First let me preface this by saying I've never done this before. After reading all the posts about neck sizing, better accuracy, longer case life, blah blah blah. I decided to try it. It's a used 7mm Mag I got from my little brother. He didn't like it and I swapped him a .270 for it. I got a Rem 700 in this caliber and now I have a Ruger also. But I found after neck sizing rounds fired from this rifle(the one we swapped) I couldn't rechamber the rounds. It looks like there is a slight bulge(brass is shiny) just above the thick band on the bottom of the case. Is this normal with this round? Or is the rifle a piece of crapola? No, I haven't tried it with my Rem 700 yet. I don't want a whole bunch more bullets to take apart.
Should I just F/L resize and forget the whole thing?

It SOUNDS like you might have an out of round chamber.

Here's "A" solution: smoke the shoulder of the case you want to size. Now, keep screwing the die down, until the shoulder smoke just starts disappearing. This will give you "minimum" shoulder bump. In almost all chambers, this will also give you some of the most accurate ammo, and maximum case life. HTH, Dutch.

Here's simplier and less messy way to do the same thing. Take a red magic marker and coat the neck and shoulder of the case. Turn your die up a few turns, lube the case and run it up into the die. You can see where the sizing stopped because of the easily visible smearing of the red ink. Make sure there is still lube on the case...turn the die down a bit and do it again...keep doing this until red ink on the shoulder is "just" touched. This will give you about 2/1000" of a bump.

Hint: Work slowly and don't turn the die down too much each time being careful as you approach the bottom of the neck.....you also want to make sure you keep some lube on the case or you will be stuck ...but...don't overdo it. I would also make sure to turn the case a little each time you run it up into the die.

Depending on how hot your load is, you may not be able to just neck size your belted magnum. Factory chambers are often cut generously and the bulge you see just above the belt is normal although you may have to size it down in order to chamber your rounds. it will get worse the hotter you load your rounds! First try adjusting your neck sizer till it just touches the shoulder ( smoke the case) and perhaps this will reduce the case bulge enough to chamber it. Also try different brands of brass. depending on the dimensions, you may find cases that will work fine. To be honest, neck sizing a belted magnum is not going to be that beneficial and there is nothing wrong with FL sizing. Belted magnum brass should only be used about six times before you discard it anyway IMHO.-Rob

The easy way to solve the problem is to neck size, then try to chamber the empty, sized case. If it will not chamber easily, turn the die down a little and try again. Repeat until the case will enter the chamber easily. If you want to use the ammo in more than one rifle, use the same procedure, turning the die down until the cases will enter the chambers of all your rifles. The cases may or may not be fully resized, but they will be the best compromise you can get.

Thanx fellows! When you're a dummy about some of this stuff it sure is good to have a place to turn for answers.

Tombo21,
I have only a suggestion and it is:
neck size only the cases that you shooted in that rifle, don't make mixtures of cases shooted in different rifles, if you had not full sized all before and shooted in your rifle before.
I had an old Springfield 03-A3 made by Remington and marked 07-43 and at the same time an industrial rifle made by Sabatti.
I always neck sized for both, and one time I discovered that the cases shooted in Sabatti when only neck sized were not possible to chamber in the 03-A3. In the worst way, of course, I was at the range with the Springfield an not usable cartridges.

bye

Tombo, I have a question. Will the fired cases go back into your gun easily after firing but before you do anything to them with your reloading equipment? If so, (and it SHOULD, UNLESS THERE'S SOMETHING WRONG WITH EITHER YOUR GUN OR THE AMMO!!), then you are doing something to it with your sizing die that is preventing rechambering. If this is what is happening, then you need to find out what is going on in the resizing process, as recommended in the above suggestions by the other people who have answered this post.

Tombo21: are useing a neck sizeing die or a full lenght die to neck sizes? If you are trying to neck size with a full lenght die and your chamber is big the die is sizeing the body of the case down to normal size and this pushes the shoulder forward and the round will not fit in the chamber. If this is what is happing you can only neck size with a neck sizing die which only sizes the neck and dose not size the body of the case. I have a 280rem Win 70 that is like this.

[QUOTE]Originally posted by Tombo21:
I got a Rem 700 in this caliber and now I have a Ruger also. But I found after neck sizing rounds fired from this rifle(the one we swapped) I couldn't rechamber the rounds. It looks like there is a slight bulge(brass is shiny) just above the thick band on the bottom of the case.
=================================================
He has two rifle in the same caliber.

You must full length resize all the ammunition for both rifles. This is what the top shooter in the country does (David Tubbs), what I do and what must be done for a hunting rifle too. You have a magnum cartridge and I don't think you are going to load cast bullets in it. Your loads are going to be right up there and even if you had only one 7mm Mag you should FL only.

Now the trick is to do it right. You must FL size only enough so as to reduce the headspace of the reloaded case as little as possible but enough to close the bolt easily. To do the sizing and testing for easy bolt operation you must hold the firing pin back somehow while you work a dummy round into the chamber. What you will do is to FL size the case more and more by small increments until the bolt closes easily but you can feel the contact.

To do this best with the 700 or Ruger 77 MK1 you need to pull back the end of the firing pin and sneak a penney between the cocking piece and end of the firing pin. To pull back on a 700 bolt I hold it in one hand and press the sear contact part of the firing pin (opposite end of the bolt lugs) against the edge of a wooden bench. Press very hard as you pull the firing pin down and then slip a penney in like I described. Use the bolt like this for the testing of the FL sized cases.

Since the two rifles may have different headspaces you may want to do this to make separate lots of handloads for each rifle.

IMHO neck sizing causes a lot of people a lot of problems.

I've been using very fine powdered graphite to neck size with for about the last 25 years at least. I keep it in a jar & just stick the mouth of the case in the stuff, tap off the excess graphite & neck size. You can EASILY see where the neck sizer stops.

[ 10-01-2002, 16:34: Message edited by: Bear Claw ]

Well stated by Don Martin, every year I see relaoded ammo fail due to neck sizing and not trying the rounds in the chamber prior to Africa..I also see bullet stick in the rifleing because the are seated out to far and that really makes a mess...fortunately for my clients I carry a Rapid Rod on my cartridge belt for just this reason..

Make sure that case slops in easy and I mean easy on a DGR..forget the accuracy crap, if the gun will shoot 2.5 inches at 100 all is well, just as long as it works...I full lenth all my hunting loads and they all shoot at least an inch average for 3 shots and some for 5 shots...

reliability in horses,dogs,guns and friends is a mustIMO

Ray A: " forget the accuracy crap" I just wrote that one down and will bring it back up when needed. O! by the way, I have requested paper work on hunts from your web site three dirrerent times and I am still waiting. Is it because I neck size?

[ 10-02-2002, 08:12: Message edited by: Fat Albert ]