I too, have experienced that problem, three times that I can think of and all three were with 243 caliber rifles. Two of those rifles had high quality custom barrels on trued 98 actions.
All the subject rifles had minimal head space, for that particular cartridge in that particular chamber. It has happened with each of Redding and RCBS dies.
The die can be seated full down, like no space, I mean NO space, between the shell holder and the die, when the brass case is between the shell holder and the die.
When the handle of the die is raised to remove the brass case, the brass case being hardened from compressing the brass case, will expand slightly as the pressure is released. If the expansion is more than the headspace clearance, it won't go back in that chamber. Annealing will soften the brass, so it won't spring ahead when the pressure is released.
And here is something that vast numbers of CGN people may disagree with me on, but I am going to stick to my guns.
Annealed brass does not require repeated movements, or squeezes, to harden it, as only one squeese, or one movement, is enough to harden the annealed brass. If you want, you can figure out some way to prove this to yourself.
And while I am at it, I may as well hit another touchy subject. To fully soften brass by annealing, the brass must be heated to where it glows a bright red in normal light, then plunged into water.
My authority to be so adamant on this subject, it the experience I have had and have seen, with aircraft engineers. All aircraft engines that have pistons and sparkplugs, have a solid brass ring about .1," or maybe a little thicker, as a seal for the spark plugs. In the 1950s I helped change plugs in engines and every time a spark plug was removed from the engine, the brass ring had to be annealed, because the one squeeze it suffered would harden it. And the word from the engineers, the best mechanics in the world, was it had to be softened by annealing and this was accomplished by heating the brass ring until it glowed a bright red in normal light, then dropping it in water.
Right now I have a friend who is an engineer on aircraft. I asked him about changing spark plugs and he recited to me the exact process the engineers of the 1950s used, including the one squeeze softening and the bright red glowing brass ring to anneal it.
So, gun nutz, if you want to disagree, fire away, but I will stick to what the best mechanics in the world have been taught to do.
and seating depths.
