Difficult closing my bolt on reloads

"You mentioned bulging the shoulder on sizing, but I don't think this can happen."
Burnt Servo stated this and I too would disagree....

Another possibility is lack of lubrication of the case neck when pulling the neck sizer through...the last operation to the whole resizing process. If it's tough to pull it through, you could slightly pull the shoulder forward causing your problem....
 
I will try to sum this thing up. A case fired in a rifle will go back in the same rifle. If the fired case is full length resized it should easily go back into the rifle. In this case it didn't, so something is wrong.
Proper full length resizing will not prevent it from going in, so something has fouled up in the sizing. The op now says the sized cases, without loading them, will not go back, proving the sizing is at fault.
If the case is properly lubricated, which means sparingly lubed with a good lubricant, even partial sizing will not prevent it from going in the chamber. I think what is happening has already been mentioned. I think the necks are dry inside and when the inside neck sizer is pulled out, the neck stretches out a bit. The solution is to lightly lubricate the inside of the necks and the problem should be solved. One way of doing this, without danger of lube in the powder, is to brush out the neck with a bronze brush. I have a brush on a handle and just give it a turn in the neck. This alone should do it, but better is to lightly lubricate the brush, so a minute amount of lubricant goes on the inner neck.
However, there is a tool that will end all problems of the loaded round not going into the chamber, and it is a mystery to me, why it is not used by more reloaders. I am referring to a trim die, made by RCBS, for one, that is designed to go into your press, just like any other die. It is a full length resizing die, with a glass hard, flat top. Push your empty case full into this, then file off any that protrudes out the top. The top is so hard that it will not harm a file, so just file the neck down smooth with the die. By the way, this should end all those threads we read about where are not getting the case length to the exact thousands of an inch. In fact, no need to measure the case at all. File it flat with the top of the die and it is right length.
Now, this trim die serves another purpose, which in the case of all the trouble described here, will completely eliminate it and let the case slide into the chamber. A fully loaded cartridge can be safely pushed into the trim die. There is just a hole surrounding where the primer goes, so it creates no danger in sizing the loaded round. The loaded round comes out fully resized, whether if formerly had bumps or stretches, around the shoulder, or anywhere else.
I have an RCBS trim die in 243. If people have never heard of it, I could take a picture of it, but it should show up in the RCBS site.
 
How to lube necks for sizing, inside and out.

Dump one ounce or so of small bird shot in a fat pill bottle. The straight wall type. A 35mm film container works, too. Glue this to the table top at back of your bench, or on a small board. Put a teaspoon of powdered graphite or moly powder in the container, with the shot. Stick each case in the container, spin once and then put empty case in your loading block.

A little bit of lube will be in and out of case neck.
 
Clean the inside of the necks before resizing by running the proper size bronze brush on a drill in them. Either use lube on a q-tip to lube the inside of the necks before sizing (and not every one needs to be done, as you will have residue left from each case), or use dry graphite/mica lube (Lee has a kit). You will know by feel how many cases you can run through before you need to add lube to another case. Measure oal after resizing, to be sure it is not over the maximum for that case. The shell holder must touch the bottom of the die for full length resizing, unless you are just bumping the shoulder. Neck sizing with a full length die will also not have the shell holder touch the die base. Clean lube from inside the case necks before charging/priming. I use another q-tip to do this. Switch q-tips often, as they will dirty quickly.
 
Ganderite....I like your suggestion but if I may, here is what I'm doing of late...
A friend of mine who's been at the reloading game for a long time suggested using Hornady's spray lube called 'One Shot'. It's not easy to find in Canada so he sold me a can from his stash. You line up all your brass and spray down at a 45 degree angle from one direction, then again from the opposite direction, lubricating the exterior and, at the same time, a little gets on the inside of the neck. On it's label it says "One Shot with Dynaglide is a non-petroleum product and will not contaminate powder or primers" also " dries in approx. one minute, won't creep or migrate and eliminates the greasy mess usually associated with resizing cases".
Although there are many methods that do work well, this is just another but with a reduced time component. I still brush the inside of each case mouth to polish/clean the seating area.
 
Back
Top Bottom