Lee 243 die tight in chamber

H4831 said:
You guys have missed the reason the bolt won't close, or closes hard, on resized brass shot in other rifles.
243 calibre bolt rifles seem to have close tolerance chambers. I have had two that reacted exactly as yours does. I couldn't resize the old brass enough for it to go in the chamber.
The solution is to anneal the shoulders of the old brass. Then full length resize, making sure the die is turned in some, after it hits the shell holder, and the cases will go into the chamber with ease.
The cases fired in your own rifle should not need this treatment.
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Thank you for this. You may have indirectly solved a problem I have.
 
So today I chambered every 243 bullet i loaded, all the brass that came from my gun was fine. So I had to unload about 26 rounds. I decided to take H4198's advice, so I took old brass that i was going to re-load. Any that were close to fitment of my chamber i kept. I discarded the rest. I then annealed the brass that I had chosen. I continued to resize up and down 2-3 times in my press. Now the empty cases chamber smoothly in the gun. Also there are no rub marks anything. I think I will be good to go from now on. Thanks again for the help.
 
I use Lee dies for all of my 10 different calibers, there is nothing wrong with them. The first set of brass I did were all too tight in the chamber. I did not realize until I bought a Wilson headspace gauge which shows your length and shoulder bump that I did not set the dies right, yet I thought for sure that I did. I reset my die until they fit in the Wilson gauge peoperly and the chambered beautifully !

http://www.midwayusa.com/product/653047/le-wilson-case-length-headspace-gage-243-winchester
 
Do yourself a favor and get the Hornady cartridge case headspace gauge set that attaches to a set of vernier calipers and you will not have to buy separate gauges for each caliber. I have Wilson gauges, and RCBS case gauges and nothing beats the Hornady gauge set.

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Also you may have a chamber that's close to minimum headspace or the GO gauge and there is nothing wrong with this, your just at or near minimum chamber length. You may also have a "tall" shell holder that is taller than .125 and you are just not bumping the shoulder back far enough when you full length resize.

And as stated above brass gets hard just like old chewing gum and will spring back when resized, soft brass when resized will keep its resize shape. With a set of vernier calipers you can measure your shell holders for proper height, you can measure your fired case length and bump the shoulders back .001 to .002 for proper fit in your chamber.

You can also take a spare shell holder and lap it with wet and dry sandpaper on a piece of glass cut to the same size as the sandpaper and remove .001 to .003 for hard to resize cases if you can't anneal them.
 
shoot_to_kill said:
So today I chambered every 243 bullet i loaded, all the brass that came from my gun was fine. So I had to unload about 26 rounds. I decided to take H4198's advice, so I took old brass that i was going to re-load. Any that were close to fitment of my chamber i kept. I discarded the rest. I then annealed the brass that I had chosen. I continued to resize up and down 2-3 times in my press. Now the empty cases chamber smoothly in the gun. Also there are no rub marks anything. I think I will be good to go from now on. Thanks again for the help.
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Glad to see the annealing worked out for you. Probably the stubborn cases you discarded would also have worked.
But ding it, I aint H4198.
I is H4831 (the war surplus type!)
 
I had the exact same issue with my 243 and my lee dies. I really like all my lee stuff. However I bought a bunch of once fired brass and it wouldn't chamber after being resized in my lee dies. I didn't even think to anneal my brass. I bought an RCBS die set. After I resized my brass in that set it would chamber. But after it was all fired I went back to my Lee sizing die
 
another take on 3031's annealing suggestion

as brass is FL sized, the shoulder moves forward a bit as the sides are squeezed in, THEN pushed back as the rams comes up near the top.

there is lots of movement to the shoulder, and I can now see how 1000's annealing would certainly help.

Thanks for the great suggestion, 4350!
 
nanuk said:
another take on 3031's annealing suggestion

as brass is FL sized, the shoulder moves forward a bit as the sides are squeezed in, THEN pushed back as the rams comes up near the top.

there is lots of movement to the shoulder, and I can now see how 1000's annealing would certainly help.

Thanks for the great suggestion, 4350!
Click to expand...

Ding it!
They've ganged up on me.
(But you're still welcome for the comments on the info given.)
 
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