Prvi Partizan .308 Match Ammo, Stiff bolt, Crappy brass?
I just recently purchased my first barrel nut equipped rifle. A Stephens 200 in .308. Its a late model with the centerfeed mag. Bought it used with 5 rounds through it for $250... And I am in love.
Anyway, I am really getting into the precision rifle hobby and I decided it was time to start handloading. I purchased a Lee Challenger breech lock kit. I have since reloaded my first 45 rounds, and they are all great.
Anyway, I had ordered a box of Prvi Partizan's .308 168 grain "match" ammo. It was cheap. I am not knocking it. Accuracy wise it was good enough for me. But I noticed when I chambered a round the bolt closed very stiff. I tried 3 more and found the same with all 3, with a variance in the difficulty. I also had grabbed some Federal ammo and they chamber perfectly. I set out to figure out what was up so I started playing with them. I colored one with a sharpie to see if I could see it contacting the lands. No dice. I later built a tool and measured my rifle from bolt face to the lands and they aren't even close to sitting in the lands. So I thought maybe the shoulder was not pushed back correctly. I disassembled one of the cartridges and full length sized it. I used Hornady one shot case lube and when I ran the casing through the die, it chattered and took alot of force to press it up and then alot of force to pull it back out. I chambered the casing and it still gives a stiff bolt. Last ditch I measured the neck thickness on one of the loaded cartridges and came up with .015", That doesnt seem like too much to me but I am new to this and dont know a whole lot. I later shot out all of the cartridges and reseized them all. I lubed the hell out of them and they were all really sticky and chattered. I am at a loss. I am wondering if I should just pitch them in the garbage or what. I dont want to load them because I cant afford to have a super stiff bolt on a follow up shot on a bear or cougar. Any ideas?
