Reloading 300 WSM

FEENIX said:

Jeff did an excellent job in this video, which might help resolve your issue, be a good practice, or add to your growing knowledge base. Take your time and enjoy the learning process.

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this was a great help!!!

atblis said:

300 wsm has no belt

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exactly!

LongBomber said:

Have you trimmed the brass yet? You may be running into the end of the chamber with the case mouth.

Also if you are not annealing you may have to set your sizing dies down a couple thou to keep your shoulder bump the same as it was with new brass.

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what, it doesn't have a throat.............it's not a straightwall (rimless) or pistol that headspaces on the mouth.

I'm using some 300 wsm in my 270wsm by pushing the shoulder back a hair until it chambers easy. They work great in my browning A bolt, but not my sons weatherby chambered for the 270wsm.

Tight bolt closing is an often misdiagnosed problem and a frustrating exercise to resolve accurately, here are
my suggestions for a quick solution.
1. It must be first understood that all ammunition or empty brass is manufactured to a standard in
order that it fits in all factory chambers, notice that we are NOT talking about custom chambers here that
might require additional steps to correct or prepare prior to using brass either new or fired.
2. It must be understood that when a fired case (fired from the same rifle) is difficult to reinsert into the
chamber the problem is the case diameter or the case length (headspace) or sometimes both, streched necks
are rarely the problem but in extreme cases can be.
3. Adjustments to the resizing die can change these fired case dimension within a specific sizing range only, they are
limited by the dies internal dimensions.
Adjustments beyond the dies sizing abilities should not be attempted by modifying the die this is not recommended.
4. A process of elimination is in order, I will not describe the reloading steps from start to finish since it is assumed that the person already knows how to reload.
Upon discovering that regular full length resizing does not allow the easy reinsertion of the sized case into the
rifle chamber the first step is to check the rifles headspace, Correct the headspace if required, NOTE the Headspace can only be accurately checked with a headspace gage.
5. If Headspace is good proceed to check the diameter of the fired cases before and after sizing, the sizing dies must be able to size the cases below the chambers diameter at the same location, usually measure at .200" from the case base. If the chamber dimension is smaller a custom die is needed, trimming a die CANNOT accomplish this because the end result will be a case that is too short (base to shoulder datum) you cannot reduce a cases diameter by driving it further into a die
without affecting it's length.
These are your basics
BB

ssobsss said:

Could you be running into bulging at the cartridge belt, have you measured your brass diameter at this end?

Issue appeared for me also when firing cases numerous times and condition is belted-case-bulge.

There is a "belted magnum case die" that will resize your case at the bottom by Larry Willis (larrywillis.com / Innovative technologies) and if you do buy one, be sure to use lots of case lube. The son took the business over and makes these in lots and I think you are lucky as he might have just done a production run. If not in stock, you might have a few months of a wait.

Plenty of youtube video's on the topic, just use this for your search term: 'videos of larry willis case die 300 win mag'. You can also look up 'belted case bulge' to see some exaples.

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300 wsm don't have a belted bottom case

Jim's Hunt said:

Before you spend $$ on a new body die run your die down in the press 1/16 of a turn size a piece of brass and see if it chambers. Keep turning down die until brass chambers easy. I usually have a gun smith chuck my die in his lathe and take .010-015 off of die so I don't cam over my press. Also Redding make a set of shell holders that are .002 differs heights

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You can get loading shell holders in 2k inkrements they com in I think it it's 8 to a case of them that's what I use so I don't have the cam over problem

Jeepster said:

I'm using some 300 wsm in my 270wsm by pushing the shoulder back a hair until it chambers easy. They work great in my browning A bolt, but not my son's weatherby chambered for the 270wsm.

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I have some 7wsm brass Norma and Winchester and and a lot that has been full length if you need some

Jim's Hunt said:

Before you spend $$ on a new body die run your die down in the press 1/16 of a turn size a piece of brass and see if it chambers. Keep turning down die until brass chambers easy. I usually have a gun smith chuck my die in his lathe and take .010-015 off of die so I don't cam over my press. Also Redding make a set of shell holders that are .002 differs heights

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Tommy T said:

You can get loading shell holders in 2k inkrements they com in I think it it's 8 to a case of them that's what I use so I don't have the cam over problem

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That's precisely what the video link I provided in #11 is about.

I don't understand the part of taking some off the die. Thinking about this if you cannot size the bottom webbing of the case and that's where it's bulging then I would think if you took some off your die then you would one set your shoulder back a lot more and then not have enough die to compress the bottom body part of case. I don't understand the concept and where people have mentioned using a body die this would be my thought instead of taking some off the die. I've never have heard this before unless my only other thoughts the internal size of the die is off and you are trying to achieve more shoulder setback or making shoulder set back correctly in a die that was possibly made wrong. Is that what it's supposed to be doing. I've been thinking about getting a 300 WSM or PRC and did know about these issues with the WSM.

I started experiencing issues after the 3rd'ish reload using ADG brass. I may try the new Lapua brass.

Wachsmann said:

I don't understand the part of taking some off the die. Thinking about this if you cannot size the bottom webbing of the case and that's where it's bulging then I would think if you took some off your die then you would one set your shoulder back a lot more and then not have enough die to compress the bottom body part of case. I don't understand the concept and where people have mentioned using a body die this would be my thought instead of taking some off the die. I've never have heard this before unless my only other thoughts the internal size of the die is off and you are trying to achieve more shoulder setback or making shoulder set back correctly in a die that was possibly made wrong. Is that what it's supposed to be doing. I've been thinking about getting a 300 WSM or PRC and did know about these issues with the WSM.

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I have two .300 WSMs but do not have the same issue. However, I did have a couple of instances where the base-to-shoulder dimension noted in #22 was longer by .005" IIRC, and it would not chamber (acting like a no-go gauge).

EE_Reloader said:

I started experiencing issues after the 3rd'ish reload using ADG brass. I may try the new Lapua brass.

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I had the same problem with clickers after the 4th reload. Issue was my Redding and Forster dies didn't size the body enough near the .200 line. Bought an EC full length die and haven't had any clickers since

EE_Reloader said:

I started experiencing issues after the 3rd'ish reload using ADG brass. I may try the new Lapua brass.

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I've had zero WSM brass issues with Winchester that has never seen another chamber.