Tight Cases

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srk

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I have been reloading rifle and pistol for 25yrs. Never seen anything like this. Rifle is a brand new Rem. SPS .22-250.
Cases are to length tried full length and bullet dia. down from end of case. Still tight.
Any comments/suggestions? Brass is new once fired Winchester brass. Although not all are tight, it varies.
I have made comparisson measurements along case and there is little variation. RCBS dies as well as Lyman.Doesn't matter.
Any suggestions?
 
srk said:
I have been reloading rifle and pistol for 25yrs. Never seen anything like this. Rifle is a brand new Rem. SPS .22-250.
Cases are to length tried full length and bullet dia. down from end of case. Still tight.
Any comments/suggestions? Brass is new once fired Winchester brass. Although not all are tight, it varies.
I have made comparisson measurements along case and there is little variation. RCBS dies as well as Lyman.Doesn't matter.
Any suggestions?
Click to expand...
2 different dies, inconsistent with both, more info please.
 
You have a minimum spec chamber [for length] and neither of those dies is sizing the cases quite short enough to get you the ease of chambering consistently. As some have said, take a shellholder and machine .040" or so off the top and then set your die down a bit till those cases just chamber easily. Mark your shellholder for that application or keep it in your 22-250 die box. Regards, Eagleye.
 
Try a different shell holder first. .050" or .040" off a shell holder seems way too much to me. You might only need .002-.003". Shell holders are much cheaper than dies as RR has already stated. If you are careful you could remove a few thou off the shell holder with some emery paper on a flat surface.
 
When you set your die, do you run the case down to touch the shellholder & lock it. Quite often when you do this, you then have a tiny gap between the die & shellholder when your actually sizing a piece of brass. Sometimes I adjust the die to touch the shellholder WITH a case in the die.

Hope that made sense :cool:
 
Sometimes shell holders are out of spec, or perhaps you've chosen one that the case fit, but was a different number. You could just buy another shell holder or as stated previously trim yours down a hair. If I recall, the proper depth is .012".
 
In the past i have made washers from shim stock, they fit in the shellholder under the cartridge head, and depending on how much play there is, you can gain some thou.that way. That is the cheapest and least amount of hassle, if it gains you enough thou....Ben
 
srk said:
I Brass is new once fired Winchester brass.
Click to expand...

Are these once fired in this rifle or were they shot in a different firearm? If they were shot in a rifle with a "loose" chamber they may never be able to be sized down enough to fit in a rifle with a minimum dimension chamber.

srk said:
Although not all are tight, it varies.
Click to expand...

If some are fine and others are not I would be a little leery of cutting down shell-holders or dies. The cases that fit fine now could end up being too short if the shoulders are pushed further back any further.

It could be inconsistent technique when sizing. Set the die up in the press so the handle "toggles over" at the top of the stroke. This will ensure all cases are sized with the same amount of pressure.

It could also be an out-of-round chamber or a bolt head that is not square to the bore resulting in bent rims. If you remove a case that doesn't chamber and rotate it 1/4 or a 1/2 turn does it chamber easier?
 
Check this out if you want to know the exact clearance in your chamber (headspace). It's our new Digital Headspace Gauge. This helps you know exactly what's going on in YOUR particular chamber.

headspaceBC400.JPG


You can read about this on our website www.larrywillis.com​

- Innovative
 
is the chamber oil/dirt free? (you mentioned brand new, did it get a thoural cleaning?)

are the cases being trimmed to length? i couldnt clearly understand if you did or not

how does factory (i know it should be a 4 letter word) ammo chamber?

any scratches/rub marks on the chambered and ejected brass
 
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