260 & Bergers

accubond · Jan 7, 2016

Gentleman,

I ordered a couple sample packs of Bergers in 130 and 140 grain VLD Hunting and I have run into an issue. While tinkering around with seating depth in my dummy case I realized the bullet tips seem to be hitting something between the magazine and the chamber? This happens regardless of seating depth and requires significant force to chamber a round, enough to make me worry about changes being made to seating depth and inducing runout. I have tinkered with Hornady SST's and Accubonds with zero issues. I kind of want to attempt loading some 129 grain ABLR's but before I "pull the trigger" on 100 of them I'm worried they may do the same thing since they are similar in shape to the Bergers. Any insight would be great, thanks!

"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free... it expects what never has and never will be." -Thomas Jefferson

Cahunter805 · Jan 7, 2016

What kind of rifle? What oal are you loading? Bergers do have a long nose profile and may be hitting the feed ramp at a somewhat awkward angle. Give us some more info.

accubond · Jan 7, 2016

Sorry, I forgot to mention the gun and COAL details. The gun is a Remington 700 SPS and the COAL was anywhere from 2.800" to .010" off the lands, which is way out there.

"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free... it expects what never has and never will be." -Thomas Jefferson

Zeke · Jan 8, 2016

There's a feeding ramp that the bullet must run into and this allows the loaded cartridge to slide up out of the rails and ultimately into the chamber.

Sometimes the feeding ramp or the rails need a little polishing to make them smooth and facilitate smooth feeding.
You should be able to see what the bullet is contacting.

In extreme cases you might need to slope the front top edge of the magazine box lip where it joins the feeding ramp.

This migh sound complicated but it's not.

Zeke

Cahunter805 · Jan 8, 2016

LAST EDITED ON Jan-08-16 AT 12:36PM (MST)[p]+1 Zeke

You should be able to see where the bullet tip is making contact with the feed ramp. I usually trim the mag box front to line up with feed ramp also. Very easy to do with a file or dremel

accubond · Jan 8, 2016

Thank you for the feedback guys. The hang up seems to be much farther forward of the front lip of the mag box but I will definitely take another look tonight.

"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free... it expects what never has and never will be." -Thomas Jefferson

Zeke · Jan 8, 2016

Well Mr Accubond
If that's the case the. It should most certainly be the feed ramp but don't neglect the rails since they might have a burr or rough spots and the cartridge has to slide out of them with the forward forced of the bolt and the sliding of the bullet tip up the feeding ramp.
Begin carefully with some 600 wet/dry sand paper and polish those areas of contact.
To polish the feeding ramp you will want to remove the stock and magazine box so you can gain access to the ramp and rails from the bottom side of the receiver.
As we've stated before, try to see exactly where the bullet tip is contacting before beginning polishing.
Good luck,
Zeke

Cahunter805 · Jan 9, 2016

Again I agree with Zeke! If it was a magazine problem your other rounds wouldn't feed smoothly. Great advice from Zeke. I polish with a rubber wheel on a dremel after removing and shaping the feed ramp.