Hi Everyone,
I'm having an issue when I feed the bullet into the chamber with the bolt, I cannot manually eject the unfired shell. I usually loaded nosler ballistic tips and recently switched to hornady vmax. I colored the bullets with a sharpie and the nosler barley if at all touches the rifling. The hornady, however, had a ring on the bullet where the sharpie wore off from contacting the rifling. It looks like there is more of a 'shoulder' on the vmax vs the ballistic tip. So far it has not effected accuracy. I know some guys like the bullet touching the rifling, but if its engaged so much to the point where i can not manually extract the shell, is that bad? can it do any damage to the barrel, bolt face, etc.?
Or would you recommend seating the bullet a little more into the case? I really dont want to do that since I have quite a few loaded already, which obviously was a mistake....
Thanks for any input

It is usually divots at each land not a "ring".

It sound like something else is wrong.

The biggest 'gotcha' is when the bullet sticks and pulls free.
The powder in the shell than spills and ofrten ends up in the trigger mechanism.

Touching (or a littel more0 is not a problem if the load was worked up under those conditions.
It increases pressure. Not a big deal if you started that way.
NOT a good idea with a load that is already developed and may not have the 'margin' for a pressure increase.

Yeah it's bad. You can't unload the rifle. There is a pretty good chance that you are actually seating the bullet deeper when you chamber the round.

So all you need to do is seat the bullet so its just contacting the rifling and your accuracy very likely won't change and you'll be able to unload your rifle.

Motor

If you do not have load data specific to that bullet you need to call the manufacturer and get the recommended OAL for that bullet. Sounds like you are way off.

Thanks Motor1, will do that.  I am over .015 COL that is listed in hornady manual....

COL is usually a magazine limit.

Different bullets can have different ogives, the arc from the waist of the bullet to the tip.   That's all it takes to push the rifling contact point around.  Most ar stuff like has been mentioned is limited by the magazine length.  The 80 grainers and up are meant to be loaded longer than mag length and single loaded not through the magazine.  You shouldn't be running into this issue at mag length.


I sit corrected by the post below, not an AR most likely.

OP, really it's not that big a deal to seat a bit farther.  Yes you have to set the seater for the new depth.  

If you wish to come back to this setting, you can run a line with a paint marker on blue parts or el marko for in the white.  lock nut, stem, and die body.   Then move it for the new bullet,  when done if you were going back to the old bullet permanently just re align your marks.  Also good to see if they wander on your.  I once ran into your situation when my lock nut loosened and the works were backing out.

Another thing I do for my varmint guns or pretend sniper rifles is to find out what seating length each bullet type contacts the rifling.  There are different reloading tools to help you check your length to the rifling.  One can make a simple one for each caliber by simply cutting your neck on a piece of brass with 4 longitudinal slots right out the mouth.  The 4 petals will hold a bullet like a collet.  Stick it in long and carefully close the bolt and let the rifling seat the bullet to the depth.  It's a little finicky but it is one way.  You could also just take the bolt out and press the modified brass with bullet combo In with a pencil.   Another kind of course measure is with a cleaning rod down the muzzle.  First stick the rod down the bore from the muzzle to the bolt face, hold it there and put a piece of scotch tape around the rod flush with the muzzle.  Retract rod 5 inch or so.  Insert bullet only into chamber and hold it lightly against the rifling with a pencil.  Move rod to contact bullet tip.  Apply another piece of tape flush with the muzzle.  Measure from the edge of tape to the edge of tape (both sides were across the muzzle, not the space in between the two pieces of tape.

Record your number somewhere you keep your gun info.  It's kind of neat to be able to repeat the test and check for throat erosion.   Save the exact bullet though in a labled zip lock as all bullets from the box aren't the same.

It may be for an AR-15. Unless I missed something I didn't see where the OP specified what type or even caliber he was working with.

By the "sounds" of it I think its some type of bolt action. But that's just a guess.

Motor

It's a cross-post from AR Discussion.



http://www.ar15.com/forums/t_3_118/691427_Bullet_Stuck_in_chamber.html

Thanks. That clears that up.

It doesn't change any of my comments or recommendation though.  It's a custom barrel and as he stated above he is .015" over the recommended OAL.

He clearly stated that other than the fact that the bullets were sticking in tbe bore the rifle was shooting great and was worried if seating deeper would degrade accuracy.

I'm suggesting that if in fact they are long enough the stick into the bore that they are likely being set back some as well.

So seating them deeper will likely not have much if any negative impact on accuracy because he'll just be putting them where they will be "just" touching the lands.

This doesn't have to be guess work. There are tools as well as home methods of checking for at what OAL your bullets will be contacting the lands.

I check this dimension and record it for most of my loads. Yes it is true that by far in .223/5.56 AR-15 type rifles that OAL is "normally" limited by magazine length. But with a platform that has as many custom parts available as a Harley Davidson nothing is set in stone.

Motor

In and AR.

You should not be able to contact the rifling with a round that fits the Mag using an SP type bullet.

As pointed out above, contact with the rifling will NOT show a "ring" around the bullet.

Something is wrong with the chamber or you are misreading the problem.  Stop shooting that rifle till you figure this out.

Take an offending round and bull the bullet out of the case, see if the empty case chambers and extracts with ease.

Have a competent gunsmith check, measure the chamber and the throat.