Reloading 300 WSM

for those who have clockers and other chambering issues, what is your reloading regiment? do you neck size and bump, neck only or anneal?

if full sizing wears brass out faster (supposedly), then i must be the luckiest as some brass i have has been fl more than 20x. never had any clickers or trouble chambering any ammo/cartridges i've done for AR's and BA's. what gives! i don't reload/handload for prs or any other competitions. i also will state i probably won't (so far) have any group sizes less that 1/2moa (most fall in between 1 and 1/2" moa groups). i've been reloading for 40 years and by no means an expert or so-called professional i just don't have these issues so many have.

ARlife4me said:

for those who have clockers and other chambering issues, what is your reloading regiment? do you neck size and bump, neck only or anneal?

if full sizing wears brass out faster (supposedly), then i must be the luckiest as some brass i have has been fl more than 20x. never had any clickers or trouble chambering any ammo/cartridges i've done for AR's and BA's. what gives! i don't reload/handload for prs or any other competitions. i also will state i probably won't (so far) have any group sizes less that 1/2moa (most fall in between 1 and 1/2" moa groups). i've been reloading for 40 years and by no means an expert or so-called professional i just don't have these issues so many have.

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This has been the first issue I have had loading for the 7 rifles I own. I normally anneal and then wash follow by FL sizing in a Redding S die and bump all shoulders 3 thousandths. I have not annealed this brass in 2 reloads so I might try that. Gonna do a process of elimination in the coming days.

For me it was a chamber / die size difference. Factory Redding or Forster dies didn't size near the .200 line enough. There was no problem chambering or once the initial bolt resistance and "click" occurred there was no issue with extraction. When I researched clickers with the 300 WSM Alex Wheeler had some good info and so did Eric Cortina on the cause of clickers. They agreed that most of the time it was a mismatch between chamber and die sizing that occurs after 3-5 reloads. I bought an EC die which sizes near the .200 line down more than most factory dies and the problem is solved.
ADG brass
Deprime
measure for HS
Clean
Anneal
Full length size
Expand with mandrel
I believe the initial post was chambering a loaded round. I had this same problem with Hammer HHT bullets they would be hard to chamber but Badlands BD2 would chamber easily. Both were .050 off the lands (mag length). Checked sized brass and it chambered with the bolt falling closed easily so pretty sure the brass was headspaced correctly. Measured loaded rounds at the neck and the Hammers were .0015 larger in diameter than the BD2's. Turned necks until they just cleaned up and that problem went away too. Hope some of my experiences helps and I'm not off target

FLShooter293 said:

For me it was a chamber / die size difference. Factory Redding or Forster dies didn't size near the .200 line enough. There was no problem chambering or once the initial bolt resistance and "click" occurred there was no issue with extraction. When I researched clickers with the 300 WSM Alex Wheeler had some good info and so did Eric Cortina on the cause of clickers. They agreed that most of the time it was a mismatch between chamber and die sizing that occurs after 3-5 reloads. I bought an EC die which sizes near the .200 line down more than most factory dies and the problem is solved.
ADG brass
Deprime
measure for HS
Clean
Anneal
Full length size
Expand with mandrel
I believe the initial post was chambering a loaded round. I had this same problem with Hammer HHT bullets they would be hard to chamber but Badlands BD2 would chamber easily. Both were .050 off the lands (mag length). Checked sized brass and it chambered with the bolt falling closed easily so pretty sure the brass was headspaced correctly. Measured loaded rounds at the neck and the Hammers were .0015 larger in diameter than the BD2's. Turned necks until they just cleaned up and that problem went away too. Hope some of my experiences helps and I'm not off target

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I don't think I made a clear distinction at the beginning. I am having issues chambering FL sized unloaded pieces of brass.

EE_Reloader said:

I don't think I made a clear distinction at the beginning. I am having issues chambering FL sized unloaded pieces of brass.

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do you know if it's headspaced correctly? if so, it would be chamber cut problems. not knowing what the bolt, lugs or receiver lugs look like to know if it could be an issue(s)? even if the neck was cut down to the shoulder it might not help diagnosing? maybe cut half the shoulder off and try to chamber. if it pushes hard enough after having relief cuts (so to speak) you might be able to close the bolt? if it crushes the shoulder (and you know the headspace is correct) it should tell you the chamber is cut wrong? if there's no imperfections in/on the bolt face, lugs and/or receiver lugs that should leave the cause to the chamber. if i had brass in that cartridge i'd send you some in various brands to check against what you have. at least you would know if it's a brass issue or not. i don't own or have any wsm's in any caliber to help. after you fl sized did you mic the brass at the .200" mark and the body/shoulder junction (regardless of bumping)?

@ARlife4me I don't have any reason to believe the hadspace is incorrect. When I loaded the brass the firdt couple times I had no issue closing the bolt. It was around the 3 time that it started. I also have no issue extracting the brass once it's fired in the gun. I have not gotten a chance to measure the base either. I got pretty busy this weekend with some projects around my house.

EE_Reloader said:

I suspect the base of the brass is not being sized enough

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This is exactly the issue I was having in 3 stainless Win Model 70 LA in 25-300WSM, 2 6.5-300WSM's. Upon each loading cycle, the brass just above the web wasn't sized enough, this caused chambering issues.
The fix was a Redding body die, it touches nothing but the body, no neck/shoulder in the die.
This fixed the issue, but the shoulder then became more difficult to size consistently, only annealing after every firing fixed it.

Hope this helps.

Cheers.

So I went looking for a body die but I keep seeing this from all the vendors. I was under the impression that the body die didn't bump the shoulder but they say they do. I would really like some feedback from people who have used these and can say whether they bump the shoulder or not.

"Body Dies are designed to full length resize the case body, bump the shoulder position for proper chambering, but not size the neck at all. They are made without internal parts and are intended for resizing cases which have become increasingly difficult to chamber after repeated firing."

The wsm brass is very thick and has a lot of memory if not annealed after firing. I don't doubt that people have had problems with a standard sizing dies not sizing the base down enough if it's a match chamber. I just got through shooting brand new Winchester 270 wsm brass and it wouldn't size the shoulder back unless I had the sizing die tightened down on the shell holder with a light camming over. And even then I was only getting it to -.0015 headspace. But if I anneal the brass at the shoulder and neck to get rid of the memory I don't have to set the sizing die on the shell holder and I can actually get too much head space -.006
Before you spend money I would just anneal the brass and then size I'm pretty sure you'll get rid of the problem. If not then spend the money for a new die.

EE_Reloader said:

So I went looking for a body die but I keep seeing this from all the vendors. I was under the impression that the body die didn't bump the shoulder but they say they do. I would really like some feedback from people who have used these and can say whether they bump the shoulder or not.

"Body Dies are designed to full length resize the case body, bump the shoulder position for proper chambering, but not size the neck at all. They are made without internal parts and are intended for resizing cases which have become increasingly difficult to chamber after repeated firing."

Click to expand...

If it is a Redding, you CAN adjust the die to not touch the shoulder.
I don't have mine anymore, it went with one of the 6.5 rifles, otherwise I would've offered it to you.
The Redding is the best bet, however there are others if you look for them.

Cheers.

ARlife4me said:

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

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Hmm. You know that the throat and the end of the neck in the chamber are two different things? Here is a picture of a reamer, you can see the end of the chamber, then it transitions into the throat. If you don't trim your brass you will run into the end of the neck in chamber.