300 weatherby reloading issues

[Cageycat]

I have been reloading for over 40 years. I just encountered a problem that has me perplexed. I recently won a Weatherby Mark V Carbonmark rifle in .300 Weatherby magnum from the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation. I purchased reloading dies and brass and started to reload some ammunition. The brass was purchased through gunbroker.com. The Remington brass was reloaded without any problems and loads just fine in my rifle. I cleaned the used Weatherby brass and resized the cases. And I made sure that they were resized all the way to the bottom of the rim. When I placed one of these resized cartridges into the bore and attempted to close the bolt, I discovered that the bolt absolutely will not close on this cartridge. As a matter of fact, the bolt actually locked up after barely putting any pressure on it. I had to tap the bolt with a hammer to free the bolt and eject the cartridge. No matter what round I tried from the two boxes of Weatherby brand rounds, the results were the same. I then took a micrometer and carefully checked these Weatherby brass rounds against the specs for a Weatherby .300 magnum rounds. I can find no variations in these rounds from what the specs should be. Any ideas on why these rounds won't work in this brand new, unfired rifle?

 

[backwoods83]

You need a belted Magnum collet die, Innovative tech has them. The case is expanded at the belt and if not sized with said die, it'll never chamber. Best to just pay 110 for a 100 round Shooters pack of Norma brass and start from scratch. Loads in Norma/Weatherby brass will be substantially higher than Remington cases anyway. Plus they will go back in your chamber after being fired in your chamber.

 

[FEENIX]

You might also want to re-calibrate your powder scale or bump it with another known good scale.

 

[Cageycat]

You need a belted Magnum collet die, Innovative tech has them. The case is expanded at the belt and if not sized with said die, it'll never chamber. Best to just pay 110 for a 100 round Shooters pack of Norma brass and start from scratch. Loads in Norma/Weatherby brass will be substantially higher than Remington cases anyway. Plus they will go back in your chamber after being fired in your chamber.

Thank you so much for this information. I simply did not know the difference in reloading belted magnum Cases. I went ahead and ordered that belted magnum collet die. Thanks again.

 

[WildBillG]

I had the same thing happen with my 257Wby brass. It only happened though when I tried to shoulder bump the brass. When I just neck sized it worked fine. I had to turn the full lengnth die in a little farther and the brass worked. To the best ofmy knowledge I did not need to adjust to why the die stated to work right. At the time I had no way of measuring the shoulder bump. Your die you are using now should work fine for you Cageycat.

 

[backwoods83]

He had brass from another chamber, the belt and datum line just ahead of that, was over expanded. The collet to size the belt will fix all future problems with belted magnums.

 

[Don A Parsons]

I cheat when it comes to finding my velocities...

I zero in at 100 meters,,, then shoot the clay dirt bank at 6 or 700 meters...

Dial down to find the moa drop,,, load the info of drop into my BA,,, and I'm up and runing...

The app tells me what velocitys im getting from every load for a particular rifle & cartridge...

Quick,,, Simple,,, Fast...

At least this works for a back-up plan,,, its actually my main way to find the performance of my loads these days,,, to confirm if I'm on the numbers I'll dial up to 1 or 1200 metres to make sure that the velocities match the moa's from the app

Cheers from the North

 

[4xforfun]

I have been reloading for over 40 years. I just encountered a problem that has me perplexed. I recently won a Weatherby Mark V Carbonmark rifle in .300 Weatherby magnum from the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation. I purchased reloading dies and brass and started to reload some ammunition. The brass was purchased through gunbroker.com. The Remington brass was reloaded without any problems and loads just fine in my rifle. I cleaned the used Weatherby brass and resized the cases. And I made sure that they were resized all the way to the bottom of the rim. When I placed one of these resized cartridges into the bore and attempted to close the bolt, I discovered that the bolt absolutely will not close on this cartridge. As a matter of fact, the bolt actually locked up after barely putting any pressure on it. I had to tap the bolt with a hammer to free the bolt and eject the cartridge. No matter what round I tried from the two boxes of Weatherby brand rounds, the results were the same. I then took a micrometer and carefully checked these Weatherby brass rounds against the specs for a Weatherby .300 magnum rounds. I can find no variations in these rounds from what the specs should be. Any ideas on why these rounds won't work in this brand new, unfired rifle?

OK...we need to take a step back. First you say you got Remington brass on Gunbroker, but then talk about Weatherby brass. So, are you using brass from 2 different manufactureres? Were they new brass? Do any of the brass fit in the gun BEFORE you size them? Do the fired, UNSIZED brass fit back into the chamber? How hot are your loads? Where does your problem start......after you sized them.....after they have been fired and then sized....?

A bit more info would help a lot.

Thanks,
Tod

 

[rsnell]

Change primers. The Federal 215 primer was designed for the Weatherby cartridges.

 

[WoodPecker Hunter]

Try some IMR7828 i Find it works Very well in the 300 WBee ! and use FED215 Primers ! WP