12VLP ammo question

[smokndav]

I have run about 200 rds of mostly bulk ammo thru this gun while trying to find time to work up a handload. Some no name bulk, some LC bulk and some new Aguila,all 155 gr, all with terrible accuracy results but all chambered just fine
Found some Federal 7.62 168 gr match and some military LC 173 gr match. The Federal would not chamber and when pulling the stuck bolt back the bullet pulled out and spilled powder everywhere. Cleaned it up and tried another round, same results.
Tried the LC military and most of it will not chamber. The bullet did stay in place so no spilled powder.
Any ideas why the match grade ammo tends to not chamber?
I finally worked up a few handloads using MK 168 bullets and accuracy was much improved at 100 yds.

[JCalhoun]

What is it chambered in?

Did you buy the rifle new?

[smokndav]

winchester 308 and I did buy the gun new.

[JCalhoun]

The LC Match was made for use in M14's but not sure about the Federal though.

[jonbearman]

Was the latest ammo reloads from the manufacturer? It sounds like it wasn't sized right and the answer to you pulling bullets out is the freebore is probably tight in the new barrel and that ammo had the projectiles seated out to far.If you seat them deeper to sierra specs from the book it will probably fire just fine.Bulk ammo will deliver less than desirable accuracy as it is not loaded for accuracy buut function to be used in automatic weapons and is a poor choice in a sporter.

[smokndav]

Thanks for the feedback. The LC match was still in an unopened military looking box. Measuring to the ogive shows it is .014 shorter than my handloads with SBKs and all my handloads chambered just fine. If the LC match was made for the M14 ,I guess that could explain the problem but I do not understand what the differance could be. Never owned an M14 so not familiar with them.

[FW Conch]

I can think of no reason why Federal Match would not chamber in your rifle, and the bullet would catch in the lands & pull out, other than the recently re-occurring Savage problem of "throats shorter than SAMI specks". Federal Match 308 loads are as standard as you can get & should easily fit in any standard chamber with room to spare. The "brain trust" on this site :-)) should be able to prove this one way or the other, especially since it seems to be happening a lot lately.

Since you will be reloading, it is easy to find the lands on your rifle and load accordingly. The only disadvantage to a short throat is a little loss of powder space in the case.

Please keep in mind, "if" you push the bullet in a loaded round farther back in the case, it will increase the pressure! Maybe not much,& maybe not enough to hurt anything, but we need to be aware of it. "Just Sayin" :-))

Good Luck with it:

[smokndav]

It is somewhat of a mystery why these rounds will not chamber but you may be on to something with the short throat theory. I think I read something about this on another thread.
The few handloads I did had a OAL of 2.828 using SMK 168 gr. bullets. The Sierra book says 2.800 so I think the bullet is seated about normal. I am somewhat new to all this so still learning and do appreciate the info.