I am trying to help a friend work up some loads for his Remington 700 BDL chambered in .308. Factory ammo or reloads with new brass chamber fine. Any cases that are fired and then resized are extremely difficult to chamber. I have tried Lee, Hornaday and RCBS dies with every possible adjustment or configuration. Not matter what I try, anything we reload is difficult to chamber. Any suggestion?

Hey crowrifle, How about describing the way you all went about "Setting-Up" your Full Length Resizing Die? Be as specific in detail as possible.

Also, take one of those Fired Cases that won't fit the chamber, lube it, stick it in the Shellholder, screw in the RCBS Full Length Resizing Die (NOT A NECK SIZER) and lift the Fired Case into the Full Length Sizer Die. Do not lower it back down.

Now, get down and look where the top of the Shellholder and the bottom of the Full Length Resizing Die come together. Do you see a slight "Gap" between them?

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Good hunting and clean 1-shot kills, Hot Core

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Originally posted by crowrifle:
I am trying to help a friend work up some loads for his Remington 700 BDL chambered in .308. Factory ammo or reloads with new brass chamber fine. Any cases that are fired and then resized are extremely difficult to chamber. I have tried Lee, Hornaday and RCBS dies with every possible adjustment or configuration. Not matter what I try, anything we reload is difficult to chamber. Any suggestion?

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I agree with the other post...it is hard to think of another reason that resized brass wouldn't chamber unless the die(s) are not touching the shellholder with full length resizing dies, does resized brass without bullets fit in the chamber? if so measure the bullets to make sure that they are reallly .308 and not off size!!!if the dies are adjusted to touch the shell holder,,,try a different shellholder this could cause the problem with a extra thick,out of spec shellholder..RCBS #3....good luck and good shooting!!!!

Hi, Crowrifle:
We've got that problem with an old Savage 110L in .270. We decap separately, then resize with a .006" steel feeler gauge under the case head. Later we got a headspace gauge and the rifle's chamber is definitely short.

Factory brass is a bit undersized and most of it will chamber, but if you have a short chamber, eventually you'll get a box that won't chamber.

As the other guys said, be sure the shellholder is up hard against the die. If it is, and since you've tried different dies, get a gunsmith to check the headspace. If it's short, get him or Remington to cut the chamber deeper. If a gunsmith isn't handy, buy a GO headspace gauge from Brownells or Forster and check it yourself.

Another fix is to grind a bit off the top of the shellholder. Don't use that shellholder when you're loading for other rifles.

Bye
Jack

Have you tried the resized brass BEFORE you seat the bullet?? Does it chamber OK ??

If not, see above. But if you have having problems AFTER you have seated the bullets, check your seating die. If you have it set to crimp too much, it can cause the case to bulge just below the shoulder.

I have setup the full length sizing die as per instructions. Screw it in and raise the ram until the shell holder touches bottom of die, then back off 1/4 or 1/8 turn. After experiencing this problem I screwed the die all the way down until it was making contact with the shell holder, and looked for a gap between the two when resizing a case. It is flush against the die. At first I thought my Lee dies were worn or shell holder was out of spec, so I purchased new everything. No improvement. I suspected a short chamber but was hoping for an easier fix. I will try placing a feeler guage under the shell and see if I can squeeze an additional 5 thousandths off the case. If this works I will know to advise my friend to have his chamber re-worked. Thanks to all of you for your replies.

[This message has been edited by crowrifle (edited 09-28-2001).]

Crowrifle. I go along with what David said about checking the crimp setting on the seating die. I had the same problem when I first started loading the .308. Matter of fact, I no longer crimp anything in the .308 other than cast bullet loads, and are those very lightly crimped.
Paul B.

Hey crowrifle, Just saw your response. Also agree with the other guys about "over-crimping" could also be a problem. And, if you are NOT trimming the cases, that could also be a problem, as has been said.

However, there is a quick way to tell if it is a FLR Die problem. With your RCBS FLR Die set the way you currently have it, resize one Fired Case, wipe off the lube and slowly chamber it. If you can not feel any difference between having that Case in the chamber when you close the Bolt compared to when the chamber is empty, then the resizing is doing just fine and the problem is not in the FLR Die or the Shellholder.

If it is hard to chamber, then the problem is still in the Shell Holder/FLR Die set-up.

When I mentioned looking for the Gap between the Shell Holder and the FLR Die, sometimes the press still needs to be "Camed-Over" during the FLR operation to compensate for "slack" in the links. Some presses will "flex" slightly under load and if that is your problem, you can perhaps compensate for it by screwing the FLR Die "into the press" another 1/4 turn after it touches the Shellholder. Just lower the ram, screw the FLR Die in another 1/4 turn and re-set the Set Screw. Then try resizing and chambering an empty case again.

If you can still feel resistance, I'd first get a new RCBS Shellholder and start back at the beginning. If that doesn't fix it, then the FLR Die is too long, but I'd say that is NOT probable due to the number of FLR Die sets you all tried.

As long as the factory rounds fit the chamber, I'd probably be reluctant to have anyone re-cut the chamber deeper. But, that is just me. For those that think that is a good idea - more chamber to you!

If you try "shimming" the Case-head up slightly with the Feeler Gauge, I'd encourage you to remove the De-capping Stem first. Otherwise, you will hole punch the Feeler Gauge(voice of experience HA).

If shimming the case up works, you may just need another Shellholder. I've always used RCBS Shellholders and just never had a problem with them at all. Can't speak for the other brands at all.

Trim the cases.

Reset the Seating Die so it does not crimp at all.

Verify the proper Seating Depth for each brand and style of Bullet you are using. DO NOT simply go by the "Overall Cartridge Length" listed in a Load Manual.

One of those things should fix the problem.

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Good hunting and clean 1-shot kills, Hot Core

I once had a 243 that I had trouble chambering resized cases into. Solution: I took the shell holder to the shop and had our toolroom man grind .010 off of it.This allowed me to push the case further into the die.I had 2 6mm Remingtons, a 788 and a 700, both came with dies when I bought them and both sets were Small Base, they both needed them to get cases to fit the chamber.Not unusual to have a rifle with a chamber a bit on the "tight" side of the SAAMI specs.Try the shim solution, it's pretty simple and basically free.

Thanks for all of the great advice. I sat down with my calipers and a sheet of 220 grit sand paper. Slowly took off about 6 thousandths from the top of the shell holder. This allowed the case to be further inserted into the die. Worked like a charm. Now our reloads chamber as slick as greased ice. Many thanks.