6.5x55 Clickers issue

[remington jim]

In my F Class 284 Win rifle I always get clickers so I bought a Redding Small Base die and I size them every time with it then thru a Bushing die . Works Great Cures my clickers ! RJ

Unfortunately they don’t make them for a lot of cartridges

 

[Canuck65]

I have a custom 6.5x55 shooting Berger 153.5gr using Lapua brass and 43.2gr of RL17 @ 2830fps from a 29” barrel. When my brass was virgin it extracted smoothly. I have found after reloading that brass I am getting clickers in varying degrees from barely noticeable to needing a tap of the palm to get the bolt to lift the last 20 degrees to open the action.

I do not believe it is a pressure issue, when the brass was virgin I shot ladders up to 44.5gr without any issues. I also loaded the once fired brass a full grain lower than my load at 42.2gr and still had the same issues with clickers.

My resizing procedure has been to push the shoulders back .002”. I also tried bottoming the die on the shell holder to the point of cam over to see if it was the base of the case not getting properly sized in these cases I had up to .010” head space.

I think the issue is the body not getting sized down enough but I’m not sure, all cases chamber with zero resistance when I remove firing pin and spring the bolt handle drops freely.

My next plan is to cut the top off a sizing die and mill .020” off the bottom so I can squeeze the body slightly smaller.

Anyone ever experience anything like this and have some advice?

You can get small base dies, but it really sounds to me like your issue is pressure. I've experienced this in a 7mm mag when the bullet was jammed into the lands because the die backed off while loading. The test loads were good because the bullet was seated properly, but the die backed off at some point and they are no longer being seated far enough. Now there's a big pressure spike when you fire because the jump is gone.

It was just sloppy / careless loading - not saying this is your issue, but you;re getting excess pressure all of a sudden from somewhere.

Hope you can sort it out - good luck

 

[remington jim]

PRC shooter know about clickers if they reload...to tight of chambers as compared to resizing dies at the .200 line.

ALSO F class shooters with a real tight chambers ! at the 500 line ! RJ

 

[remington jim]

thanks, I did have a buddy check it in quick load before i started development but good to double check. the clickers did not seem to improve at all when i reduced by a full grain. But perhaps the damage is already done to the brass at that point and needs the base resized.

ONce you gat clickers with the brass the ONLY repair is to squeese the base down ! RJ

 

[boxhitch]

thanks, I did have a buddy check it in quick load before i started development but good to double check. the clickers did not seem to improve at all when i reduced by a full grain. But perhaps the damage is already done to the brass at that point and needs the base resized.

Do you have a set of 45acp dies handy?

 

[rberresheim]

Do you have a set of 45acp dies handy?

I believe I do actually

 

[remington jim]

Do you have a set of 45acp dies handy?

The 45 ACP is bigger isn’t it ? so not gonna help is it ? I will go measure some case 6.5 x 55 and 45 acp . RJ