How many thousanths of an inch difference is there between the two belts?? According to my speer manual saami spec at the belt should be .5315" and just ahead of the belt where I was having trouble would/should be .513" max. If you wanted to mail me a couple shells I'd run em through the new die if you thought it might work--would be cheap to mail a couple back and forth.

Hello Jimmy - with all the talk of turning the belt down in a lathe - does that mean that a lathe is available?

If yes - I've done something similar in my Rockchucker. Remove the die holder insert from the O-frame. This leaves you with a 1 1/4" x 12 TPI hole. Buy a high tensile 1 1/4" x 12 TPI bolt (use a cap screw - if there's one lying around.) Buy a nut and cut off a 1/4" thick slice and face it (that's the lock nut)- or machine one from a piece of hex bar.

Bore and polish (until it has a mirror shine) the end of the bolt to 0.0015" under the belt size diameter that you want. Radius the lead-in to the die slightly. Use synthetic engine oil (I've tried most lubricants - stumbled on this one completely by accident - the best by far)and swage the belt back down to size.

You only have to machine the one die - the rest is grunt work.

cheers edi

I recently acquired some 1x fired brass for my 358 Norma Magnum. In spite of setting my sizing die all the way down, the brass will not chamber as the belt is too large. I have determined this by comparing one of these resized cases with a case fired in my rifle.

It appears the base of the chamber in the rifle it was fired in is too large at the base, or my chamber is very tight.

Does anyone have any cost effective ideas for making this 40 rounds of properly head stamped brass usable ?

I think you're going to be out of luck Jimmy. If your resizing die isn't sizing the case down far enough to chamber, about the only thing that leaves you with is to turn the belt down which is not worth the trouble. If it wont chamber, I'd just go buy new brass.



My only fear is that your chamber wasn't cut large enough for the belt and that it's not going to chamber new brass either?

No, new brass, my reloads on cases from my rifle, and factory ammo work fine. It is just this lot of 1x fired I bought.

It's possible that they made very high pressure and the belt expanded.

I would take them back and buy new brass.

Even if I had a lathe and the right collet I would not turn them unless there were enough meat to still headspace..

This was factory ammo fired in his gun. Norma primers have some very distinctive marks.

I do have a small lathe.

I think the other gentlemen was right. He either overpressured them real bad, or maybe his chamber was oversized. I wouldn't use them. If they're too big to chamber in your gun it means that they've stretched quite a bit and it's not worth the risk of using them. I wouldn't bother turning them down. Take them back like the other guy said.

Jimmy- They probably were overloaded.Can you measure how

much larger they are at belt, than cases that chamber.

There is a collet die you can get, but it is expensive.

On another thread we just talked about one, Do search,

in this forum and Gunsmithing,use the word collet.I

just saw thread about 8 spots down on here.I can make them smaller on my cartridge spinner lathe.Ed.

Hey Jimmy, Have you tried seating "one Primer" in one of those cases to see if it is too loose to mess with?



If the Primer does Seat with "proper" resistance, you might ask "kraky" to squash one down for you with his new $100 "Mag Case Body Squasher" and see if it will pull the Belt in just enough to chamber properly. (Check kraky's thread. http://www.accuratereloading.com/ubbthreads/showflat.php?Cat=&Number=565314&page=0&view=collapsed&sb=5&o=2&fpart=1 )



If the Primer does not Seat with "proper" resistance, you got ripped off.

And if primers are loose, running them thru a swage
won't help. Using collet die or swaging belt back to size,
may be ok until the next heavy load.Then they expand again.
I've done swaging and turning off the little amount of excess, and the turning always worked best.The firing that caused the expansion gave the brass a "set' so to speak and if it could be maintaned it would stay there.Ed.