.008 Bump Required to Smoothly Chamber Round??

[hawlejr]

Sounds like you have too much headspace. Cases are stretching when fired. Virgin cases chamber fine but are .006-8 shorter to shoulder. If this were a Savage, I'd loosen the barrel nut and turn the barrel in until it hit the short guage and then turn it out just a little. Probably require a smith to accomplish this on a Howa?

Good luck

 

[Huntz]

I would try a no go or field gauge and if the bolt does not close on them use a Redding base only die .

 

[Hondo64d]

Are you having to bump the shoulder that far so that the base can be sized down enough? (Fld)

Try using black sharpie on the case to see what's actually causing the hang up

^^^^
This.

John

 

[General RE LEE]

Thank you all for the replies. My gut is telling me my die is not sizing the base above the case head. I noticed to get the brass to chamber, the shell holder has to contact the die form enough the press handle cams over.

There is a guy that sells a "Belt Buster" due to size the base of 6 ARC cases. This is to prevent "belting" when sizing 6 ARC cases but I bet it will help my issue.

Also, I think Hornady beefs up this area of the brass compared to others.

 

[8x68s]

By the by, I have probably 200 pieces of once fired hornady 6 arc brass I'd let go for next to nothing. I also have a bunch of starline 6.5 grendel, most of which hasn't been used. I went to Alpha munitions as soon as they released it.

EDIT: This post wasn't meant to be an Ad to sell brass. I have one of those in the classifieds. The 6.5 Grendel Brass is all converted to 6 ARC. I can only seem to find about 199 of the once fired. I'm not sure what happened to the rest of the brass. It's lost in the sauce.

PM'd you about your brass...

 

[JPaul]

Are You setting up your FL sizing die with a light cam over?

 

[General RE LEE]

Are You setting up your FL sizing die with a light cam over?

I am now. When I set up die with a slight cam over, shoulder bump is .008". Case length grows very little though.

 

[RichCoyle]

Interesting recent development loading my 6mm ARC Howa bolt action. If I bump shoulder .002", bolt is difficult to close. Virgin brass shoulder is .008" back from a fired case and chambers easily. I kept lowering my FL die in increments till case chambers smoothly, which is right about .006-.008" shoulder bump. Cases are not growing more than .003" when bumping shoulder back this much, which is interesting.

I've never had a chamber that needed more than .002" shoulder bump to smoothly chamber a case.

• Rifle has 1500 rounds on it
• Carbon ring removed in throat
• Bullet seated to jump .060
• Using .350 Hornady comparator and a fired case
• Loads are within Hornady load data and no over pressure
• Hornady 3x fired brass

I'm stumped. Any suggestions?

I didn't read any posts passed this. I had the same problem. It was solved by a small base die.

 

[Rflshootr]

I'd call or email Hornady and tell them the problem. Tell them the sizing die isn't sizing enough at the base. You may have to send the die and a few fired cases back. Maybe they'll send you a new die that actually works.
And while you're at it, measure a fired piece of brass at the base in different spots to see if it's round or egg shaped.

 

[Dean2]

I do not understand these gymnastics to find a cause. Case fits when put into rifle, case is fired, fired case no longer fits properly or chambers easily; with no other changes to the case. Either the load is over pressure and over expanding the head, which should make it tight to extract, or the chamber is not perfectly round and the case orientation affects the ease with which that fired case can be re-chambered.

If the case extracts easily after firing, put a sharpie mark dead center on the top of the case before you eject the round. Re-chamber it with the mark straight up, then do it again with that mark 90 degrees left or right. If it is tight on the 90 degree orientation, your chamber is the issue.

A brass case, fired from any bolt gun, with proper pressure, should re-chamber in that same gun, with zero resistance.

 

[PddPdd]

The other possibility is the OP is actually causing his case to lengthen during sizing. So say his primer has backed out .005". So it will be measure .005" longer than the brass actually is. He then bumps his brass and comes to a measurement that appears as a .002 bump, when it reality if the primer is gone his bump is actually .003" longer. This can happen if the body gets sized when the shoulder isn't being touched at all by the resizing die. A rough expander ball can also cause a case shoulder to get elongated. In any case I'm done here. Good luck to the OP.

 

[Roughrice]

You must de-prime before measuring fired brass for accurate chamber measurement.
Caliper can sit on a proudly cratered primer firing pin ring and give longer reading.

I've never had a fired case not fit into chamber unless case web area grew significantly with pressure. It would be too tight to chamber and be hard to extract.

Interesting issue.

 

[Rflshootr]

All that brings a question to mind. If you have fired 1500 rounds through the rifle and it was ok until now, what changed when you started having the problem?