My 338 Sherman Shortmag

[elkaholic]

Unfortunately I don't have a 40 deg cutter never needed one. I did anneal brass again like BG suggested and I am able to get a 2 tho bump that closes relatively decent. I'm not sure how this will affect my accuracy through out load development or how brass will be to size next go around or if this problem will keep plaguing me.
If I have to start reaming dies or doing all sorts of brass work that will be a show stopper.

You shouldn't have to.
It's not been a problem so far. Just trying to figure out what was going on.

 

[bigngreen]

Don't know if it was covered but you have your firing pin and ejector out so you can feel JUST the brass fit right?

 

[ramrod79]

Don't know if it was covered but you have your firing pin and ejector out so you can feel JUST the brass fit right?[/

BG I do not have my firing pin and extractor out. You will have to explain the reason for this as I have never taken bolt apart to see how sized brass cycles. My shot brass cycles fine with bolt together so bumping shoulder back 1-2 tho should yield same results but it does not ( my shot brass is within perfect specs) . After annealing once fired annealed from factory brass it's better but not how it should be. I'm guessing after a **** ton of reading I probably have a donut on brass and will have to buy tooling to turn off. I wish I had some so I could try a few to see if that was issue but I've always refused to neck turn in past, and had no issues.
The fun has defiantly gone out of this.

 

[ramrod79]

I did pull bolt apart to get the same results tight brass unless bumped back past 5 tho.

 

[ruby76]

Just went and did some checking. I have whidden dies as well. I am just under half a turn away from the shell-holder (rcbs #4). My sized brass with the supplied shoulder gauge is 1.954. I measured the neck wall thickness all the way down to the junction and it is the proper 12.5 thou. I did the marker test and seen no marks other than the body down towards the case head (.300 up from the case head). Even sized it is a bit stiff when cycling the bolt, more so than the RP stamped brass. Judging by the marks on the brass from sizing, this spot that is rubbing does not get sized that far down.

 

[bigngreen]

BG I do not have my firing pin and extractor out. You will have to explain the reason for this as I have never taken bolt apart to see how sized brass cycles. My shot brass cycles fine with bolt together so bumping shoulder back 1-2 tho should yield same results but it does not ( my shot brass is within perfect specs) . After annealing once fired annealed from factory brass it's better but not how it should be. I'm guessing after a ---- ton of reading I probably have a donut on brass and will have to buy tooling to turn off. I wish I had some so I could try a few to see if that was issue but I've always refused to neck turn in past, and had no issues.
The fun has defiantly gone out of this.

The reason is your trying to just look at the brass, the ejector forces the brass to one side and forward, the firing pin on many forces the bolt up and puts a lot more drag on the system so if your feeling an issue you need to remove the extra sources of drag.
When building a rifle everything is set on a no firing pin or ejectors static position, setting dies and finding your lands needs to be in the same state as setting head space for accurate and repeatable results every time.

 

[Deleted member 109523]

Hi everybody. I'm new to the site and this is my first post. I also have a 338 ss. My reloading experience is only about a year and a half, so I hope this contributes. I had the same issue with mine until I bought a hornady shoulder gauge. The gauge that came with the whidden dies fits snug to the neck and when I knocked it back what I thought was .002 ( according to the whidden gauge), it was still very tight in the chamber. All I was doing was moving the the little radius back at the shoulder neck junction. My neighbor lend me his hornady 338 shoulder gauge. It measures .420 and actually sits on the shoulder. When I measured a sized piece (which I thought was bumped .002) and a fired piece, both with the hornady gauge there was no bump in the shoulder area at all. So after adjusting to get the actual shoulder to back .002 with the hornady gauge, they cycled just fine. If this sound wrong, please correct me

 

[elkaholic]

Thank you for that. Most of the Whidden dies do come with a .420 gauge?

 

[ramrod79]

You are correct there is a big difference between the Whidden and my Hornady 420 I just checked, and I do have my brass sized to fit although I feel it's over sized. Out of 49 I have 30 that will cycle nice and I'll try my load work up. Out of the last 20 I have 10 that are to long 42-45 and 8 that are sized but still way to tight. Quite the nightmare for new once fired brass.
I'm gonna trim all my brass And toss the real tight brass see what I'm left with.

 

[ruby76]

Thank you for that. Most of the Whidden dies do come with a .420 gauge?

My 338SS dies came with a .375 gauge.

 

[elkaholic]

My 338SS dies came with a .375 gauge.

I have had Whidden put different gauges in sometimes.

 

[KMG]

My 338SS dies came with a .375 gauge.

My Whidden dies came with a .375 also.

 

[elkaholic]

My Whidden dies came with a .375 also.

This is prompting me to scratch my head as I guess I've never really thought about it. Unless I'm missing something, it seems like it wouldn't matter too much providing you are far enough away from the neck, or body, to get a true measurement. Most of the Sherman dies (.470" head) come with a .375" bump, although I've seen .400".
Most of the SS and SST come with a ..420". Obviously, a .375" bore in the Sherman case could not be a .375" but I don't really know what triggers the change from the die maker??
Good question for someone smarter than me. There should be plenty of those around
Guess I'll ask Whidden when I think about it.

 

[ramrod79]

I'm a 375 as well and there's a big difference from the 375 to the 420.
If I use the 375 I end up with tight brass issues as it sits right where neck and shoulder meet. If I use 420 I sit on shoulder.
Whidden gives me a 1.605 shot brass
Hornady gives me a 1.574. Shot brass
This next round I'll try the hornady see if I get a better fit with brass as Jeff Z did.
Shot first round tonight 250 berg @56 -58.5 of Varget at 10 thou off no pressure at all. 58gr shot 1" group at 200 yards 58.5 was 1.25.
I'll run now till I hit pressure then see what speed is. My 53 gr load was almost 2600 so I'm guessing I have to be close to [email protected]
I'm hoping to get north of 60 get these 250s in the mid 2900 Mark.