I have a Kimber Montana in 300 WSM. Once fired brass that has been trimmed to length, full length resized in my Redding dies, and loaded with 180 gr. Accubonds are hard to chamber. It takes a bit of effort to close the bolt. The loads don't show any pressure signs and is below published max. Even if there were pressure signs, shouldn't the full length resizing take the case back to spec? Where should I start?

1. Have you used a Thick black felt pen to mark the whole case and then chambered the round in stages, to the point where it starts to get hard and see which part of the case it is ?

2. Might suggest looking at the neck thickness as one area
not mentioned.

.

The felt pen idea is good, I'll give that a shot. As far as neck thickness, the new brass chambers just fine, it's just after being fired once. Would the necks thicken after one firing?

Are you sure that when you full length sized the fired brass it actually fls the brass. It may have been just short of the shoulder in which case the sizing of the case walls can lengthen the shoulder giving difficult chambering. Try a case that is hard to chamber and check that thedie is fully 1/4 turn deeper than touching the shell holder. If it is still difficult to chamber dress the face of the shell holder by 4 thou and try again. I think this will cure your chambering issue.

Von Gruff.

The die is screwed down all the way until it touches the shell holder (ram all the way up) and then another 1/4 turn. What do you mean by "dress the shell holder by 4 thou". I am using a Rockchucker press and standard Redding shell holder. Thanks for the help!

It is not unusual to have to file a couple of thou off the top of the shell holder to get a full - full length sizing on a case.

Von Gruff.

OK gotcha, I'll give that a shot.

You say that it has been trimmed and re-sized.Did you trim first?
If not try so adjust the die farther down.

Make sure you have the bullet seating die set up high enough not to induce any crimp at all. You might be adding a slight crimp which is then distorting the case.

Interesting thread. I am hearing alot of problems in reloading the WSM's, especially the .270WSM, but also the .300. I am no longer stocking any of the WSM's in my shop as a result of these issues. Many of my very best hand loaders complain of these cartridges. Is this an innate problem with the short magnums? Mike

quote:

Originally posted by mdstewart:
Interesting thread. I am hearing alot of problems in reloading the WSM's, especially the .270WSM, but also the .300. I am no longer stocking any of the WSM's in my shop as a result of these issues. Many of my very best hand loaders complain of these cartridges. Is this an innate problem with the short magnums? Mike

I agree with Snowwolfe. Sounds like a neck issue.

I've been loading .300 WSM since shortly after it came out. I've shot my model 70 alot and have had zero problems using Hornady dies. You do need to lube the cases you are sizing very well and if you don't your going to have problems. I use Imperial sizing wax.

Your not bumping the shoulder back. I have three sets of dies that I use a special shell holder that I surface ground thinner to bump the shoulder. You need to measure your fired case at the C/L datum of the shoulder to see if you are bumping are not.

quote:

Originally posted by mdstewart:
Interesting thread. I am hearing alot of problems in reloading the WSM's, especially the .270WSM, but also the .300. I am no longer stocking any of the WSM's in my shop as a result of these issues. Many of my very best hand loaders complain of these cartridges. Is this an innate problem with the short magnums? Mike

No, what I heard is that they can't handload the WSM's in Chattanooga!

the first time i sized some cases i had an issue. i tested each case in my rifle after sizing and found atleast half of them to cause stiff closing of the bolt. what i found was that while i did have the die touching the ram without a case in it when i put a case in it was not going all the way to the shell holder. i soon found out why people say to go that extra 1/4 turn or so. the slack in the linkage of the press needs to come out so what i do is screw the die in till it hits and then another 1/2 turn or so. i then slowely back it out until i can get the handle on the press to full stroke you can feel when it takes the linkage slack out and kinda locks at full stroke.

also something else i found was when seating the bullets i was bulging the shoulder on the case sometimes. i thought i had set the die a little to deep and engaged the crimping part of the die. after farther testing i came to the conclusion that my problem was lack of adequate chamfer. everything ive read said the vld chamfer tool was the way to go and maybe it is and i didn't chamfer enough with it but i went to the regular chamfer tool and all the bullets seated much easier and i had no bulged cases.

almost sure your Not bumping the shoulder.. Make sure when you stoke the press you feel it cam over at the bottom of the stroke.

