OK, I know not a handgun and not even a Smith quesion. Asking forgiveness in advance.

My latest adventure in reloading is for my .25-06 Ruger NO.1B. The rifle has been incredibly accurate with the factory Winchester 120gr. PXP loading. If I do my part, it will routinely cloverleaf a 3 round group at 100 yards. So I haven't yet tried handloading for it, until now.

I'm starting with the Hornady 120gr. HP bullet and H4831SC powder. I loaded to the max COL stated in the manual of 3.250. I tried to chamber a round in the rifle, and while the action will close it feels like it is dragging on the case head. Tried one of my factory Winchesters and the action snaps shut no problem. I measured the Winchester round and it measures at 3.100. I shortened my seating depth to 3.180 and inked the bullet, I'm free of the lands and the action works freely.

I'm just wondering if I may have a tight or slighly short chamber in my NO.1 With all of my other rifles that I reload for, I've never had a bullet making contact with the lands at max COL.

OK, I know not a handgun and not even a Smith quesion. Asking forgiveness in advance.

My latest adventure in reloading is for my .25-06 Ruger NO.1B. The rifle has been incredibly accurate with the factory Winchester 120gr. PXP loading. If I do my part, it will routinely cloverleaf a 3 round group at 100 yards. So I haven't yet tried handloading for it, until now.

I'm starting with the Hornady 120gr. HP bullet and H4831SC powder. I loaded to the max COL stated in the manual of 3.250. I tried to chamber a round in the rifle, and while the action will close it feels like it is dragging on the case head. Tried one of my factory Winchesters and the action snaps shut no problem. I measured the Winchester round and it measures at 3.100. I shortened my seating depth to 3.180 and inked the bullet, I'm free of the lands and the action works freely.

I'm just wondering if I may have a tight or slighly short chamber in my NO.1 With all of my other rifles that I reload for, I've never had a bullet making contact with the lands at max COL.

You need to make a chamber cast to determine if your chamber has a short "leade". Actually, a short leade is more of a good thing. It gives you more barrel life as the throat advances from erosion. Many factory chambering operations are done in one pass: chamber and throat are cut at same time. Some custom rifles are chambered and throated separately, per customer request, for specific performance with a given weight/length of bullet.

Please remember that COL is the dimension used for for SAAMI cartridge exterior length standards as used in magazine box rifles. It does not apply to the No. 1, as you noticed.

What I would do is to obtain Winchester 120 gr PXP bullets and try to duplicate the factory velocities using WW ball powder. That should give you a good place to start looking for accuracy loads.

I'm unclear? Did you compare cartridge length between the factory (virgin) round and your reload? Do you have any of the factory stuff left that you could pull down for a critical comparison? "If" the only thing that's been changed is an increase in the OAL and it closes freely, then I'm REALLY confused? I'd like to see a chamber measurement and I'd sure like to compare a virgin case to a resized for cartridge length, neck and cartridge base to bottleneck of case measurement comparisons? If factory stuff is OK it sounds like a brass issue to me?
Please tell us what you find!

A quick and dirty solution. Put some graphite in the neck of you brass, motor mica works also.
I had a similar problem years ago. The neck expander plug when pulled back thru the neck pulled the neck shoulder forward a bit. A bit of dry lube solved the problem.

Jim

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The brass you are reloading:

Was it fired in the rifle you are using?
Was it full length sized completely?
Was it trimmed to length?
The suggestion to dry lube the inside of the case necks is a good tip too as the expander plug can lengthen the case if you have a lot of friction.
As noted is previous post, COL has no relevance in the No. 1. I have some No. 1's and 3's and are my favorites. I generally seat to within .025 inches of the leade.

I think John Traveler has it nailed with the short leade issue. I just wasn't thinking late last night and was getting frustrated. Reloaded cases are Winchester that have been once-fired in the rifle before and I did full length re-size them. I did lube the inside of the case mouth with Hornady One Shot when I resized them.

I've checked all of the other dimensions between my reloads and the factory round. They're all very close except of the COL. The Winchester factory rounds seem to have a sharper taper to the tip of the bullet than the Hornady. That's another reason I'm thinking it's a seating depth issue. Like I said, I've since seated to 3.180. I'm hoping to get out to the range today or tomorrow to see how it does.

What Lafayne said.
Thats why I case length trim after the brass is first fired out of my own chamber. I've even experienced virgin brass that was "long". As well as what Pete mentioned. In particular on one Sako Finnbear in .30-06 I own.

Take a look at the "Stoney Point" OAL gauge from Hornady, as well as their bullet comparitor. Without some form of measurement you're just guessing at OAL. Bullet length may vary .010-.015 just due to tip variations.

Also, some guns like bullets touching the lands, some like bullets to jump, and some want them seated into the lands. As previously mentioned, the bulet will probably end up plus or minus .020-.025 of the lands.

Good shooting.

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Good shooting.