Thread: Head Space Struggles with the 6.5x55.

Greetings to you all,
I fully accept that for many handloading is a reasonable cheap and convenient way to feed their hunting rifles and there is nothing wrong in that. Loading US cartridges with US dies is reasonably trouble free and most of my rifles have chambers that differ little from the cases produced by Full Length sizing with the die hard down on the shell holder. For non US cartridges things are different for the reasons stated in my earlier post. There are three main problems that can arise in firing a handload in a chamber with excessive head space.
1. The round fails to fire or shows erratic ignition and poor accuracy due to a soft firing pin strike. The firing pin has to move the cartridge to the front of the chamber which take up some of the energy.
2. An unfired round can not be extracted as the extractor has not popped over the rim. More prevalent in push feed actions.
3. The case head separates from the case body after two or three firings leaving the front of the case stuck in the chamber. Common with Lee Enfields.
I have seen all of these things happen over the years and it never improves your day if out hunting.

I fully admit to being somewhat OCD when it comes to handloading, partly due to working with figures initially as a draughtsman and later manager and planner. Now retired I have the time to dig into the vast rabbit warren that is handloading so each to their own.
Regards Grandpamac.