I'm using a hornady new dimension FL siver on 223s for a tikka t3. I'm having a lot of trouble getting the rounds to chamber easily. I've got the die as low as it can go, even that the press pops a little when it cams over. It's a pretty heavy crush fit with just the sized brass. I've also noticed that the case necks are slightly deformed after they are ejected. I can see on the shoulder where the chamber hits the brass.

I'm thinking the neck expander is stretching the brass a little when its pulled out. I'm using rcbs case lube inside the neck. It happens with all head stamps I've tried.

Would a bushing sizer be likely to solve this problem? Or perhaps a body die?

Hey michael

It sounds like you need to check 2 things first off

Have you trimmed back below the recommended OAL for the case? If your case is too long then it would not chamber easy. That would also cause the necks to deform when firing. I had a bad caliper when I first started reloading and had that same problem until I discovered it.

Is your die contacting the shoulder and pushing it back? I have had dies that were too long and had to have 1/4" taken off the bottom at a machine shop (they are case hardened and can not be filed). Some prefer to take some off the shell holder but they are case hardened also and hard to file. If you are not pushing the shoulder back that will cause a crush fit between the case shoulder and chamber shoulder.

As far as dies go, the bushing dies work best if you neck turn and can take out the expander ball. If you buy a bushing die and leave the expander in then you might as well have a FL die.

I use a Lee Collet neck sizer and a Redding Body Die for almost all my resizing. But a Redding Body Die was one of those that was too long and had to be cut off. Dies will not necessarily solve your problem. If you have a short shouldered chamber then you may have to cut off a die or shell holder.

If you decide that you need to lower the die a bit more just take some material off the top of the shellholder. It doesn't have to be a perfect machine shop job....just hold it against a grinding wheel with a vice grip and take off about .010". The top of the shellholder has no function in reloading. I have had to do this with several dies and to be honest hornady dies (although I like them) are the biggest culprit.

I stuck a .25 collet in my comparator so it hit the shoulder, and found sized brass was about .017 longer than factory ammo. I'm loading on a progressive, so I guess I'll have to try cutting the die down. Thanks for the help guys.

OR, call hornady and see if they can help. Wow....017" is alot and I can't understand why the die can't push them back alot closer to factory dimensions. Is there something wierd about you progressive press in how it holds the case? How much does a once fired piece of brass grow to the shoulder compared to new??

Hey kraky, it sounds like the 25 caliber collet was going over the neck and resting on the shoulder much like a Head and Shoulders Gauge. So that would be how much his shoulder was moving from new brass to fire formed. .017" is not unusual. I have had variances from .010" to .030" on various rifles.

It probably does mean that he does not have a short shouldered chamber though.

I have just discovered a $24.00 die that I don't know how I have lived without... I am ordering one for each bottle neck caliber I reload...

Redding's Body dies... they resize the body without resizing the neck...

it sure puts a whole heck of a lot less stress on the brass than the conventional full length dies do...

use that and then Lee's Neck Sizing Collet Die, and you have some pretty darn symetric brass ready to reload!!

I am almost as exciited about this, as I was when I first discovered what sex was as a teenager! ( But I still prefer the sex to reloading... )

.017 is a huge difference.
One thing you need to be careful about with any process is having problem and then making a mistake while trouble shooting it compounding the problem. I would be interested in what sort of progressive you are using and why it is not able to size your cases. With only 19 posts here you are very new. Are you also very new to reloading?
Sizing dies that are off that much are very uncommon.
I have between 75 and 100 die sets. Two of the sizers are off as much as you claim. Both of mine are different brands but the same cartridge.
I have no idea how you could make your case shoulders move forward .017 during the resizing process. There is more than one problem going on here.

My press is a Hornady LNL AP. I'm pretty new to reloading, about 6 months in.

The brass I'm having trouble with was once-fired when I got it, through an ar-15 I'm sure. Hard to find new 223 brass around here right now. The cases that have only been fired through this gun are a little stiffer than new, but nothing like the other stuff.

I wasn't aware there was a possiblilty that dies could be cut too long by the manufacturer, although it makes perfect sense to explain my problem.

seafire2: I'm very interested in those redding body dies too. Seems like a good idea to seperate the two sizing operations.

quote:

Originally posted by kraky:
If you decide that you need to lower the die a bit more just take some material off the top of the shellholder. It doesn't have to be a perfect machine shop job....just hold it against a grinding wheel with a vice grip and take off about .010". The top of the shellholder has no function in reloading. I have had to do this with several dies and to be honest hornady dies (although I like them) are the biggest culprit.

+1

I will say that I have ground down the die itself on two Hornady dies, and used my belt sander, just took a few passes......not that hard to do IME.

quote:

Originally posted by michael.tx:
My press is a Hornady LNL AP. I'm pretty new to reloading, about 6 months in.

The brass I'm having trouble with was once-fired when I got it, through an ar-15 I'm sure. Hard to find new 223 brass around here right now. The cases that have only been fired through this gun are a little stiffer than new, but nothing like the other stuff.

I wasn't aware there was a possiblilty that dies could be cut too long by the manufacturer, although it makes perfect sense to explain my problem.

seafire2: I'm very interested in those redding body dies too. Seems like a good idea to seperate the two sizing operations.

If you can, find or borrow a different die set.
Disable the progressive feature on your press.
Remove the expander from the die.
Select some cases from the troublesome lot and resize them. Resize them 2 or 3 passes. If your die is turned down hard against the top of the shell holding plate and makes the press snap over a bit the case should fit your rifle.
If not your die is bad.
Since you have a progressive you would probably not want to mess up the shell plate unless the shell plate is too thick for some reason or unless it has something under it. Check out your press closely for any issues then check out your die. You may have to modify your die or replace it.
If you have a single stage press it is easier to use it to troubleshoot die problems.

I ordered another sizer from midway, I don't have anyone to borrow a die from. Hopefully this will fix it. Thank you everyone for your help, and patience with a rookie.