I loaded up some 45 Colt loads for one of our sons to be used in a Cimmaron pistol that I gave him a few years ago. Of course when the box of 50 was shot up he returned it for a refill, actually that's OK.

When I reloaded them and tried to load the in my Ruger Vaquero 45 Colt the shells would not go all the way into the cylinder and would hang up with about 1/8-1/4" of the case sticking out.

After they have been re-sized when they were reloaded, are the cylinder size different enough to see these results ???????

Why didn't the resizing operation correct these differences??????

I had the same problem with some 38 SPL brass one time. Near as I could tell the brass that was causing the problem was thicker walled than normal. I wound up using a Lee taper crimp as the final step, the rounds were still a bit tight, but did chamber all the way.

Isn't that about the same distance that the case doesn't go inside the sizing die because of being in the shell holder?

If so, the next question I'd ask myself would be "Will the loaded rounds go back inside the cylinder they were fired in?"

If not, then I'd ask,"So why are the case heads expanded that much?"

Correct answers from fine fellows.

There is a potential of two problems as well stated. #1 Crimp from the thicker brass is too big or bulgy. #2 Head is swollen from oversize chamber.

Top notch advice and the only thing I would add is to ask if you trimmed the cases?

I have seen straight walled revolver cartridges not chamber because of over crimping which put a bulge just ahead of the rim. Measuring the fired and unsized brass with either a dial caliper or micrometer will tell you if they are indeed getting this bulge from the chamber dimensions of the Cimarron.

The loads were all pretty mild with velocities in the 750 fps range.

When our son comes home soon I will ask him to bring the Cimmaron with him and we can see at that time if they still fit his shooter. I haven't had the chance to see if they fit the original gun yet. The crimp was very little as not too much was required at those pressures and velocities. I knew that some rifle brass will not fit other guns of the same caliber due to the bottle neck design of those cases but this is the first time that I've experienced a straight wall case not fitting. I'll have to look at case length also.

I've also heard that the mouths on the cylinders on the 45 Colts are famous for having a wide range of measurements and the ideal for accuracy was the matching of those cylinder mouth dimensions to the measurement of the barrel. Maybe there is a wide different in the two guns sufficient enough to not be corrected by resizing????

Those are all good things to look at and thanks a lot for the ideas

It could be the chamber throat on the Ruger are too tight for the bullet size/style. If your crimp isn't bulging the brass then it could be that. Check the fit w/ a sized case & no bullet, the case should drop straight in. That would tell me something is amiss w/ the crimp &/or bullet.