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Bought a Stevens 308 build. Take it home all excited to make some rounds. Resize some brass. Load some up. Chamber it. Bolt doesn't close gets stuck in the chamber even. Go get some factory ammo ammo and it feeds and closes but the bolt is stiff closing with factory ammo. I am using lee dies and just trying to get opinions on if i should buy some new dies or if the headspace is off on the gun.
I would check your headspace before anything else. You say it is a "build", so I assume someone else put it together and then sold it. Be that the case I would most definitely check the headspace, then if headspace is good and something is still wrong you can look at your dies and reloading techniques perhaps.
I believe that what it is. The ammo I used was winchester that did chamber. I resized some federal brass which is what jammed. I found some Winchester brass. Resized. Loaded and feed still a little stiff but not bad. Had like 3 remington brass. No go. I am kinda thinking that he used a Winchester brass to headspace and not the go-no go gauges.
Can you contact the seller and find out what he did different to get them to chamber reliably? How do you set up your sizing die? He probably set the headspace alittle too tight like boots suggests.Do you have the hornady cartridge headspace measuring tool. That would give a good indication what a fired case measure's off the shoulder.
Set up my lee sizing die to touch the shell holder then another 1/4 turn down. I may give him a call and try to get some info
make sure the shell holder is contacting the die when you are actually sizing a case, not just during setup.
I will second the sizing die. If its chambering with new factory ammo and not spent casings, I would adjust the sizing die and maybe trim if necessary. A trim to case gauge and an OAL gauge help me to double check.