So.......WHAT IF?

Thanks, Abolt. Did you just grab a round file and go to it? How much filing did it take to get yours working correctly?
 
I really think that a lee factory crimp die would be good insurance.

A heavy crimp with that gives an inertia bullet puller fits.

Just a thought.
 
Yes, just a small, round file will do. We would grind it down a lil and then take a dummy round and slowly feed it in to see where it was still grabbing. It was a easy fix, just time consuming.
 
Though I do not know what would happen in this instance I came across this in my SR 556 manual.

RELOADERS SHOULD USE ONLY CANNELURED BULLETS AND BE SURE TO
CRIMP THEM SECURELY IN THE CARTRIDGE CASE.

I did try some non-cannelured factory rounds and they worked fine but the cannelure with a factory crimp might help prevent it from happening again.
 
First off, make sure your neck tension is good to start. You should be able to strongly push the nose of the bullet of the loaded cartridge against a wood block and not have it move back. If you can set the bullet back, your neck tension is lacking and your expander ball may need corresponding adjustment.

Secondly, don't continue to feed from the same round off the magazine again and again. What I do when I first load the rifle for a day of calling is strip the round off the top of the magazine by hand. Lock the bolt to the rear, point the muzzle down and just drop the round into the chamber. Ride the bolt forward and use the forward assist to put the bolt fully into battery. Lock your magazine into place.

When unloading, drop the magazine, and slowly pull back on the charging handle. Keep the palm of your support hand over the bottom of the magazine well with the fingers covering the ejection port. As you retract the bolt the round will drop right into your palm. Slip the round into a shirt pocket and use that as the round you load on your next stands until fired.

This accomplishes two things: A) It saves the round from the constant rigors of of being chambered from the magazine. B) It is a whole lot quieter in the loading process, usually just a "click" from the bolt locking up when pressing the forward assist.

Something else to check is if your lower has the M4 style feed ramps cut into it. I'm not to keen on the feed angles of the .204, but it may be part of the problem if they are needed and your lower doesn't have them.
 
Last edited:
I had a similar problem with a match rifle I had built. It turned out to be a sharp edge on the feed ramp that was catching the bullet as it went into the chamber. A small file to cut the edge fixed it permanently. It was the corner at the top of the ramp. The machining was sharp enough to cause a very sharp corner at that point that was scoring and catching the bullet jacket.

Take a look at the bullet. If it has two parallel score marks in it from the corner of the feed ramp, polish the corners of the feed ramp to break the edge.

Fast Ed
 
Back
Top