Well some more good news. I shot my 404 Jeffery on Sunday and three of the 20 reloaded rounds separated above the webb. I don't know how many times these cases had been reloaded. Perhaps this is a time for someone to walk me through the basics of setting up a die set properly. Can someone give me a quick 1-2 punch thumb nail sketch on setting up a resizing die to barely bump the shoulder.

I will be replacing all of my brass with new cases to start. Some of the original cases had been shot in other rifles and possibly had an inordinate amountshoulder setback/trimming.

I have set my reloading dies and am loading for three 404 Jeffery rifles. There could be some deminsion discrpencies with each rifle such that shooting ammunition in one could result in overworking the brass and premature separation if shot in another. What do you think????

I would suggest a Wilson head space gauge if it is available for your caliber. If you set the resizing die until the bolt won't close then take it down 1/8 turn until it will just close you will be close. After you get this set try a neck sizing die.

Most of the reloading dies explaine the same procedure in there directions.

One other problem to eliminate is too long of a shell it can cause buckling and excessive pressure be sure to trim to the correct length.

Hope this helps

Swede is pretty much correct, but i would not neck size for a DG rifle/round. I set my FL dies to size the case just enough to close the bolt w/o a lot of effort. I have fired my Norma brass about 5 times now w/ o any signes of excessive stretch.

Fred338, Thanks. I suspect the culprit in the deal is brass fired too many times in different rifles as I am using relatively mild loads in these guns (400gr.@2350 f/s). I have a hard time inserting/resizing until the bolt closes with slight resistance. I get case alignment mismatches and some bent cases. Another question is; if you want to resize the brass so that it will feed without feel to gurantee easy flawless feeding will the shoulder set back enough to eventually lead down that path to case separation? Another issue is the long neck and long sloaping shoulder of the Jeffery round allowing case stretching similar to the 300 H&H. What do you think?

Well, I think if you have a properly sized chamber, then you shouldn't have any problems w/ excessive stretch. Like I stated, I have fired my Norma cases 5 times now & just trimmed them after the 5th firing. If your chamber is a bit oversize, I could see a problem getting them sized down to where you don't have to reliable, easy feeding & not get some extra stretch. The only way to really tell is start a test batch; load the same 3-6 cases & keep track of how many firings & what you have to do to them. My rifle was chambered w/ a current reamer from Clymer (my smith still has it) & my dies are from Redding. I set them up so feeding is smooth & effortless. Accuracy is extreme (many groups under 1moa) for a big bore w/ a 5x scope, I haven't had to throw a case away yet, life is good. Maybe RIP will catch this one, he loads the .404 a lot more than I do.
BTW, if you are getting bent cases, it's something wrong w/ the feed rails &/or follower, not your dies. The stretching, yeah that would be die/chamber related IMO.

RWS brass is about as good as it can get. The ONLY answer for any head separation is setting the shoulders back way too far causing an additional stretch on each firing. That leads to very short brass life.

If you have three rifles so chambered it would be a miracle if the same brass would fit all rifles without oversizing on at least one of them. Presuming they are within tolerance to headspace you still have several thousandths difference from max to tight which would mean that any brass fired in a "tight" chamber would stretch over .005" or more in a loose chamber. It wouldn't take many loadings to stretch the brass beyond its limits and cause separation. I've fired my RWS brass over 28 reloads without any separation. I never set the shoulders back more than .002".

What you need to do is to designate brass for each chamber and then FL size your brass to set the shoulder back no more than .002" for each. You can set your die by sizing progressively until you get just past the slight resistance to chambering while moving the lock ring on your die about 1/8" at a time until you just achieve that point. You'll have to follow that procedure for each rifle and mark your brass for each if brass life is your criteria.

I shudder recommending a Stoney Point Chamber All gauge since many on this board don't seem to know how to use them, but you CAN get to your .001"-.002" clearance quite easily if you have the smarts to do it. I'm sold on using it, but you can achieve the same result with a bit more effort using the method described above.

quote:

Another question is; if you want to resize the brass so that it will feed without feel to gurantee easy flawless feeding will the shoulder set back enough to eventually lead down that path to case separation?

Seems to me that would lead to excess stretching of the case. Once the round s fired, the firing pin will push the shoulder forward, giving rise to case stretch in the rear of the chamber.

Bob338 is right on!

Don't know about measurements, and I don't think you need to. In my limited experence, excess FLS'ing is the reason for head seperation, and when adjusting the FLS die gradually down, it seems a miniscule amount to go from a "feel" to "no feel".
So somewhere in between should be good for brass and hunting?
John.

JAL has it right.

When I began loading for my C&H .404 back around 1970, I was limited at first to Kynoch Berdan-primed cases. A few early head separations quickly pointed out the need for CAREFUL sizing with this case design.

The long, very gradual taper on the so-called "shoulder" of the .404 doesn't offer a very positive "stop" such as more-modern designs have. There is ample caseneck length to ensure secure bullet retention even without all of the neck being sized, so just very gradually increasing the amount of sizing until only the barest amount of "feel" remains on closing the bolt is the way to go.

Once I figured that out, case separations ceased. Since those early times, I've loaded Kynoch boxer-primed . 404s, Normas, RWS and reformed .375 Ultras for this rifle, and NONE of them give head separations if sized the very minimum amount which still allows free chambering of the round.

Remember, there were several different specifications for 404 Jeff chambers. Perhaps your ammo was loaded in a die built to a different spec than your rifle's chamber. Example: Heym .404 jeff rifles will not shoot Kynoch .404 jeff ammo for this reason.