Old No. 7 Range Report

[65Whelen]

Shot my virgin Sabre 14.5" yesterday. It's a keeper, only shot at 50yds but I was more interested in function testing than groups. Brass ejected at 3 o-clock and made a nice little pile about 6ft away. Need to improve the groups but that's ok, would hate to build a gun that's perfect first time out. Christened her Old No. 7, she'll make a great deer gun in the thick brush.

Shot factory Hornady 123SST @ 3 moa, and my reloaded 129SST @ 2 moa).

A little history, http://www.65grendel.com/forum/showt...pounds-w-glass

When I got this barrel I measured the chamber with the bullets I have on hand and was concerned about a short throat. Both the factory ammo and my 129sst reloads feed and function great but when I tried my 123sst reloads they stick in the chamber and bolt won't close. OK, I need to seat them deeper but what I haven't figured out is my 123sst reloads COL @ ogive is 1.648 and the Hornady factory ammo is 1.667, .019 longer which feed and function fine?

[NugginFutz]

Something is not quite right here, 65Whelen. Logic says that if everything you said is accurate, you should not have any issues. The trick is discovering what is different from your stated facts.

If your bullet profiles are the same (you're comparing apples:apples), then there is no reason why you couldn't load your own 123 SST's to factory COAL and have them chamber properly.

Just as a hunch, did you check your headspace on those cases with a case comparator? Since the bolt won't close, I suspect that the cases in that batch of loads may not have been bumped enough. That theory, of course, would mean that the sizing die had been adjusted between the various loads, which isn't something I would imagine happens often. A simple test for this theory would be to pull one of the bullets and try to chamber the empty case (taking proper safety precautions, if you decide to leave the primer intact).

[Bwild97]

Are you using a 5-26 Honady comparator bushing for your measurement?

[65Whelen]

Are you using a 5-26 Honady comparator bushing for your measurement?

Yes.

[65Whelen]

Something is not quite right here, 65Whelen. Logic says that if everything you said is accurate, you should not have any issues. The trick is discovering what is different from your stated facts.

If your bullet profiles are the same (you're comparing apples:apples), then there is no reason why you couldn't load your own 123 SST's to factory COAL and have them chamber properly.

Just as a hunch, did you check your headspace on those cases with a case comparator? Since the bolt won't close, I suspect that the cases in that batch of loads may not have been bumped enough. That theory, of course, would mean that the sizing die had been adjusted between the various loads, which isn't something I would imagine happens often. A simple test for this theory would be to pull one of the bullets and try to chamber the empty case (taking proper safety precautions, if you decide to leave the primer intact).

Mystery solved, it was the brass. Pulled a couple bullets from the 123sst reloads and fed them by hand, the bolt would not close. These were from 10/13 and two barrels ago. I don't know what I did different back in 10/13 because I also checked over seventy pieces of recently resized brass that are ready for reloading and no problems.

All that's good new, thanks for the help.

[NugginFutz]

Mystery solved, it was the brass. Pulled a couple bullets from the 123sst reloads and fed them by hand, the bolt would not close. These were from 10/13 and two barrels ago. I don't know what I did different back in 10/13 because I also checked over seventy pieces of recently resized brass that are ready for reloading and no problems.

All that's good new, thanks for the help.

Excellent. I hate mysteries and don't believe in magic. I knew it had to be something simple and direct. Glad you worked it through.