7TCU and Headspacing Questions

[Ranger413]

No, this isn't necessarily a Contender or Encore question but I thought due to the caliber (7TCU) this may be the best place to post. 

I recently re-barreled a Savage rifle for a friend of mine.  This is a custom made barrel and from a reputable barrel maker.  I have properly headspaced the barrel using 7TCU go and no go gauges.  My friend has loaded up several rounds to the recomended C.O.L.  The problem we are having is that when attempting to chamber a round the rifling engages the bullet and we can't get the bolt to close.  I feel that the headspace is correct and that we need to experiment with seating the bullet a bit deeper.  I've done this in the past with my 338-06 rebarreling of a Savage rifle with success. 

My friend is concerned that he'll have to reduce powder charges to accomodate the deeper bullet seating.  Thus, resulting in lower powered rounds than he's been looking for. 

Am I right, should we be experimenting with seating the bullet deeper?  Or, does it sound like we may need to send the barrel off for a deeper throat cut? 

Thanks,

Ranger 413

[DEACONLLB]

I have had the same problem in trying to use the C O L length that was listed in the book on a Ruger #1 and also a custom barrel. One of the members said to take a full length resized case and take a hack saw and split the neck of the un primed case, close the neck up with your fingers enough to hold the bullet just started and push into chamber with your hand and close the action, open the action very easy and remove the case and bullet and measure it This should give you a reading of the COL might have to even back it off a little. I did this and found on the custom barrel the book length was listed as 3.065 but the reading I got from following these instructions was 3.000 and by backing off to 2.090 I guess should say by seating deeper it chambered fine. on the Ruger I had to seat to 2.085. I would think the type of bullet would have a lot to do with the COL as well but if you are working on guns you may already know this. These are the only 2 barrels that I have had a problem with and custom barrels may be made to closer specks than factory run barrels.another thought is to see what the factory case volume is with different COL and then there is the length of the bullet you are useing

Deaconllb