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I just bought a s/h Whitworth 7mm RM 'stalking rifle' in excellent condition and proudly installed a similarly good Pecar 3-7× variable. It has a surprisingly tight chamber for a belted magnum but takes Winchester and Remington factory ammo OK. I then bought some apparently new RCBS dies at a gun show and a buddy gave me some little-used brass he found at the range. Trouble is nothing I can think of will let me chamber the brass after FL or partial sizing, even after trimming. The dies came in el-cheapo packaging and had to be assembled when I got them but otherwise look much like other sets of my dies that came in the green box. Obviously the brass was fired in a larger chamber but a 338WM case I necked down won't fit, either. Any suggestions? | ||
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If you heven't alreadt, try screwing down ths FL die until if contacts the shellholder, then size a couple of pieces of brass and test whether they chamber normally. Hunting.... it's not everything, it's the only thing. | |||
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I don't know how it would work on a belted magnum case but for bottle neck rimless cartridges we sometimes needed to shave the shell holder down a bit. PA Bear Hunter, NRA Benefactor | |||
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I recently had a similar experience involving a New factory 257 roberts rifle. Factory rounds chambered and fired fine, no resistance on cambering very little effort for bolt lift and extraction. When full lenght resized and loaded they are hard to chamber. I tried full lenght resized case without a bullet seated and had the same result. Tried chambering a fired case with nothing done, chambered fine. Tried neck sizing only and they chambered as if they were factory no problem at all. Talked to my gunsmith his explanation was a very tight chamber and when resized it pushed enough brass back at the base to make chambering tight. Not sure if that is your problem, just something to check. | |||
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Could just be the dies. I had a 25-06 and RCBS dies would not size the cases properly. I could run them through a 30-06 die with out the decapper, then they would fit. Redding dies solved the problem! | |||
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You need to get a chamber cast of guns chamber and your dies. Those dies sound like custom dies for who knows what? Guess and by gosh can be tricky and perhaps dangerous.. Ray Atkinson Atkinson Hunting Adventures 10 Ward Lane, Filer, Idaho, 83328 208-731-4120 rayatkinsonhunting@gmail.com | |||
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Check the decapping pin. I had a set of Hornady 243 dies where the upper taper of the pin had a groove on it and it would catch in the neck of the case as it was withdrawn and pull the whole case longer. The die body was pushing the shoulder back .002" when the case went in and the sizing button was stretching the case .003-.004" longer on the up stroke. I found it by pulling the decapping pin and trying sized cases in the chamber which worked perfectly but with the decapping pin installed the cases wouldn't chamber. Using a magnifying glass I could see a groove in the top of the decapping pin button that was catching on the inside of the bottom of the neck of the cases. Frank "I don't know what there is about buffalo that frightens me so.....He looks like he hates you personally. He looks like you owe him money." - Robert Ruark, Horn of the Hunter, 1953 NRA Life, SAF Life, CRPA Life, DRSS lite | |||
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Do you know anyone else with a 7 mag, if so, see if your rounds fit in their chamber. If they do, you may have an undersized chamber. If they don’t fit, the dies must be over polished. I recently had a set of RCBS dies that would not size enough so that the case neck would hold a bullet, after resizing. Sent the dies to RCBS, said the resize die was over polished, and they made a new resize die, free. NRA Patron member | |||
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Thanks guys, I see some good ideas there. Initially, I was pleased at the tight chamber, having got sick of the Sako blowing out the shoulder on the .338 for 45 years. I might try removing the decapping pin and maybe filing the shell holder. A mate wonders if a shim in the bottom of it might work. Considering how I bought the dies and problems of international postage, sending them back to RCBS might be a bridge too far. It might be easier and no dearer just to buy other dies and flog these ones at a discount. | |||
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super common problem with the belted cases. there was a guy that made a sizing ring kit to fix the issue, but I don't think he makes them any more. [someone else might] the issue is generally just above the belt, and the ring sizer was designed to work on this part of the case. measure there. you might get lucky and can cut off another size die for a normal case and use it to get them to chamber. | |||
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Rereading all the suggestions above reminds me I had the same problem chambering once fired then FL sized ( Redding FL die ) into my Tikka T3X rifle in 300 Win Mag. This was after a new barrel had been installed and didn't occur with the factory barrel. The rifle and FL die went back to the barrel installer to be checked. They found the problem solveable by trimming a little from the bottom of the die. After that everything was perfet. Some people achieve the same fix by shaving a little off ths top of a shellholder and if might be a better initial approach than die trimming as if it's a cockup the shellholder is much cheaper to replace. Hunting.... it's not everything, it's the only thing. | |||
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Weird things can happen sometimes when resizing cases. Cases from factory fired ammo in my 7mm WSM re-chamber perfectly without resizing but do not chamber if only partially resized in the F/L die, sizing the neck without touching the shoulders. Cases must be fully resized with a bump on the shell holder. After opening up a Hornady 7mm neck sizing die to take the fat WSM case they chamber perfectly after neck sizing. Something happens to a WSM case when only partially resizing in a F/L die that prevents the case chambering, dpcd did explain the cause once on another post but I've forgotten what it was. | |||
