Tight-Fitting Reloads

olsenjb

I've been reloading for my 22-250 for about a year now. I neck size my brass using RCBS dies and I set up the dies per RCBS's directions. I've reloaded by brass about 4-5 times now, and a few of them are starting to get tight in the chamber and making closing the bolt a bit stiff. I do not reload hot/high pressure loads. I always measure case length and trim if necessary, as well as OAL on all my loads, so I'm confident that's not the issue? I'm wondering if the shoulder has moved too far and I need to bump the shoulder back a bit. I hate to overwork by brass by full-length sizing. I assume I can set up my full-length die to only bump the shoulder back and not work the brass as much? If so, how do folks here do that? Thanks.

41 nut

Yes, you can adjust your sizing die to resize as much as you need to. I only about 3/4 full length resize for the 30-06 and have some cases that I have loaded 28 times so far with no problems or weakness. By 3/4 full length sizing the cases will fit my rifle and each of my sons rifles.

perry shooter

Hello my suggestion would be to take a number of your fired cases then find one that is hard to close the bolt on. Now use this one case as a test after checking for OAL. Take a full length sizeing die screw down to leave about 1/4 inch from touching the shell holder now lube and size your case then try in your rifle if still hard to close bolt go down with die adjustment 1/4 turn at a time until the bolt will close easy . then tighten the locking on your die.

PA Shootist

The same process that causes the brass to flow forward and need trimmed back for length also flows brass forward making the neck thicker. Have you checked the thickness of the brass in the neck? Even though initially resized to correct outside dimension, the bullet could expand the neck a little when it is inserted into the case, making overall diameter in the neck area greater. This could also cause higher pressures, especially in a close-tolerance chamber, as it is difficult for the brass neck to expand to release the bullet. Some outside neck turn, others inside neck ream, to solve this problem. Many reloading manuals give this maximum dimension.

bpost

Base expansion is most likely the culprit. Size the brass to effectively make it chamber easily. You will then need to trim the cases as the base resizing will tend to push the shoulder up. The brass has to go someplace.

I had the same issue with my 6BR and after 5 firings they need the bases squeezed a bit. If you set the die carefully there is little effect on accuracy. My cases never needed trimmed after the third firing.

It is also a good time to anneal he case necks with a torch. There have been several posts about case neck annealing if you do a search the process is easy and safe.

glabray

It is very common to have to full length resize brass after several neck size only loadings.

jtmarine0831

Everything fore-mentioned is great advice! But before you go to that trouble yet, clean the chamber very good, make sure it is dry, not even a light film of oil, and then check to see if you have the same issue. I had this happen to me once in my 308Win.. I had a light film of oil left from my previous cleaning that I had forgotten to wipe out and it made several rounds hard to close the bolt on. I only neck-size for this rifle and am on my 14th firing of this lot of Win. brass and still have not had the issue of it being tight. And these are not light loads either, 42grains of Varget behind a 175gr BergerVLD is almost a MAX load in 308Win.

Just check it out, then start adjusting dies!

Good Luck and Good Shooting!

Mobuck

Easy check for neck thickening--a bullet should slide easily into a freshly fired case. I have a bunch of multi-fired 22/250 cases that I found to have thick and/or out of round necks. Generally speaking, neck sized cases should be full length sized after 3-4 reloads,if you hunt with them and want to prevent any of the problems you described, anyway.

crazy charlie

Mobuck has the right idea and so do the rest of the posts for that matter.
If you decide to anneal perform full lenght resize afterward as you could get some case distortion. Then check your case dimensions, trim or whatever you have to do to bring the case into specs..
I used to do just neck resizing for years and after having problems similar to yours I juat full lenght resized, kept an eye on case lenght and moved on. Just my personal preferance.
Good luck.

v35

Check cases in chamber before loading and after loading.
If they fit before and not after, the problem can be thickened necks or expanded shoulders from not chamfering necks before seating or crimping too hard.

5mmgunguy

Take your full length sizer and set it up to just bump size the shoulder. All you need is .001 to .002. When the cases start to get tight run them all through the full length sizer set up to just bump the shoulder enough to give you the needed .001 to .002 clearance. Then back to neck sizer.