min spec .223 chamber.

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looking for advise, i just had my .223 rebarreled again and had the douglas barrel yanked off and a shilen select match one put on! the douglas barrel had a regular .223 chamber, but the shilen has a chamber thats on the min spec of saami! the shilen has a .252 neck which is still a no turn, but tighter than normal, but the problem( i shouldnt call it a problem) is that towards the case webbing at the bottom it is pretty tight! when resizing fired cases from the old chamber or barrel the case dosent resize that much down at the web of the case! whats a guy to do? do i buy all new brass and scrap the rest of the old? the resized brass from the old chamber still chambers in the new chamber but the bolt feels a little stiff when going down!
thanks jerry(mystic) the barrel shoots great,now that i know what powder it likes!

thanks...
 
If you want to continue to use the old brass and the fit is a bit tight even after sizing, it would mean that your die is a few thou larger or longer then needed (make sure the die hits the shellholder firmly first). If longer, you can take a skim off the bottom of the die to bump the shoulder a couple more thou and the case will fit perfectly.

If the base is not sizing enough, you can try another FL sizer as tolerances in all dies vary. You should not need a small base die as the chamber is not undersized. Just shows that the other chamber was a bit large and the case has swelled to fit those dimensions.

Now old brass will start to get irratic as the necks work harden. Annealing will help but more of a pain then it is worth for such readily available brass.

If you have shot the old stuff more then 8 times, consider annealing or getting some 'new' stuff. There is plenty of 1F stuff offered for sale in the EE for very little $ so I rarely keep my 223 brass too long.

Enjoy the new barrel and I hope it keeps shooting well for you.

Jerry
 
thanks jerry, i might try another sizing die and see if that works! the brass measures .374 after being fired in the shilen, the old brass measures .376 at the web just above the rim. i checked my shellholder to die clearence and the shellholder firmly touches the die, maybe i have to adjust it a tad down more and see if that helps?
 
Suputin said:
Or just adjust the die you have properly.
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i tried to adjust it, but how much more do i need to compress the shellholder into the die as it is now i cannot crank the handle down all the way! this chamber is alot tighter at the base then the last one and the old brass just dosent want to change enough at the base. i can use them, but it is harder to turn the bolt down!
 
The other thing you can do is make up very thin washers(from stainless or brass shim stock) make them to fit between the case head and the shellholder. This will allow the brass to enter the FL die just a touch more which may be enough. make them diff. thickness and use as much shim as possible, at some point the case will no longer enter the shellholder because you have too thick shimming in there. It's either that or file some off the bottom of the die.
 
Budweiser360 said:
Are you having any extraction problems as well? How does it shoot with this brass compared to other brass?
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i have not shot any of the resized brass, just resized them and checked them in the chamber because the smith said i might have this problem. no extraction issues with this brass.
thanks everyone.
 
Like Jerry said, dies can very a lot, even in the same make. When you start dealing with tighter chambers it can be a search to find the right dies and it may well depend on the make of reamer used. I have a friend that grinds his own reamers and makes his own sizers to match for this very reason.
 
Ian Robertson said:
Like Jerry said, dies can very a lot, even in the same make. When you start dealing with tighter chambers it can be a search to find the right dies and it may well depend on the make of reamer used. I have a friend that grinds his own reamers and makes his own sizers to match for this very reason.
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Ian, that is a great friend for sure.

Be nice if we didn't have to outsource our reamers and tooling.

Most of the issues with a 'fat' base and oversized dies can be resolved if new brass is used. That way the chamber defines the case and if the sizer doesn't quite touch it, no problem.

If the lock up on a bolt gun is good, the stretching seems to happen in the front portion of the case so a body die works just fine.

I rarely need to size the base.
Jerry
 
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