Brass a bit stiff when chambering....at my wits end. Help!

[Rardoin]

Well I will be stand corrected. it was my lubing process. I went back and wiped all the parts off of the die. Relubed those pieces of brass. Sized them again, and bingo...they chamber. Wow. I feel dumb. Why would lube make such a big deal?

Well....I did not suggest this from a standpoint of superior understanding...LOL. It was a "Been there, Dun that, Got da T shirt"

 

[Rardoin]

The reason I suspected lube inconsistency is the high variation of the base to shoulder datum measurements. If a press is not stupid sloppy in the linkages and you are consistent in the ram position, whether camming over or bottoming out on the SH/die, the only other culprit would be the way the brass is interacting with the sizing die. Glad you figured it out so quickly.

 

[JMW67]

Glad you found the problem and it was a simple fix I cant tell you how many times I have felt like a real dumba-- after finding what the answers to some problems I was creating for myself

 

[willfrye027]

Are you feeding from the mag? I recently had a similar issue with a Safari grade A bolt which has a mauser action and should only be fed from the magazine otherwise I was getting weird sticky bolt issues just dropping one into the action and closing the bolt. Chased my tail a bit before my smith educated me lol. Not sure on your action if this is relevant but maybe others will chime in.

 

[willfrye027]

Never mind, looks like you figured it out

 

[LVJ76]

It's what I call an an end user problem Lol. Happens to all of us.

The more you reload the more you learn, and also come up with new tricks to make things better/more effective.

 

[BrentM]

Sorry if this was already covered.... check the case mouth outside for a lip. It seems like this occurs with wet tumbling and case trimming without debuting more often but I've seen several situations where there is a lip and when chambered it is the culprit

 

[10spottedhorses]

The RCBS folks were correct as usual. Run the shell holder all the way to the top of the stroke, screw the length resizing die all the way down until it touches the shell holder, lower the shell holder slightly, lower the die about 1/4 to 1/3 of a turn, raise the ram and if it cams over with a firm force on the ram, set the set screw on the lock ring. Resize your 8 cases, measure them to a 0.0005 and if they don't match, something, probably the brass, but maybe the die, is at fault. Have you annealed your brass? If none of the above works, annual your brass.

 

[Danny1788]

Your base to datum measurement seems short to Me.
2.239" is min @ .420" datum line. seems like your headspace is a little on the tight Side.

 

[fisherman987]

Well I will be stand corrected. it was my lubing process. I went back and wiped all the parts off of the die. Relubed those pieces of brass. Sized them again, and bingo...they chamber. Wow. I feel dumb. Why would lube make such a big deal?

Sometimes, when brass gets a bit harder after firings you'll find that running the brass through the sizer an extra time will size it down just a little bit more.

 

[Dollar55]

Comparator lengths are as follows:

2 with bolt pressure when chambering: 2.2340 and 2.2325

8 with zero bolt pressure: 2.2310, 2.2305, 2.2310, 2.2320, 2.2305, 2.2290, 2.2295, 2.2310.


All were fired from a different person who sold me this gun so I cannot verify that all were originally shot in this gun. My worry is that the 8 which chamber fine simply chamber fine for now but may grow further and then not chamber if maybe there is something wrong with the gun itself. Thoughts?

I am having a similar problem and found my brass does not seemed to be getting resized on the bottom 1/3 of the case. The brass has 8-10 firings so the case is hard. Annealing the neck does not seem to help the bottom. I have to run them threw my die 10-15 times before they fit comfortable. Loosing faith in my H match grade dies.

 

[Mike Matteson]

I can almost bet everyone one of us has this happened at some point in our reloading life. Chalk up as a learning experience. I will guarantee you will have more AhAh moments as you develop your reloading knowledge. We all do. This is a great place to pick up little tidbits of knowledge that will raise your game in loading. Reloading is a lifetime learning experience. Every time I think I am there I see a post and realize I need to do this going forward.

You got that right. Forever learning!!!
SSS
Mike

 

[Spooksar]

If you know someone with another set of dies try theirs, what I've seen happen is a rifle is chambered with a new reamer, but the dies are chambered with one that is at the lower end of its life. Had this happen with a friends 300 Win Mag, he ran his brass through my dies and it solved the problem, so we swamped dies.

 

[Gone Ballistic]

Well I will be stand corrected. it was my lubing process. I went back and wiped all the parts off of the die. Relubed those pieces of brass. Sized them again, and bingo...they chamber. Wow. I feel dumb. Why would lube make such a big deal?

You might try using a dry lubes and spray your cases. I have never had any problems since I changed over to Hornady Dry Lube. At the very least, use a lubing mat and roll your cases. This will give you a far more even consistency in application than applying it with your fingers. Good luck!