Need some help, very confused, trying to load some hammer hunters

[Dean2]

I agree with many of you about using the new brass. In hindsight I wish I would have just started with that. Just an FYI, this once fired brass wasnt some unknown brass, it was once fired by me in another 300 win I own. And I thought is was good quality being Nosler and I'm using RCBS dies so not the lowest quality out there. Thanks again for everybodys help. I'll let you all know what I find out tonight.

Then save that brass and only use it in the 300 you first fired it in. It will work fine in that gun.

 

[BeaverHunter]

Then save that brass and only use it in the 300 you first fired it in. It will work fine in that gun.

That was my plan. Thank you for the help.

 

[cajun]

Given what you said about trying to resize and looking at the picture of the belt on your resized case I woukd bet it's a case head expansion issue at the belt as was mentioned above.

 

[fish4food1]

I had a similar problem a while back with some 243 win loads. They would chamber roughly.....you had to force the bolt to close to get them to chamber. I reviewed my loading steps and could not figure out what I did wrong...so I called my mentor and he told me to check my shell holder. Well I did and i was using a RCBS shell holder with a Hornady sizing die......so I put a Hornady shell holder on the press and made a couple of loads and ......they worked properly....problem solved. From then on I always use a shell holder manufactured by the same company as the die manufacturer. Not sure what you are using , but wanted to relate the problem I had and fortunately I was a simple fix.

 

[BeaverHunter]

I had a similar problem a while back with some 243 win loads. They would chamber roughly.....you had to force the bolt to close to get them to chamber. I reviewed my loading steps and could not figure out what I did wrong...so I called my mentor and he told me to check my shell holder. Well I did and i was using a RCBS shell holder with a Hornady sizing die......so I put a Hornady shell holder on the press and made a couple of loads and ......they worked properly....problem solved. From then on I always use a shell holder manufactured by the same company as the die manufacturer. Not sure what you are using , but wanted to relate the problem I had and fortunately I was a simple fix.

Good point, that hasn't been a problem with any other of my reloads but I'll have to make sure I'm not mixing and matching.

 

[Cordobes]

I sugest: 1.- Resize one case with decapping pin and neck expander. 2.- Resize one case WITHOUT decapping pin and neck expander. 3.- Try to chamber both.

 

[Xrayvision]

Good read guys, thanks. One more item to consider...I'm not familiar with browning bolts, but I had a lot of 50 pieces of said Nolser brass that one third or so of which wouldn't chamber new and FL sized in my reworked 700 action with a Sako style extractor. Oh and would chamber in other factory actions. Tough area to measure and compare. Had to cut my losses and move on. Happy Shooting.

 

[RockyMtnMT]

Good read guys, thanks. One more item to consider...I'm not familiar with browning bolts, but I had a lot of 50 pieces of said Nolser brass that one third or so of which wouldn't chamber new and FL sized in my reworked 700 action with a Sako style extractor. Oh and would chamber in other factory actions. Tough area to measure and compare. Had to cut my losses and move on. Happy Shooting.

Tight neck can cause this as well.

 

[Xrayvision]

Tight neck can cause this as well.

Yeah, all other outside dimensions under that of fired. Well considered being a custom chambered barrel in 300wm.

 

[Susquatch]

Good point, that hasn't been a problem with any other of my reloads but I'll have to make sure I'm not mixing and matching.

This is an important point. It's good that you recognize that.

It may also help to know that you can get holder's in sets from Redding that have different lengths built in so you can experiment with different offsets. You can also get shim sets (7/8" washers of different thicknesses that can mix and match to set different die heights at Brownells/Sinclair & Midway to put between your die and the press to obtain different offsets too.

 

[Susquatch]

I think most of agree that brass should be kept segregated by rifle. I keep mine in 50 round MTM boxes with the caliber and name of my rifle on them.

But this reminds me that I once saw a fellow swapping bolts between otherwise identical rifles. This is an even bigger no-no. NEVER swap bolts between rifles. Even factory rifles are individually headspaced with a given dedicated bolt for that rifle. Usually the last four or 5 digits of the Serial number are also etched on the bolt someplace. Not saying that you did that, but it's worth mentioning to anyone who didn't know that swapping fired brass isn't a good practice because the issues are similar.

