tight brass

[graybeard 50]

need some help gang, have been reloading for a while & the last two times i did my 06's they were tight chambering. what the heck is going on?

[jrbsr]

need some help gang, have been reloading for a while & the last two times i did my 06's they were tight chambering. what the heck is going on?

Maybe the chamber has some dry powder resadue ?

Check the chamber for fouling.

I hope thats all it is.

Good Luck

[johnch]

The first place I would look is if the brass is to long. Then other things to look at are a sizing ring on the web area of your brass if you have been F.L. sizing . Yes crud in the chamber or throat . A chunck of brass from a split neck .A change in bullet or O.A.L. Are you neck sizing only ? maybe the shoulder needs to be bumped back.
These are just a few things to look at .

Probably need some more info really. Does factory ammo have this issue? If it doesn't don't rule out the sizer die being the issue. If your not FL sizing, you might want to. A head and shoulders guage from Stoney point might help you diagnose this.

[mossy33oak]

ORIGINAL: bigcountry

Probably need some more info really. Does factory ammo have this issue? If it doesn't don't rule out the sizer die being the issue. If your not FL sizing, you might want to. A head and shoulders guage from Stoney point might help you diagnose this.

had the same problem, and thanks to Bigcountry using the stoney point head and shoulders guage, found that my resizing die was not pushing my shoulders back enough. Thanks big guy!!! Have to send my die and 3 fireformed cases back to rcbs for them to modify.

[stress-relief]

If you have been neck sizing you probably just need to full length size. If you are using a full length sizing die, be sure the die is set to go all the way down. If set too high you will be essentially neck sizing the brass.

[DM]

Have to send my die and 3 fireformed cases back to rcbs for them to modify.

For those of you that don't want to pay the postage and wait for RCBS to do what you can do at home, just screw the fl sizer in your press from "the bottom up!!!" Then take a big flat file and flat file the bottom of the die (now sticking up) to allow the die to go closer to the shell holder. I CAREFULLY use a bench grinder to do this!!

Champer the inside edge of the die if needed, and clean the die before useing it, or you could leave scratches on the case...

DON'T DO THIS UNLESS YOU REALLY NEED TO!!!! (and that's rare)

As the closer the die gets to the shell holder, the more you can push the shoulder of your case back!! Pushing the shoulder back = HEADSPACE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Almost always RCBS will recomend you buy a S.B. die (small base) instead of shortening the die you have...

Drilling Man

One thing, are you FL sizing? If you are, are you camming over? sometimes people try this partial full length sizing. And most of the time you are not bumping your shoulder back much, but sometimes you don't lube the inside mouth very well and the expander ball will pull the shoulders up more than your headspace will allow. Hence hard loading.

One way around this, is to do some testing. Take out your expander ball. Run a case thru. Note the position of the shoulder. Then put your expander back in. Measure it again. If you expander is pulling so hard its bring your shoulders back up, then you can polish that expander ball. Using 150grit emory, polish, then 300, then 000 steel wool.

Another thing, it may not do it on all cases. Some cases have thicker necks than others. Good inside neck lube is very important.

[jmfa1957]

Graybeard, the suggestions on full length sizing, cleaning chambers etc. are all good ones, but the one that makes my hair stand on end is from Johnch, asking if the brass is too long. This is a great question! If your .30-06 cases exceed 2.494" in length you really run the risk of dangerously high pressures. The bolt has enough camming power to force the cartridge into the throat, and the case will crimp on the bullet. This is gawdawfully dangerous. Pressures can and will go dangerously high. Are you seeing cratering around the primer after firing, or is the bolt sticking any after you fire? Is the primer really flattened out? These are signs of excessive pressure.

If you don't have a god caliper to measure case length with, just get a Lee case trimmer. These will trim the case back to about 2.484". Depending on whether you full length size or neck size only you will need to trim your cases more or less frequently between reloadings. The brass stretches during resizing and the only place it can go is to grow length wise.

Good luck!