I am having trouble chambering my rounds in my A bolt 270 wsm after they have been fired and full length resized. Even the empty brass load hard before resizing. The bolt closes good until I start pushing it down. Then it moves harder. New brass loads fine either loaded or unloaded. What gives? Factory rounds load fine also.
Posts: 14 | Location: Wis | Registered: 02 September 2003
quote:Originally posted by Bruce K: I am having trouble chambering my rounds in my A bolt 270 wsm after they have been fired and full length resized. Even the empty brass load hard before resizing. The bolt closes good until I start pushing it down. Then it moves harder. New brass loads fine either loaded or unloaded. What gives? Factory rounds load fine also.
I assume you are trimming necks.
Sounds like you have excessive headspace. Take rifle and dies to gunsmith so he can check head space of both.
Wally
Posts: 472 | Location: Oregon | Registered: 08 March 2002
The die is not sizing the case enough. Either the die is not adjusted right, the shell holder is wrong or the die is wrong.
Try sizing one with the die adjusted so that it has the maximum force on the shellholder. In other words it's down as far as it will go and still let the press cam over.
If this does not work call the die mfg. Heck, call them anyway.
I have the die adjusted down so that I insert the case as far as it can go into the die. It will not cam over it's down that far. This is my first experience with Lee dies. Maybe I will give them a call. thanks
Posts: 14 | Location: Wis | Registered: 02 September 2003
You want the toggle to cam over as it has a greater lever that way.
It might be the die or the shell holder. If you have another Lee #5 try that. If you return the die per their request be sure to send the shell holder with it. Lee shell holders are all over the place on dimensions.
Just guessing here, but you're feeding the rounds by hand, then closing the bolt? Try feeding the rounds from the Magazine, or just sitting on the magazine follower, see if that solves the problem. Let me know if that works, Dan
Posts: 588 | Location: Central Valley | Registered: 01 July 2002
Do you crimp your bullets? I had a 300 win mag that would not chamber well or at all if I crimped the bullets. I quit crimping and all was well. This would not explain why the empty brass would not chamber though.
Posts: 9823 | Location: Montana | Registered: 25 June 2001
Is this the same 3100fps 150g you mentione a few weeks ago? Mic some cases, factory vs fireformed. Sounds like you have quite a bit of expansion going on.
Posts: 2000 | Location: Beaverton OR | Registered: 19 December 2002
quote:Originally posted by Savage 99: It's not excessive headspace.
The die is not sizing the case enough. Either the die is not adjusted right, the shell holder is wrong or the die is wrong.
Try sizing one with the die adjusted so that it has the maximum force on the shellholder. In other words it's down as far as it will go and still let the press cam over.
If this does not work call the die mfg. Heck, call them anyway.
Shellholders are designed with 0.125" from top of shell holder to the base of shellholder (Where your case head sits) You can adjust your dies so that press ram exerts 5 tons on shellholder and all you will accomplish is racking your press. Dies should be adjusted so they make contact with shellholder at bottom of stroke THEREBY preventing unnecessarily stressing your press.
It is always possible that the base of your cases is not being resized enough. look to see if there is any scuffing on those bases after tying to chamber.
What is far more likely is the shoulder of your fired cases are not being bumped enough to allow chambering.
I would first eliminate the shellholder as a possible problem by using depth micrometer to establish the 0.125 measurement.
Assuming shellholder is right that leaves the chambers cut in your rifle and die.
Remove die from your press. Remove expander ball and decapping pin. Fully insert a fired case. With a depth micrometer mease from base of case to bottom of the die. This should read no more than 0.123 or 0.124. If it does then put die in a lathe and face off the base so you get a 1 or 2 thousands "bump".
If the above measurements are OK that leaves the expander ball. Your die could properly resize case only to have an oversize expander pull shoulder forward as press removes case from die. Check this by inserting a RESIZED case into the disassembled die and measuring one again for that "bump". If not correct then you must polish expander so that it does not disturb the required shoulder to base measurement. Some refer to this as headspace.
Wally
Posts: 472 | Location: Oregon | Registered: 08 March 2002
This load is 130 gr hornady with 68 gr IMR 7828 @3175fps. It is below max a bit, but with 53 gr Varget @ 2975fps I still have the same problem with it loading. I have tried using a case that was resized with the expander ball and pin removed, but it did the same thing. I tried emailing Lee today but the link on their website is invalid. sheesh. I have noticed some marks on the brass right at the base of the shoulder where it meets the main part of the case. I am pretty sure that the shoulder is not being set back quite enough. I really hate to change anything too drastic as this load and rifle shoots honest to god 1 to 1.25 in groups at 200 yards if I do my thing, (using a rifle holder that eliminates my error except for trigger pull). My best friend is a machinist, I think I will measure the depth of resizing and if needed, he can remove a thousandth or 2. He gave me a dial micrometer that was getting a little rough. It should work good enough for this though. thanks
Posts: 14 | Location: Wis | Registered: 02 September 2003
Even if you do measure the shell holder with a depth mic. you will just find that the Lee shell holders are wrong as almost all of them are.
What matters is if it works or not. In lieu of calling Lee which somehow you have still not done you can sand off a thousand's at a time by rubbing the shell holder's top on a piece of emery cloth that's laying on a flat surface. If that works your all set.
quote:Originally posted by Bruce K: I have noticed some marks on the brass right at the base of the shoulder where it meets the main part of the case. I am pretty sure that the shoulder is not being set back quite enough.
My best friend is a machinist, I think I will measure the depth of resizing and if needed, he can remove a thousandth or 2. He gave me a dial micrometer that was getting a little rough. It should work good enough for this though. thanks
If a micrometer used by a machinist is "a little rough" something will not fit properly. Used by a reloader or gunsmith somebody might get hurt
Wally
Posts: 472 | Location: Oregon | Registered: 08 March 2002
As Savage99 has pointed out you can remove material from the top of your shellholder. Accomplishes the same thing as removing material from die base.
Don't sand it by hand. You cannot control amount removed AND are not liable to sand a true face.
I modify the die because it is easier to chuck accurately and precisely remove just what is needed. Also it is easier to mark the die as being specifically machined for this rifle. Very important that a modified die/shellholder not be used on another chamber. Someone, down the line, could find themselves with excessive headspace rather than insufficient headspace you are dealing with now.
Bruce if you send me three unfired cases, your dies and shellholder I will set them up properly for you. Cantact me at wow@efn.org. Gratis in appreciation of Saeeds providing this forum and the help I've gotten here.
Wally
Posts: 472 | Location: Oregon | Registered: 08 March 2002
I tried loading from the mag and still had the problem. I then took a couple thousandths off the shell holder and it got a lot better.Actually ended up with 5 when I was done. I used a factory load, once fired, and resized that. It is now usable. Thanks for all the info. Only reason I bought the Lee dies was because the shell holder was included. I now am going to buy either an RCBS or a Redding die set like all my others. Once burned is learned. The dial caliper measures fine, it is just the gear on the adjustment slide that is rough.thanks again............Bruce
Posts: 14 | Location: Wis | Registered: 02 September 2003
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