I went to the range this PM to shoot my rifles before my trip next Thursday to Tanzania, shot 6 shot group from sticks (tripod) at 50 yards with my Merkel 470. 5 shots all touching with the 6th one 1 1/2" to the right.

The 375 shot great, North Fork solids and softs are now same point of impact and over 2600 fps

Went home, loaded 15 NF cup points and 15 Woodleigh softs for the 470. Remember reading on this forum how people loaded all rounds into their rifles to make sure everything worked. I had 3 rounds that had thick rims and would not close without playing with the rifle. This was not noticable while loading the shells.

This is the last of a batch of 200 that I bought and that never happened before. If I would have had a bad situation and needed to reload quickly, there is no doubt one of the bad shells would have come up.

Thanks for posting this in the past.

Congratulations to you for being so thorough. PS people should do the same with factory ammo too.

I have had the same thing happen with rims on HDS and Bertram cases. Sometimes they can be filed down to work ok.

quote:

Originally posted by 500grains:
I have had the same thing happen with rims on HDS and Bertram cases. Sometimes they can be filed down to work ok.

This is true, but remember to file the bullet side of the rim, very carefully, till they close easy in the rifle!

Thanks to Rusty's advice, I've discovered this is the source of the same issue in my Hollis not fully closing on some cases.
As we speak, I'm measuring rim thinkness. Closes fine at .060-.063. No luck over .065. Is there a tool or gizmo to trim the rims more precisely so I don't take too much off or make them more uneven than they are?
Bob

I bought a 100 count lot a couple months back for the 470 NE,with the Rigby headstamp.I had 4 cases out of 100 that I had to file the rim.Perhaps I'm too particular,but one would think,that at that cost,+ considering what it's generally used for,that quality control would be a bit better.

Mac,

What is the down side of reducing thickness from the rear side, other than perhaps having a high primer?

Brett

Brett - If you are reducing the rim thickness, you MUST reduce it from the front of the rim not facing it off at the rear. Doing from the front will have no effect on the primer pocket depth. This is best done in a lathe, measuring the current rim thickness and then taking off just enough to macth the thickness of those rims that the rifle closes properly on. Touchy stuff if your not careful!

What if you don't have a lathe? Are there any case prep tools or home rigged gizmos anybody has used to reduce rims from the front. About 40% of my cases won't fully close the action. Bob

bobc - It's not ideal, but I've used a drill press to thin-down rims (from the front side) and to make them smaller in diameter.

It's not as accurate as a lathe, but I find it sufficient.

I use sandpaper backed with something rigid, and polish it up with 4-0 steel wool while it's in the press.

PS - have a set of clipers handy and check your work often.

How do you chuck the case into the drill press?

I must admit that I've taken material from the back (primer) side then used a primer pocket uniformer to deepen the primer pocket when necessary. I thought this was OK as I only needed .001 / .002 additional depth to the primer pocket.

I think I will rework some new cases using a Ch4d trim die to hold the case, chuck that in a lathe with a spindle in the primer pocket.

I'll let you know how that turns out.

Funny, cases with rims over about .039 will not allow that action to close in my rifle. Funny because the nominal rim thickness is .040...

Brett

The standard hillbilly procedure for craftsmanship regarding using the drill press instead of a lathe is to: (1) insert the case into the drill press leaving approximately 1" sticking out, (2) chuck the case "softly" into the press. If not, the case will take a form you won't want to look at, (3) since this case will more than likely wiggle loose after awhile, remember on your chuck just where to tightened it to, i.e. make two marks with a magic marker one above the other on the drill chuck and re-align each time the case works loose which on mine is quite often, (3) using a file that has only teeth on the bottom carefully take off or file the "front side of the rim" and remeasure "often" as it's easy to remove too much with the file, (4) after removing all that is needed I then polish with 400 sandpaper and flitz paste, (4) clean with brake fluid and resize the case-very important because you will have creases in the case from the drill chuck. Good shooting! Mike