Thread: first time reloading.

And also, if you got to the stage you had real trouble opening your bolt you went WAY too far. You would have felt it starting to get heavier before then surely?
Load a dummy round and colour the projectile in marker pen, chamber it and eject it. Look if it has marks where it has contacted the lands. Another way to do it is to remove the firing pin assembly ( a remington you push the wee square edge on the rear of the bolt onto something and slide a 20c coin into the slot that appears then unwind it from the bolt body) from the rifle and you can get a feel what it's like with an empty case and a loaded case. It's very noticeable if the projectiles are getting jammed.