might try one of their resized brass to see if it would fit your chamber.
That might answer all your questions in one step.

[zap]

There is a difference between a 'tight chamber' and a 'short chamber' in my vernacular.

A 'tight chamber', to me, means the chamber, especially the neck transition to the rifling is narrower than spec so it increases pressure on the round as it fires. That causes higher pressure on ignition and that shows up in flattened primers and tight bolts on extraction.

A 'short chamber', to me, means that the length from the bolt face to the rifling is shorter than the 'cartridge base to ogive' as loaded. It could be because the bullet was loaded out too far in the brass or that the distance from the bolt face to the rifling is shorter than SAMMI recommended length. I had one rifle that was short by about 0.010 and it would not load factory ammo that was 0.005 short of SAMMI recommended O.A.L length.

Since you can load and shoot factory ammo, you don't have chamber that is shorter than standard. And you don't have a tight chamber because you didn't say that you had any pressure signs with factory ammo, tight bolt movement or flattened primers. Since factory ammo is loaded for velocity and is generally near enough to Pmax, it would cause issues if the chamber was bored too tight. I had those issues with a chamber on a new rifle that was probably bored with a reamer than was at the end of its useful life. Boring the chamber out a few thousandths reduced the pressure and solved the problem completely.

Therefore, I sounds like your brass is not sized for your chamber. I am assuming from your description that you didn't load your bullets too long for your rifle's chamber and the bullet ogive wasn't touching the rifling.

It may be that your die is not seated down far enough for the brass to get all the way into the die to be resized. Or you need to try another die.
Even a standard full resizing die should get the entire brass body within the specs that match factory ammo.

Do you know anyone who resizes .223 brass that you might try one of their resized brass to see if it would fit your chamber.
That might answer all your questions in one step.
Yes, i just went over to a buddys house and he pulled the guts out of his bushing die ( decapping pin etc ), and sized my brass. I measured the diameter and i could see that it was going to work fine. I chambered and extracted the brass with no issue at all.
I did not take the guts out of my bushing die yet, but i am going to try after writing this, and I bet it will work. I have my buddys die just incase mine will not size it enough.
Thinking back, i think I only ever used my body die for bumping the shoulders back a few thousands.
i will post back my findings.

[Robinhood]

If you are using brass fired in one rifle neck sizing is not the way to go as you found out. I know this is the obvious but in a situation where one chamber may be larger at the shoulder junction than the one in the next rifle, some dies are too large to resize brass enough for the other chamber. I have seen this several times before. The tell tale is a real shinny spot on the shoulder when resizing with a proper sized die. Lee dies for one will always size you case to fit a smaller chamber after brass has been fired in a different rifle.