February 3, 2023. Four Vital Ammo Tests You Should Always Perform Before Shooting. Here’s a helpful article by Carroll Pilant, Sierra Bullets Media Relations Manager. This story originally appeared on the Sierra Bullets Blog. It covers some of the most common ammo problems faced by hand-loaders. These issues include excessive OAL, high primers and incorrectly-sized cases. Here is Mr. Pilant’s explanation of how to avoid common problems that can lead to “headaches” at the range. Last fall, I had some gentlemen come to my house to get rifle zeros for a forthcoming elk hunt. One man was using a.300 short mag and every third or fourth round wouldn’t chamber. The bulge was found at the body/shoulder junction. These were brand new cases that he had brought on the trip. The seating die was lowered to just touch the shoulder, and then slightly backed up. Some cases were slightly longer than the datum line, and the shoulder was hitting the seating die and creating a bulge on the shoulder. I was thinking about all the gun problems I see at matches. The majority of them are caused by poor handloading techniques. I don’t like the way people treat my rifles. I cringe everytime I see them do that. I often ask them if they run the ammo through the chamber gage. They usually reply, “No, but we need one” or “I don’t have the time” or some other excuse. A chamber gauge quickly reveals long or short cases. It can make the difference between a nightmare and a smooth-running firearm.
Properly Size Your Cases
Sizing the case can also be a problem. The expander ball will be easier to remove if you lubricate the neck. The expander ball will make a loud squeak when it comes out of the case neck. Sometimes, this is a matter of pulling the neck/shoulder up several thousandths. This is enough to make sure that the bullet doesn’t jam into the chamber like an old cork if there isn’t a bulge at the shoulder. The rifle will not fire if it is correctly set up. However, if the round is stuck in the chamber, it will not go into battery. This could have been caught by a chamber gage. The firing pin is not long enough to reach the primer solidly enough to ignite the case 100% of the times. If you have one that is too large, you will have several. This is because you are likely to do multiple cases at once on the same die setting. The problem will continue with the next batch of cases if the die is not adjusted. They will not fire or they will misfire a lot. The bolt action will require that the extractor holds the case against the breech for a long time so that it fires. The case is driven forward, and the brass’s thinner portion expands, holding the chamber wall. The thicker portion of the case doesn’t expand as much and stretches back towards the bolt face. It will separate again if it doesn’t. It will separate the front part of the case from the chamber and pull the case head-off when it does. It then attempts to chamber the next round but gets stuck. This is often caused by range brass. You don’t know how many times it was fired/sized or in what firearm. You can continue beating it on the ground until you realize that the forward portion of the case must be removed. When the bristles are pulled back, they act as barbs within the case. To prevent future problems, I would throw away any oversized cases that have been fired. If they haven’t been fired, there are some tricks that you can use to save them. A case gage would have been helpful.Two. Double-check Your Primers. Another thing I see quite often is a high, backwards, or no primer. High primers can cause a misfire or a slam-fire due to the firing pin seating the primer and consuming its energy. To ensure that my rifle ammo works 100% of the time, I use a case gage to check it. I then place it in an ammo container with the primer up. I then run my finger across the primers to check their depth. You should also check your overall cartridge length. Too much ammo can cause problems. You should leave enough space between the tip and the magazine so that the rounds can feed 100%. Over the years, I’ve heard hunters get their rifle ready for hunting. They would load each shot individually and go to the range to sight-in. They discover that the magazine is too long for the ammunition to fit into the magazine when they reach the elk camp or deer camp. They have one shot at most, but it could be worse. I’ve seen hunters who had their buddies load the ammo for them, and then meet them at hunting camp to find that the ammo wouldn’t chamber because the bullet was too long or the case was sized incorrectly. This happens more often in rifle cartridges than in handgun cartridges. This is likely due to handgun ammunition being loaded on progressive presses in greater quantities. You may not realize how many rifle cartridges don’t contain powder. Because the pistol case has a smaller internal capacity, the bullet will stick to the barrel just enough to dislodge from it. A rifle has more internal capacity, and a better grip on your bullet because it has a smaller diameter and a longer bearing surface. A.223 rifle case may not dislodge the bullet from the case. This is because it has a smaller diameter and a longer bearing surface. I then inspect the powder and pull the one that doesn’t look the right level. To check if there are any visuals inside, I inspect the first case. Then, I charge all three cases. If a case has powder buildup, just dump it in the next one. This allows you to see the powder as the bullet rotates. If you have accidentally poured a partial or double charge, it will be obvious as you begin to seat the bullet. If I don’t load a progressive cartridge in one smooth stroke (say, a bullet was tipped over sideways and I raised it slightly to reset it), some presses actually back the charge back, adding more powder if it has already deposited some. This will give you a full charge plus a partial. If I can’t finish the procedure in one stroke, I pull out the case with powder inside it and either check the powder charge or dump the powder into the measure and run it through later.
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