I'm a new reloader that just recently learned the method of testing shoulder bump by taking the firing pin and extractor out of the bolt and then bumping case shoulders until the bolt drops on a loaded case without resistance. Then the ol' scotch tape trick to double check. Cortina's video on that was great. Worked great on my hunting 6.5 PRC Seekins element, then great on my Lone Peak Fuzion 6 Dasher. I'm feeling good about myself and feel like I'm starting to get it...but then I pick up a custom build with a Bighorn Origin in 223 rem. The bolt doesn't have an extractor (see below). So I just take out the firing pin assembly. I tried some virgin brass and bolt closes no problem. But then I put in some x1 fireformed brass that was shot out of this same rifle, and bolt also closes as freely as the virgin brass. Am I missing something? Shouldn't the fireformed brass be sized, and shouldn't the bolt be tough/impossible to close with this unsized fireformed brass? If it isn't, how am I supposed to do the old bolt/scotch-tape test if even unsized brass fits fine? Thought maybe the barrel breakin rounds I shot were too light to truly fireform the brass, but that seems really unlikely. I fireformed with Varget; velocities were upper 2700s, and TAC; velocities from 2700 to almost 3100.



