Rounds Difficult To Extract

[Achilles11B]

Wanted to clean my home defense SBR and noticed that when clearing it, the first round was difficult to extract. I have about 30 rounds of HD ammo loaded so I went through all of them and found that about 6 caused the same problem. All rounds loaded fine. I’m looking to find out what causes this to happen. Any assistance is appreciated. Thanks.

[Uni-Vibe]

Assuming that the rifle's headspace is correctly set:

I'm thinking that the cartridge's effective length is just a tad too long, and when the bolt closes on the cartridge, it compresses the case ever so slightly, making it harder to extract the round manually.

Are you full-length resizing? This should always be done in a semi-auto rifle.

Or, the bullet may be too long for the freebore, and get slightly stuck when the round is seated in the chamber. This would leave rifling marks on the bullet that you could easily see.

Be careful here. Some of these problems, if they exist, can cause other difficulties.

[Achilles11B]

The rifle has a factory-built BCM upper and I am full-size resizing. The bullets getting loaded are 55gr Barnes TSX, I don’t think it’s a length issue with the bullet length. Upon remeasuring, about half turned out to be a bit long but the other half were loaded to proper length.

[ggammell]

The rifle has a factory-built BCM upper and I am full-size resizing. The bullets getting loaded are 55gr Barnes TSX, I don’t think it’s a length issue with the bullet length. Upon remeasuring, about half turned out to be a bit long but the other half were loaded to proper length.

I’m reading this as “I don’t think the overall length is the problem but I’ve found a bunch that are too long.” You’re either discounting a reasonable problem or you’re not explaining it well.

[Achilles11B]

I meant that I don’t think the bullets themselves were the problem, but that OAL may be the issue. Sorry about that.

[gaijin]

The Barnes monolithic/solid copper bullets are longer than traditional "jacketed" bullets.
From what you describe I would think your overall length is at issue. As uni-vibe said, a too long overall rd. can/will spike pressures, the Barnes monolithic bullets being pretty unforgiving in this regard.

[Coal Dragger]

Not to beat a dead horse here since I think we have this pretty well figured out thanks to others posting, but I’ll add a few tips that will make life generally easier:

1.) If you’re reloading for a semiautomatic rifle you need to have a case gauge that indicates headspace and case length. They’re not expensive and they’re easy to use, just set your full length small base resizing die to bump the shoulder down to where case headspace is even with the low step. Setting the die in this manner replicates what factory ammo will be, and is recommended for reloads for a semiautomatic rifle. Having a case gauge is also great for periodic spot checks to make sure your die is holding adjustments and that everything is in order with your machine. While you may not have an issue with case dimensions, $30 buys a case gauge and you can absolutely rule that issue out, or correct it if it is an issue.

2.) The Barnes TSX in my limited experience seems to actually perform better if it is allowed to have more free bore. I load the TTSX in .280 Ackley and found through experimentation that basically seating to a factory OAL gave me the best accuracy. I have some 70gr Barnes factory 5.56mm on hand and it shoots just fine seated to a similar OAL to any other factory 5.56mm load. If you find that loading them out closer to the lands is helpful just use a dummy round with blue or black Sharpie marker on the part of the ogive that the rifling will get into, keep increasing seating depth until you no longer have rifling indentations in your marked area on the bullet.

Otherwise good luck, hope you get it sorted out.

[markm]

1.) If you’re reloading for a semiautomatic rifle you need to have a case gauge that indicates headspace and case length.

BINGO! It seems that the op's die might not be set down far enough. A case gauge will easily test this.

[Achilles11B]

I appreciate the assistance. Back to the drawing board,