6.5 Grendel reloads pass chamber checker, but....

[Ciwsguy]

[603 Country]

[Klem]

Ciws,

Your two chambers will be different for sure; one will be tighter than the other, and that is normal. Your Lyman rifle gauge is equivalent to a third chamber, and the sizing die is a fourth. The sizing die and Lyman gauge do not check how you load the bullet into the neck. Your cases can pass the Lyman gauge but still not chamber because of two possibilities; (1) the CZ chamber is tighter than the Lyman gauge (unlikely), or (2) you have seated those bullets too long and they are jamming into the throat on loading.

If the neck is not tight you might be able to use the compound leverage of that bolt to close and fire it. But if you close it and then try and open it without firing it will be sticky and probably leave the bullet stuck in the chamber and powder will spill out in the gun as you extract it. This sort of thing is best done at the range with the intention of firing it. pressures will be higher but it's a bolt gun. Doing this just gets rid of the cartridges and you want tot know why so it won't happen again.

Have you measured the OAL of these two cartridges against ones that will chamber?
Are you familiar with how to determine where your lands are (OAL limits) for each type of bullet?
Have you measured spent cases from the CZ to determine its headspace?

Klem

[BliksemDonder]

[Ciwsguy]

[grayfox]

It is the shoulder. What Klem speaks of when it is the bullet being too long, you'll get scratches on the bullet ogive from the lands.
But for an empty case it is the shoulder.
You don't say if this is a fired/resized case or not.

If you have fired cases from the CZ but not re-sized yet, use a hornady case gauge to measure the shoulder datum length of 4-5 of them, they will be at or a couple thou below the shoulder length allowable in the CZ case. This case/shoulder datum issue will be different for the one chamber as opposed to any others you own, they are different because each barrel is unique and was cut on its own at the mfr.

If the shoulder lengths differ too far between the 2 rifles you will either need to have two sets of brass or re-size shoulders to fit the tighter one so they fit in both. I had a couple barrels (one at a time) where they stretched the brass too long compared to my other rifles so it would have needed its own brass... which I don't really like, so I got rid of those barrels, only have barrels where the chambers are close enough I can resize one for all. But that's just how I do it, most guys on here seem to separate their brass and resize for each chamber. Course that also takes 2 settings of the resizing die... anyway, check the shoulder lengths. For a bolt gun the resize should bump shoulders back 0.003-0.004 -- some guys only bump back 0.002 but my dies I seem to need a bit more room so all will fit ok.

[Klem]

It does sound like your cases need bumping.

Don't put too much stock in how short your cases are relative to SAAMI specs. If your cases are sized properly you can still close the bolt on a too-long neck. The mouth of the case crumples in, and if there's a bullet there it will crimp into it.

I would screw that sizing die in a quarter of a turn at a time then test the empty case in the CZ until the bolt closes. If you've only got one Grendel sizing die then mark where the locking ring needs to go for the CZ, and another for the AR.

[Old Bob]

For setting shoulders back for different chambers of the same caliber, you need one of those Redding Competition Shell Holder sets. It has 5 shell holders of different thicknesses to customize the shoulder set-back. You don't need to reset your FL die whenever you reload for different chambers of the same caliber. Set it once on the thickest holder & forget it.

https://www.creedmoorsports.com/prod.../shell-holders (Product Option #12 for .440" rims)

[TedBrewer5]

As someone whobought multiple dies in the past for different same caliber rifles that shell holder set is pretty cool.

[Ciwsguy]

It does sound like your cases need bumping.

Don't put too much stock in how short your cases are relative to SAAMI specs. If your cases are sized properly you can still close the bolt on a too-long neck. The mouth of the case crumples in, and if there's a bullet there it will crimp into it.

I would screw that sizing die in a quarter of a turn at a time then test the empty case in the CZ until the bolt closes. If you've only got one Grendel sizing die then mark where the locking ring needs to go for the CZ, and another for the AR.

[myrifle]

You really should be keeping brass for each action type separate and have separate dies for each action type plus the hornady tools for measuring the shoulder bump.

Your robbing your bolt action of potential accuracy by not have brass and dies specific to its chamber and needs.

A good set if Redding necksizing bushing die for the bolt grendel and a micrometer seating die will really improve not only headaches like what your dealing with now but will make your bolt grendel brass last longer and give better accuracy and better sd/es numbers.