Olon
Member
Well, this morning I woke up excited to test some reloads. I had some loads I wanted to test for my .270 as well as a new load I wanted to try out in my AR. Made some mistakes that turned a fun trip to the range into a frustrating experience...
Lesson 1: There's a reason people clean brass, and it ain't just to keep things shiny.
There have been a few times where I've been shooting reloads through my AR and the bolt doesn't close all the way. The cartridge gets stuck and won't fully go into the chamber, and I never really understood why. I chalked it up to a dirty gun, which is ridiculous because I always clean my guns right after I shoot them. Well, this happened this morning too and I was ticked off. It happened with two of the three rounds I tried to shoot, and I had to mortar the gun (more on that later) to get them out. Upon inspection of the cases of these cartridges, I noticed they were quite dirty. These had both been used twice already, and the carbon buildup on the throat and shoulder was noticeable. To test my theory, I got a rag wet with Hoppes and wiped all the crud off the shoulder and neck. Viola, they chambered perfectly. I hadn't cleaned any of these cases before because I was under the impression that cleaning was just an aesthetic thing or a process you'd go through for some fancy precision rifle. That's why I always clean my .270 cases. I just use my AR for plinking, so I didn't care really. Lesson learned. I'll now wipe the cases down well before resizing.
Lesson 2: Collapse your stock before you mortar your gun if you have to do that.
When that first case stuck, I couldn't get the bolt open so I had to mortar the thing. Well, I forgot to collapse my dinky DPMS adjustable stock and, upon slamming the thing on the ground, I left a few broken plastic pieces behind. I'd done it before collapsing it but this time I didn't think about that. I was cold and ready to be done so I guess I just overlooked it. Now I'm searching for a new stock, probably fixed this time
Never like that one anyway I guess...
Learn from my mistakes. This really put a damper on the whole range session for me. At least I got SOMETHING out of it though, and hopefully this will help somebody else out.
As for the .270 loads, I picked the windiest day of the week so I didn't get anywhere with that. About 20 mph sustained crosswind with gusts higher than that. Got to shoot my hunting rifle though, so that was fun at least.
Lesson 1: There's a reason people clean brass, and it ain't just to keep things shiny.
There have been a few times where I've been shooting reloads through my AR and the bolt doesn't close all the way. The cartridge gets stuck and won't fully go into the chamber, and I never really understood why. I chalked it up to a dirty gun, which is ridiculous because I always clean my guns right after I shoot them. Well, this happened this morning too and I was ticked off. It happened with two of the three rounds I tried to shoot, and I had to mortar the gun (more on that later) to get them out. Upon inspection of the cases of these cartridges, I noticed they were quite dirty. These had both been used twice already, and the carbon buildup on the throat and shoulder was noticeable. To test my theory, I got a rag wet with Hoppes and wiped all the crud off the shoulder and neck. Viola, they chambered perfectly. I hadn't cleaned any of these cases before because I was under the impression that cleaning was just an aesthetic thing or a process you'd go through for some fancy precision rifle. That's why I always clean my .270 cases. I just use my AR for plinking, so I didn't care really. Lesson learned. I'll now wipe the cases down well before resizing.
Lesson 2: Collapse your stock before you mortar your gun if you have to do that.
When that first case stuck, I couldn't get the bolt open so I had to mortar the thing. Well, I forgot to collapse my dinky DPMS adjustable stock and, upon slamming the thing on the ground, I left a few broken plastic pieces behind. I'd done it before collapsing it but this time I didn't think about that. I was cold and ready to be done so I guess I just overlooked it. Now I'm searching for a new stock, probably fixed this time
Never like that one anyway I guess...Learn from my mistakes. This really put a damper on the whole range session for me. At least I got SOMETHING out of it though, and hopefully this will help somebody else out.
As for the .270 loads, I picked the windiest day of the week so I didn't get anywhere with that. About 20 mph sustained crosswind with gusts higher than that. Got to shoot my hunting rifle though, so that was fun at least.