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I don't recall the cartridge for sure. Years ago I had about the same problem. I have never liked the inside sizer plug design of RCBS. I had another brand of the same caliber. The ball on that one was a smooth egg shape. Feeling that would be much better, yet wasn't as polished as I wanted. Ran it on the lathe with 1000grit paper until I was happier with the polish. It feeds thru much better now. one thing I discovered was make sure there's case lube inside the necks of your brass. It don't take much, but, they will stretch a bit when dry. It was very possible my experience was with the .358RUM I had made. know I had a die set for .35Rem of some other brand. Look thru your other dies for such an egg shape ball. Maybe one of the others can name the brand I can't recall. Enjoy the challenges Paul! George "Gun Control is NOT about Guns' "It's about Control!!" Join the NRA today!" LM: NRA, DAV, George L. Dwight | |||
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Once you do get your cases sized to fit the RCBS dies that you have will more than likely be okay because whatever rifle the brass you got was fired in has a larger chamber then your rifle. One thing to try those is to marker pen up your entire case and then try it in your rifle, don't force it much, extract a little bit, then try again. The reason for twice is to make marks on the case on the marker pen covering. Becareful as not to booger up the marker pen covering. Feed the case in the chamber directly, not from the magazine. Then tell us where the case is rubbing. | |||
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As mentioned, a common problem. Regular sizing dies don't reach all of the way to the belt. A company called "Innovative Technologies" (www.larrywillis.com) makes a 'collet die', that fixes the problem and returns the case to 'chamberable' size. It isn't cheap, but it works. Saved me a nice amount of STW brass that had been fired in a different rifle. Don't know if they export, or not. | |||
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The reason a belt was invented was to give the case an area to headspace on because it is either a straight wall case or has a VERY mininum shoulder and this is very important on dangerous big game animals. Example would be a 458 Winchester Magnum. What happene though is all the idiot ammo manufacturers used the belt on cartridges that definitely don't need a belt solely as a sales gimmick. Another example is many knowledgeable reloaders resizer their belted cases to headspace on the shoulder. Good example of that is a 7mm Remington Magnum or 300 Winchester Magnum. One very noteable writer machined off the belts on his 7mm Remington Magnum cases. I'm not advising you to do that. | |||
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To check if the F/L die is capable of resizing the cases to chamber in your rifle remove the sizing stem and plug, lube a case and use a vise to force the case as far into the die as the belt allows. While the case is in the die see if you can clip the shell holder to the head of the case and ensure the case head is snug to the shell holder base. If you can't clip the shell holder to the base of the case sand or grind off the top of the shell holder until it fits as described above. Once this is achieved insert the die back into the press, raise the ram and slip the shell holder into the ram and the case base and extract the case. Hopefully cases will now size enough to chamber in your rifle. Remember that belted cases can only be inserted into a sizing die as far as the belt will allow when seated to the belt recess in the die. Shaving the mouth of the die or the face of the shell holder won't achieve anything if the belt is already fully seated in it's recess in the F/L die. | |||
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And if reloads that way with the belt ALL the way in he's going to be in case separation heaven because that pushes the shoulder back. The OP's best best is to buy new brass. Then when gets fired cases from that he should marker pen the shoulder and don't have the resizing dies touching the shell holder and keep turning the die down little by little until the die just "kisses" the marker pen coating. Set the die there. | |||
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My suggestion was just a method to determine if shaving the die mouth or the face of the shell holder would size the case anymore to allow a fit in the chamber. If a case is already being forced into the F/L die as far as the belt recess allows and it still won't chamber then there is an issue with the die that shaving the die mouth or shell holder won't solve. My suggestion had nothing to do with reloading per se - if the die is incapable of sizing cases fired in another rifle to fit sambarman's rifle then he won't be be able to reload them will he  | |||
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Thanks for all the replies. After a short trip away I got to it yesterday and finally got results by filing the shell holder and putting a couple of shims under the rims. I must reload urgently for a range trip but will add more to this discussion in a few days. | |||
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Well, my reloads worked ok, but my fitter/turner buddy is going to mill more off the top of the shellholder, after which it will be more-perfectly flat and should not need the shims inside. The 'Whitworth' rifle does not seem especially accurate with its original bedding but does shoot well with 140-grain Barnes TTSX bullets. With them I had six bullets go into two inches despite adding corrections mid-way. Three or four shots from the second setting may have gone under one inch. Though I have no knowledge of their killing power so far, I have found those bullets the most accurate in my 270 WSM and 338WM rifles, too. Thinking of your comments, George, the neck-expanding ball is what keeps the decapping pin located but it seems to me that the 'square' back screwed into the stem is wider than the ball - and I don't get that. I can't measure it to be sure, though, because my mate has taken the dies to inform the shellholder milling. | |||
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