My third time reloading the same winchester brass has made the bolt harder to close which im comparing to what it would be like if they were just neck sized. I had a few once shot brass and loaded a few of them to see if that was the problem and the bolt closed easily all brass was cut the same length with a lee case trimmer so i know length isnt the problem,and i am using a full length lee sizing die.
Is this a good thing that my brass is tighter to the chamber or does wsm brass wear out quicker.I didnt shoot any of the tighter brass how hard is the bolt going to be to open after the shot? i have full length sized 223 brass for years and never has this problem.thanks

The next time you resize some of them look at the top of the stroke and see if there is light between the shell holder and die. I bet you will see light. Give the die another 1/4 turn down and reset.
My SAUMs are the same way.

I agree with Dwight. Raise your ram until the shellholder touches your die. Lower the ram and turn the die down another 1/4 turn. The shoulder on the WSMs needs to be bumped back about .002" to chamber properly. Lowering the sizing die the extra 1/4 turn will do that.

Despite having screwed the die (Lee) as much as possible, I couldn't cure the very same problem; I had to grind 0.03 mm. away from the bottom of the die.

I checked it and it was set properly I tried another once fired case and another twice fired case i made sure the shell holder touched the die, i then trimmed them and got the same result the once fired round chambered easyer than the twice fired round, Even though i made sure the shellholder touched the die you can see from the size marks on the case that its not sizing the last 1/16 of the case.Should i shoot the rounds that fit snug? i hear about people neck sizing and have snugg fitting rounds and say its a good thing.

we must have been writing at the same time, i might have to give that a try. what type of grinder did you use

I did the job with my father's lathe.

are the tighter fitting shells safe to shoot?

From my experience shooting tight rounds can be less accurate than easy fitting.In one rifle they sprayed all over the target at 200yds and instantly shrunk to half inch when I substituted for unfired cases.Useing the same brand of dies and the same reloading setup,some cases fit loosely when resized in a certain caliber and some cases are still tight after resizing when switching to another caliber.In my 308 tight cases would open groups up but never more than a quarter or half inch at 200yds.In a 30-06 tight Lapua or Winchester cases would group a foot apart.In one rifle in 300WM,tight fitting unfired Remington cases would also group a foot apart and a miracle would result when I switched to unfired or resized Lapua cases.I don't know why this happens.I guess if I spent time measuring the chamber sizes for headspace etc... I would find out why.

quote:

Originally posted by Benwillweit:
are the tighter fitting shells safe to shoot?

They are safe to shoot and will extract just fine unless you loaded them over max. Most hunters don't want them tight in the field.

quote:

Originally posted by Benwillweit:
are the tighter fitting shells safe to shoot?

I guess it depends on how tight.I would not fire them if I believed a force was needed to close the bolt that I suspect may have damaged the case.

Well i grinded a little off the bottom of the die and that solved the problem.thanks

quote:

Originally posted by Benwillweit:
Well i grinded a little off the bottom of the die and that solved the problem.thanks

Good for you! I've found that a little mechanical interpretation is key to be a good reloader. Not being scared to try a little tinkering with your tools is a good thing IMO.

I would try RCBS dies for my next die purchase just for comparison. I've heard of many folks having similar issues with Lee dies, not with RCBS in my experience.

Good going--Don

Yeah i have been thinking about trying a set of rcbs or redding dies for the wsm, I have had no other problems with my lee dies in .222,223,7mm rem mag and 257 roberts. when i did a search i found alot of people have this problem with the lee wsm dies. I always talked lee up, but now i got 100 rounds of tight fitting ammuntion, I thought about getting a bullet puller but after dishing out 20 or 30 bucks for that i might just toss em.

Mine are Redding, and after I "bump" them they still give a tight fit that results in poor accuracy.

Shootaway, are you only getting two loadings with your brass then?

I have loaded the 300SAUM with the Redding Bushing dies about 8 times and they still look fine.

Benwillweit,what I am trying to say is that the brass only fits without effort when it is new. It will not chamber easily if shot once or twice and then resized with the Redding body sizing die.The brass is still good but it does not fit easily in the chamber when it is resized with the redding die.