Well I have been having the same problem with both a 22-250 and a 243Win. After resizing and trimming some of the once fired cases will not chamber and I resized them more than once. Put so much pressure on the ram that I broke the cast iron bracket holding the arm on. Had the die screwed down tight to shell holder. I was using Hornady spray lube and Hornady dies. Called Hornady for trouble shooting. They suggested it was my technique. Suggested I remove the expander ball and resize a case that would not chamber just as a test. That seem to fix the problem. They said I might be streaching the cases with the expander ball. Suggested I dip the necks in powdered graphite.My problem is the guns belong to a friend and he lives about 30 miles away. This week if some do not chamber I will bring the rifles home with me. Some of the cases were 10 thousandth over max length before trimming. About 80% of the Remington cases worked the first time. None of the RWS cases will go in yet but they were fired from a different 243. I also notice that the die does not touch the shell holder when I have a case in the shell holder with the ram full up. I don't think your problem is caused from the caliber you are trying to reload.

BIJOUCREEK: If the press is set to cam over then the case is not going into the die as far as it would if the die was set to be hard on the shell holder. The problem with the WSM cases is caused by the fact that the rifle makers cut the chambers to min.spec. and the die makers cut the dies too deep. Both will say they are within specs. and they are. The only thing that can be done is take metal off the bottom of the die or off the top of the shell holder.

quote:

Originally posted by Von Gruff:
It is not unusual to have to file a couple of thou off the top of the shell holder to get a full - full length sizing on a case.

Von Gruff.

I've had to do this on a Hornady FL (25WSSM) and Redding (300WSM). Worked great after that.

quote:

Originally posted by tjbill:
I have a Kimber Montana in 300 WSM. Once fired brass that has been trimmed to length, full length resized in my Redding dies, and loaded with 180 gr. Accubonds are hard to chamber. It takes a bit of effort to close the bolt. The loads don't show any pressure signs and is below published max. Even if there were pressure signs, shouldn't the full length resizing take the case back to spec? Where should I start?

I've had 2 .270 WSM's. One was a POS (aka Kimber Montana) that went down the road. The other is my Win. Extreme Weather. I've never had chambering problems with either rifle. You don't mention whether or not the resized case chamber by themselves. I'd check to see if the resized cases chamber and if they don't, there's your problem. The ogive on your loaded cartridges may be touching the lands, if so, the problem is obvious, seat deeper.
The first thing I do with a new rifle is to determine the max length to the ogive with whatever bullet I'm going to use and then go from there. With my WSM's, I even bought some factory ammo and measured the case length to the datum line with the Stoney Point (now Hornady?) "thingy". This measurement allowed me to set my FL sizing die to factory ammo specs.
This is the only rifle I've done this to but it helped me in my setup.
In short, check the chambering of your FL resized cases after they've been trimmed to length.
Bear in Fairbanks

Thanks for the replies, I will start knocking things off the list today and let you know what I find.

Hey TJ,

I had the same issue with my .300 WSM using Hornady dies. Initially, I was only threading the die down to touch the shell holder. I also had trouble chambering. When I talked to Hornady, they recommended screwing the die down further until the press ram needs to "cam over". I also use a Rockchucker and I now screw the die down while I extend the ram to feel that the die is inserted far enough to keep the ram from reaching it's maximum extension. When I finish, I can feel the ram/shellholder contact the die just before it reaches maximum extension- it will then "break over". It has worked for me and no more chambering issues.

You got several good ideas regarding your problems with your 300 WSM, I´ll add a few ideas of mine anyway

First of all I agree on the headpsce-ideas that already have been discussed, I bet you don´t press the shoulder back when resizing! I would not touch the shellholder thou! The shellholders are hardened and a file isn´t going to do much harm to a quality shellholder.... You can grind them down but there´s a risk of broken shellholders when you grind them and extraction is stiff from the die sometime in the future. Been there done that

A simple way to check if the die isn´t moving the shoulder, even after setting the press to take up the flex of the resizing, is to place a feeler gauge or similar thin steelsheet under the case in the shellholder during sizing. There´s room for a stunt like this in most shellholders and you can easypress the case in further to adjust the headspace beond a "regular" sizing.

When/if you get the problem sorted this way with the feeler gauges I suggest you look up a person with a lathe and carbide tools and turn the FL die bottom off the same amount that you put under the case in the shellholder and you have a safe setup that produce easy chambering cases without exessive headspace!

I have two 300 WSM barrels, one for a benchrest gun and one for a hunting gun. I have cut the chambers to minimum headspace and my Redding FL-S die bumps the shoulder back enough on both barrels.

Hope you solve your problems!

You could try RCBS "small base" dies - works for my .270 wsm.