New bullet won’t chamber…

[Ky-Dave]

I recently bought a Lee 309-150F to cast for my Winchester 94 Canadian centennial.
The bullets are coated and sized at .309. Cases are trimmed. They are crimped at the crimp groove. The OAL is 2.445. They won’t chamber and it appears the rifling is hitting on the ogive. The slight ring is from a sharp edge on Lee seater die. The bare spot on the side near the case is a flaw in my coating. I think those two marks in the middle are rifling. Is there anything else to do, or just try another mold?
Thank you,
David

[ryanmattes]

Seat deeper and adjust your charge accordingly, or look for a different profile mold. You want it close to the rifling, but no so close it won't seat fully.

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[Baja_Traveler]

You can use that same mold, just adjust your seat/crimp die a little further in. It's not mandatory to crimp on the groove, in fact all new molds I get I carefully adjust until the bullet is a few thousandths off the rifling.

[45workhorse]

Make a dummy round up, uncoated, and see if they will chamber. Wouldn't be the first time the power coat was to thick on the ogive, has happened to me.

[ryanmattes]

My usual process is it seat a slug long in an empty case, just neck tension no crimp, and then firmly close it into battery so it forces the bullet in from the rifling. Base on where the rifling marks are, I'll seat a few thousandths back to have it just off the rifling. I'll make another, unmarked dummy at that length to test fit, and that one I'll crimp it in place and check for smooth cycle and feeding from a magazine.

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[Mk42gunner]

Or try nose sizing.

Robert

[samari46]

I have both the carbine and long rifles with the 20" & 26" long barrels. Bought both at different times so no consecutive serial numbers. If I remember right and I suffer from CRS, the rifling begins where the chamber ends. So basically no throat, leade or whatever you want to call it. The carbine being the first one I bought does have wear to the beginning of the rifling where the throat would be. The rifle is basically unfired. So my suggestion would be seat slightly deeper and adjust your powder charge accordingly. Or and this is a big or, see about getting a throating reamer for your Canadian Centennial. My Ruger #1 in 45/70 also has this problem. Rifling starts where the chamber ends. Frank

[358429]

Do the cartridge casings fit the gun and allow the bolt to easily close? (Before the bullet is installed)

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[high standard 40]

Or try nose sizing.

Robert

This is what I would do.

[ABJ]

I suspect the powder coating on the nose is pushing it north .300. My Winchester's will not take a .300 nose. They will take a .299 nose. Like others have said seat just a tad deeper. My lee 150 throws .298/.299 nose in my alloy.
Tony

[RickinTN]

Leave the coating off and I'll bet you have a good fit.
Rick

[Soundguy]

might harden it up a bhn or 3 and see what you get...

[rintinglen]

I had to throat the chamber on my Theodore Roosevelt Commemorative to get it to shoot any cast boolit other than the 311-041. I ordered the chamber throat reamer from Brownells and did it myself with no problems and excellent results. I gave that gun to a very good friend for his help in moving. He had often expressed his admiration for it, but with a wife and 4 children, he couldn't afford one.

[charlie b]

As others have noted this is a perfect example of needing to have the nose sized. That series of Lee designed bullets are bore riders, ie, the nose of the bullet is supposed to fit in the rifling with the bullet just touching the lands.

The problem is the powder coating increases the diameter of the nose of the bullet. That small increase in dia is enough to keep it from chambering in some rifles.

I had the opposite problem with my .308. The uncoated bullet was just a tad too small in dia (bore is .302"). Powder coating made it fit perfectly.

If the above post about no throat is correct for your rifle then you will be seating cast bullets fairly deep. Not a big deal for a .30-30 with the long neck. Reduce max loads a bit as the volume inside the case will be less.

If you do not want to nose size then you will need a different design bullet. If you are going to shoot mostly cast bullets then reaming the throat would be something to consider.

PS doing a pound cast would help determine the dimensions of the throat and bore of your barrel.

[mehavey]

Engagement:
PC can (usually does) affect ogive engagement dimensions -- just the nature of the beast.
Either use thin-coat/baked Liquid ALOX (recommended), or seat deeper by the length of rifling marks

Seating Ring:
The seating "ring" can be handled by using a flat-nosed seater
- Barely start the seating (lines things up vertically on flat nose)....then
- Rotate the case/bullet 180 and fully seat home

[Soundguy]

Fyi.. Anyone else having problems with reply notifications not navigating to this message? Looks like an odd character ' in the link

[gwpercle]

The powder coating is making the nose too large .
I use this one (150 gr.) and the 170 gr. boolit in Win. model 94 , size .309" but I dont powder coat .
Try dip lube or tumble lube or convential lube/size and see how they work .
You may need a special mould made for powder coating and taking the extra thickness of the powder coating into consideration .

Adjust your seating stem fit with a small ball of epoxy putty , place into cleaned stem and gently seat a greased boolit about halway into the case , let epoxy set with handle pressure on boolit , after setting , remove and let cure .
Any boolit with a flat spot can be seated with a flat stem ... fill the cavity with epoxy putty , let harden , sand dead flat ... wah-Lah flat seating stem .
Gary

[RickinTN]

You can try a bare bullet in the muzzle of the rifle for bullet fit. It's not the throat that is too small for the coated bullet, it's the bore. It is, as mentioned above. a bore riding bullet. It should fit the bore snug, but not as snug as your picture shows.
Rick

[ryanmattes]

Also, if your PC is too thick, a single coat of HiTek might do the same job but much thinner.

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[Ky-Dave]

Thank you for all of the responses. It is too much PC on the ogive. Non PC bullets are .299, after PC they are .306. I looked up nose sizing and think I’ll give it a go. It seems Lee has a .285 that I can open up.
Again, thank you to everyone. I learn something every time I come here.
David