 

[MORGAN19]

I thought about that late last night also so I found a piece of brass that wouldn't chamber and adjusted my die down so I had a good cam over and it still wouldn't chamber. I then adjusted it down even more(to the extent that there was almost a pop when it would cam over) and it would chamber but not easily. I'm going to try this on another piece or two when I get home tonight to see if that fixes the brass issue. But based on how aggressive it was caming over, I don't think that's the issue. But maybe

I've had these same issues where the brass is swollen out right above the belt and won't or is hard to chamber. you can't full length resize that far down. innovative designs by larry willis has a special collet die. just for belted magnums that resizes that lower part of the case back to factory specs, also the die top is a case gauge. if it fits in there it will chamber in any rifle. it also states that they are getting over 20 reloads without cases coming apart. it is worth every penny!! just google larry willis or innovative designs collet die for belted magnums

 

[theosmithjr]

This has been said earlier, but I want to emphasize that comment for clarity.

It's NEVER a good idea to chase two problems at the same time. You will end up chasing your tail.

I would stick with using one brass that fits "easily" to debug the seating problem, then deal with the sizing problem later. You can (and should) sacrifice one good brass to do this. Cut the OAL short intentionally to make sure that brass length isn't the issue. I'd take maybe 0.025 off the length of the neck. This will not affect seating depth as long as the bullet still reaches the neck.

This brass should be a once fired brass that fits easily (bolt closes) with no bullet in it.

Now put a tiny little dent in the edge of the neck at the mouth with a needle nose plier. The purpose of the dent is to hold a bullet in place but not so firmly that it can't be pushed in by hand. Make sure the case will still fit before inserting the bullet.

Now push a bullet into the brass just enough so the bullet is held in place by the dent, and then manually insert the brass and bullet into the chamber and carefully close the bolt, then extract the round using your fingers to hold the round aligned with the bore as the bolt is slid open to make sure the extractor doesn't whack the bullet against the action port opening. And then examine the overall length and compare with what you learned before.

This is the basic method that was used before the stoney point gauge was introduced. (I love the hornady/stoney system but sometimes you have to go back to basics).

You may have to repeat this process several times to make sure that the bullet isn't sticking in the lands.

Sometimes I use a long wooden dowel down the barrel to help push the bullet out with the case as I open the bolt or lextract the case. This is especially true if I am "jamming" the bullet seating depth.

A few other points - I make all my own overall length gauge cases out of once fired brass. You can buy the required tap on line. The rest is easy.

Digital calipers can lie..... The old verniers were hard to read, but they never lied. Dial calipers fall somewhere in the middle.

For your purposes, I'd forget about using the ogive bushing system for measurement. Just measure the full overall length from case head to bullet tip. Bullets do vary slightly from one to the next using tip length, but not enough to matter for your purposes debugging this problem.

One last thought - are you sure you understand that ogive measurements can vary wildly from one bullet make to another? I hope you are not comparing the ogive measurement for two different bullets. I re-read your first several posts but could not convince myself that you were not doing that, so I thought it was worth clarifying. For example, I can easily see a full tenth or two difference between a Berger vld and a Hornady spire point. I even saw a difference of 50 thou once on two sierra bullets of the same part number but different lots. This ogive measurement only really applies within a single lot of the same bullet. Changing to a new lot generally requires checking the length over again and then "hoping" that nothing changes.

I'd just purchase a SINCLAIR BULLET COMPAREATOR and then you have a EXTREMELY ACCURATE OGIVE COAL Guage and then use STARRETT DIAL CALIPERS. THEY NEVER, EVER LIE!
Theosmithjr

 

[BeaverHunter]

I've had these same issues where the brass is swollen out right above the belt and won't or is hard to chamber. you can't full length resize that far down. innovative designs by larry willis has a special collet die. just for belted magnums that resizes that lower part of the case back to factory specs, also the die top is a case gauge. if it fits in there it will chamber in any rifle. it also states that they are getting over 20 reloads without cases coming apart. it is worth every penny!! just google larry willis or innovative designs collet die for belted magnums

I'll have to look into this. Thanks