I'm new to reloading and I have a question about my resizing die. I have it set up so that the die and shell holder touch as in the directions and the class I took. However, when I go to chamber a round I find it very hard to close the bolt. I then used a marker on the casing to see where it was rubbing and found it to be the shoulders. How do I get my shoulders to move back more?

The bolt is not hard to open after fireing the gun and the same problems happen when using once fired factory casings.

Lube the inside of your necks to help keep the expander ball from pulling the shoulder back out. I`d also seat the die 1/8 - 1/4 more in the press. The press should "cam" over on contact with the die. See if these help.



Edited to add:

Some shoulder to chamber contact is accually not bad. The cartridge should chamber "easily" not necessarily freely, with out touching. The contact will help aline the round in the chamber and can aid accuracy. The trick is to get just enought contact.

Sorry I ment to say to tight, I would try moving to die down a little as well and give it a good snug pull on the lever,,,,If you move it to far you will know with a crushed case

The dies are are RCBS FL Die (2 dies) rifle set. New rifle brass fits fine into the rifle after being run through the dies once. I don't know if the chamber is to large but how would that affect it? Thanks.

I can think of two things fast,,

1- are you sure it is a full lenght die and not a neck sizer only

2-is your chamber to large?

One thing I might add to Chuck's post. if you are still having trouble. remove the decapper/expander assembly and try fl sizing a case. that way you are only checking the sizing operation on the case. If there is still a problem chambering the case, you know there is a resizing problem.
bglenn

MikeL; It seems that you are receiving a lot of good information! But, sometimes information can be a bit overwhelming, to say the least!



1. To full-length resize, put the shell holder on the ram and run it to the top of the stroke.

2. Screw the resizing die down, to make contact with the shell holder.

3. Raise the handle of the press, to lower the ram.

4. Screw the die down an additional 1/4 (or so) turn and lock it.

5. Lube one piece of brass, put it in the shell holder and run in into the die! Be sure that the press handle goes all the way down! Try the empty brass in your rifle!

6. It should chamber very easily!



NOTE: Be sure to check the case "over-all length"!



Good Luck

Looks to me like you have one of three possible problems. The die is too long, the shell holder is too thick, or the chamber is too short. Possibly all three! Also you might think you have the die in contact with the shell holder, but when sizing theres some springing going on that is resulting in the shell hoder not completely contacting the bottom of the die.

What brand press? With a little more info, we should be able to sort out your problem.

Usually, when you set up your die so that it is fully contacted by the shellholder, you will get a little TOO much shoulder setback than is best. But your die seems a bit over-long in the chamber dimensions, at least for your particular rifle. There are three choices:
1. Try a thinner shellholder (one that has less material between the groove for the case head and where it hits the die).
2. Cut or grind a slight amount of steel off of the bottom of the die.
3. Send some cases fired in your rifle and the die back to RCBS and have them deepen the die chamber to a custom fit to your cases. This is the most satisfactory approach.

Thanks for the information. I tried lubing the the inside of the neck and that didnt' help. It did make the operation much easier. Would this be bad because of letting the bullet slip around or should you clean the inside of the neck before seating the bullet?

I put the die a full turn down, going down 1/4 turn at a time, and really gave the handle a real good push. This worked with a couple of cases I tried but time ran out. I'll do some more tonight. If this doesn't work I'll send it back to RCBS. I think the dies are just a tad too long.

It's a Lee press but everything else is RCBS. Using winchester brass. Once again thanks for all the information.