Originally Posted By: ShynlocoRoger,
Everyone before me has covered just about everything that could be the cause of your problem. I experienced much the same issue (and more) with a Ruger M77 Target Gray model and the culprit appeared to be not having bumped the shoulder back sufficiently. But then, I was only able to get 3 reloads out of my Remington brass suggesting a potential headspace issue. That baby was examined by two different experienced Gunsmith (separately and at different time) and she passed the go/no go test with no other noted deficiencies. Still, that girl wouldn't stop eating brass after three reloads. Since I got the BR bug, I'd had enough after about 1 1/2 yrs of foolishness and that baby is now a 6.5X55 that no longer eats brass and shoots like I never thought she ever could. I suppose that's an example of why we refer to our rifles as "she".....get the picture? You just can't please some of them. Hope you find what makes your girl happy.
There are some fundamental things to understand about brass and chambers.
1 - Go and no-go gauges tell you very little about case head separations and headspace problems.
"Headspace" (with a capital "H") is the measurement of the length of the case to a certain place on the case (called the datum line).
In the case of the 22-250, the chamber headspace can be from 1.5749" to 1.5849" - so the chamber has a "window" of 10 thou and still make the "Go and no-go" test.
Add to that, the case itself, with a headspace window of from 1.571" to 1.578".
Now, if you are an astute reader, you will see two things - first, a minimum case (1.571") and a maximum chamber (1.5849") leaves 14 thou of slop in the chamber - and it still meets "SAAMI Spec".
The first time that case is fired, it stretched 14 thou... which is the beginning of the terminal "Head fall off syndrome". That case is on it's way to falling off and there is no way to repair that case - you need to prevent the original stretching.
The second thing you will see is a small "overlap" with a minimum chamber and a maximum case of ~3 thou - meaning that a maximum case is 3 thou longer than a minimum chamber.
This is why some new cases are hard to chamber -- it is fine, just close the bolt and shoot it - the extracted case will fit fine the next time around.
When you are having problems chambering full sized cases, there are a few things to suspect, and a few things to do, before even posting a question about it.
Chamber a fired case without sizing - does it chamber easily?
Chamber a FL sized case just after it is out of the sizer (don't load it) - does it chamber easily?
What is not known by many loaders is that cases grow during the FULL SIZING operation. When you full size, the body gets squished before the shoulder comes in contact with the die - so when you squish the body and make it smaller, the brass has to somewhere, and it goes forward - so the case actually gets longer during FL sizing. So FL sizing can make a case that fits the chamber, now NOT fit the chamber, which is why FL sizing can cause more problems that it solves.
If you have problems at either of these two stages, then that is the time to post a question... NOT after the cases have been completely loaded.
