I for the life of me can't figure this out.

Caliber is .223 and I have an assortment of brass. PMC, Remington, Winchester, LC, etc.

Out of no where I'm having difficulty cambering my rounds. Whether it is in my Howa or my CZ the bolt started closing with some resistance.

I took some factory .223 rounds, put them in each gun and the action closed like warm butter. Go back to my reloads and I have a stiff bolt handle when I go to chamber the round.

I'm using Lee Precision dies and I've taken some once fired brass, resized/decapped, trimmed to spec and tried to chamber just the brass and same thing.

I for the life of me can't figure out what the problem is. I've cleaned the die, reset it in the press and same issue. For the most part I'm using LC once fired brass.

Any ideas or suggestions? I'm at a total loss.

How are you adjusting the die?
You need to run the die down to just touching the shell holder and then check to see if there is a gap between the die and shellholder with a case run up in the die. If you can see air turn the die in deeper by 1/8 turn until it disapears.(the gap)

It also is a good idea to keep brass fired in different rifles seperate from each other. One chamber is certain to be larger then the other the brass won`t interchange and fit as well as dedicated brass will.

You might also polish the expander ball and see if it helps. The expander can pull shoulders back out causing the problems you have if they are rough or need lube when passing through the necks.

quote:

Originally posted by SShooterZ:
I'm using Lee Precision dies and I've taken some once-fired brass, resized/decapped, trimmed to spec, and tried to chamber just the brass and same thing.

I for the life of me can't figure out what the problem is. I've cleaned the die, reset it in the press, and same issue. For the most part, I'm using LC once-fired brass.

Any ideas or suggestions? I'm at a total loss.

Get some real lock rings; Hornady's are very popular. Lee lock rings don't hold a setting.

As usual you guys are dead on.

Polished the expander stem and really snugged down the die and sure enough, seems to chamber much easier.

Still a bit stiff so I think I'll spend some more time polishing but WAY better than it was.

Figure out which rifle has the tighter chamber and load for it. Again, set your die down another 1/8" and your probs should go away. You should feel a good "cam over" resistance when you top out your ram.
I prefer to feel a slight resistance when I bring my .223 into battery since I only shoot targets and Pdogs and such that wouldn't require a fast follow shot.

quote:

Originally posted by SShooterZ:
Still a bit stiff so I think I'll spend some more time polishing but WAY better than it was.

Run a brush through the necks of your brass before sizing. Your sizing button needs some sort of lube, whether mica, graphite, or something else. If you size with Imperial, the slightest smear across the mouth of the brass will suffice; it won't contaminate your load.

quote:

Originally posted by SShooterZ:
Still a bit stiff so I think I'll spend some more time polishing but WAY better than it was.

Hey SShooterZ, Once you have the Expander Stem removed from the Die, try shimming one snug Case up 0.002"-0.004" with something under the Casehead inside the Shell Holder. A Feeler Gauge is what I've used in the past, but it might be a bit wide. Maybe a couple of thicknesses of paper would do for the Test.

Resize that one Case and see if that fixes your problem. If it does, grind the top of the Shell Holder down slightly with either a bench grinder or a good old Side Grinder. Just hold the Shell Holder against the flat side and measure to see when you knocked off a bit. It will get a bit warm to the touch.

Now readjust your FL Die into the press a bit more, and you should be able to chamber the Case easily. But..., I actually prefer a slight bit of resistance when closing the Bolt on a Cartridge. If it is too loose, that means you have some amount of Headspace and that results in short Case life. You may need to Resize Range Pick-Ups a bit more the first time you use them, so having this ability is a good idea. Then reset to normal resizing.

I've had multiple rifles in the same caliber before, but never had two that the chambers were the same on. So, I normally had multiple Dies of the same size so each rifle had it's own unique Resizing. By the way, closing with a slight bit of resistance is refered to as Partial-Full Length Resizing(P-FLR) and there is a good bit posted about it on this Board. Just use the "Find" button at the top to locate it.

Best of luck to you.

If you are going to use range brass I HIGHLY RECOMEND that you get some sort of tool to measure headspace as you size your brass. Either the hornady bushing set for about $35 or the larry willis tool for about $90. You can also wind up with a bulge at the bottom of the brass if it was fired in a super generous chamber that caused the brass to not chamber.
(But this would be more unlikely and usually causes the shell to jam hard in the chamber to the point of needing a cleaning rod to push the empty casing out.)

All above posters are right that a good lock ring is critical and that you want to set the die ever so slightly deeper in your press.

Stillbeeman's advice (I think) is to give the die 1/8 turn NOT 1/8" DEEPER. 1/8 turn would be .008" roughly....1/8" would be .125" deeper.
You probably only need about .004" more shoulder pushback to get them into your rifle.

quote:

Originally posted by Winchester 69:

quote:

Originally posted by SShooterZ:
Still a bit stiff so I think I'll spend some more time polishing but WAY better than it was.

Run a brush through the necks of your brass before sizing. Your sizing button needs some sort of lube, whether mica, graphite, or something else. If you size with Imperial, the slightest smear across the mouth of the brass will suffice; it won't contaminate your load.

This is good advice for your problem in my opinion.

quote:

Run a brush through the necks of your brass before sizing.

That can be a nice thing to do but it has nothing to do with sizing a case, as such. About all it can do is help reduce neck pull during withdrawal.
=======================

SShooter2, turn your sizer down another eight of a turn and resize your cases, that will probably fix things.

Lee's rings seem to hold a setting quite well, I know of no one who can actually say they move during use. The rest depends on IF we get the die set correctly to start with.

I have difficulty understanding why some suggest that if we have a sizer die that's a tad too long we should "fix it" by grinding on the shell holder. Why not try to fix the die if that's the problem?

quote:

Originally posted by Jim C. <><:
...I know of no one who can actually say they move during use.

"I have had unsettling results with the pressure fit o-ring set up as used by Lee.... I like 'tight to be tight' and an o-ring nut doesn't get it tight; it doesn't give that satisfying, and secure, stop, 'can't go no mo' sensation that the tool is in the right and set orientation to do its job now just like it did last time."

That was Glen Zediker. Now you've heard it twice.

I hate lees o ring set up. I don't even like them on the collet neck sizers. I turn the ring upside down so the flat bottom (without o ring contact) hits the top of the die first. Works better but for precise work...get rid of it.
I guess they figure the o ring floats the die a bit....but when you want precise headspace it's kinda like driving around with 5 psi in your tires.

I went ahead and replaced the locking ring with one from a Hornady set. Dialed the die as far down as I could and still complete the full length of action and locked it in.

Just deprimed and resized 50 pieces of lake city and tried them in my CZ and they slid in like butter.

Thanks again to everyone for the advice and help. As always, much appreciated.