HuntingNet.com Forums - Case question

Quote:

ORIGINAL: 3.5mag

I sized a bunch of cases my nephew gave me that he had shot out of his Remington. I was setting up my seating dies and I decided to make a dummy round because I have read in some reloading books that it aids in setting dies if they get out of adjustment. I also wanted to see if I wanted to crimp or not and how tight the bullet fit into the case with just a sized neck. I seated the bullet to the same length as my factory Federal rounds with the neck at the ring on the bullet. I then put it in my Savage to see how it fit. It went in fine until I went to turn down the bolt and then it got tight. I pulled it out and checked every possible measurement with my caliper. They were all very close if not exactly the same. The only thing I could find different between the cases was the neck. On the ones I had from the factory and the ones I had shot in my Savage had a good sharp turn at the shoulder. On the cases I got from my nephew, the shoulder had a more rounded shoulder.
My questions are has anyone seen this before? Is there something I should be concerned with? And if I shot these out of my rifle, will they form to my chamber? Any advice would be appreciated.

The headspace measurement of your chamber is too short for the case length from head to shoulder. You need to resize the case slightly more (ie, set the case shoulder back just the amount needed for the bolt to be closed, with a little force!). If the ammo was fired in a rifle with a little too-generous a distance from head to shoulder, you MIGHT have to take a little slice off the top of your shell holder to get the brass to go into the die slightly more than before... tha t is, IF you sized it already to where the shellholder came in solid contact with the bottom of the die...... IF when you sized the cases, the shellholder didn't touch the die, then try screwing thedie in a little at a time, until a case WILL let you close the bolt.