hunter338

I have Recently bought some RCBS 338 RUM Dies, and have had nothing but PROBLEMS from them....

Well I dont know if it the dies or my brass.. I am useing Rem. Brass, From factory rounds, that I have formed fired from my rifle.

The problem is that after I have sized and decaped, trimmed to the Barnes book length.
I tried to make myself a dummy load. (so that I could have a quick referance for my dies) The darn caseings wont go in the bore if I seat a bullet in them. They will fit without the bullet though.

I have tried to seat the bullet at many different depths.. Still no luck..

I have been reloading now for about 4 years and have never come across this problem before.. I have checked to see of I might have used too much case lube , but that was'nt the problem..

All I can think of is it might be the caseings or my dies..

What do you guys think????

hunter338

Big Guy01

If the resized brass which has been trimmed can be loaded into the chamber and the bolt closed. It sounds like you have the bullet seated out too far and it is hitting the lands. What is the MOL of your rifle for this bullet.? You can measure it easily. Take a bullet and put it in the bore at the chamber, push it in with a pencil until it touches the lands. Hold it there. Have some one else put a cleaning rod down the muzzle until it touches the tip of the bullet, mark the rod at the end of the muzzle. remove bullet and close the bolt, put rod down the muzzle until it touches the boly face. Mark the rod. Measure the distance between these two marks that will be your max OAL for that bullet. This length may not fit in your clip , so you might not be able to load that long. Also be sure when you use the rod against the bullet tip that you have a flat tip on the rod. a pointed bullet could go into the threaded hole a bit and give a false reading. The ony other thing I can think of is are you using the correct diameter of bullets? they would hang up in the throat if not the right cal.

johnch

Try compairing the sized cases to the loaded cases with a mic. and look at the shoulder is it pushed down and out from trying to seat and crimp the bullet in one operation ? Try the outside of the neck is it to large from thick neck . Mic the bullets are they .338 ? I have heard of over sized bullets .

hunter338

Thanks for the replies.

I have tried the mic. test but everything has been good to go . The right size bullets. (338 cal)

Looked at the shoulder of the caseings , no problems, I am woundering if the dies are not doing what they are suposed to do.

Like I have said before. I have never come across this problem before with any of the reloads that I have done in the last 4 years.

It has got me confused big time. I have measured the factory loads and they are longer then what I am puting together. ( The caseings are .05 longer then what my manual calls for.

The bullets are 225 gr. Horn. Inter. SP's. I have never had a problem with the Horn. bullets. I load them in every gun that I own.

Hell I dont know. I am fixing to call RCBS to try to find a cure to this problem. Wether it be the brass or the dies..

I have all ways used Frontier brass and now I have gone to the Remington brass , and all I get is a shell that does'nt fit properly.

I have read that other people have had problems with the Remington brass being oval shaped after being shot. I am just woundering if this could be the problem..

Hell I will try anything at this point..

hunter338

HighDesertWolf

Well after you run the shell through the resizer it would be put back into spec so I doubt that is the case.

Ok you are using interlocks correct? has the interlock ring which doubles as a canilure on the outer surface of the bullet . I'm guessing you are using a crimp, I will put my money on it that you have your crimp die not set properly either set to far down or tomuch crimp either could deform the case neck or shoulders. try backing the crimp die out a 1/8 turn see if that works if not back it out another 1/8 turn or keep backing the crimp out untill you get it to work. Cartridges shot from a rifle need little to no crimp. I dont use any crimp at all. except for on cartridges that will be loaded into a tube magazine.

bigcountry

I would measure the expander on the sizer dies. RCBS gets this wrong sometimes.

I had a simular problem way back with a 300weathby die.

You can do several things. Take a fireformed peice of brass, and measuer the inside and outside neck distances. Then take out your expander ball, and size two pieces, and measure that. Then put your expander ball and measure that. Take your 225gr bullets and measure the diameter. Give these numbers to RCBS tech support.

Are you FL sizing or paritial FL sizing? I found out the other day partial FL sizing can make your shoulders grow past the point of a fireformed case.

hunter338

BC I am useing my FL die. I will do like you have said and send them the measurements and see what they say.

HDW. I have not even got that far as to use a crimp die. Yes I use the Interlocks and have been seating them to spec.
At the moment they dont make a Lee Factory Crimp Die for my 338 RUM. That I know of..

hunter338

bigcountry

Also something to look at is take a factory round, and measure the base of the shell. Compare that with the piece that has been FL. It is not highly unusual to find dies that are not the right dimensions either.

westbronco

If you use a dial caliper and a bullet comparator to measure a factory round that fits and a reload that doesn't, you should be able to find out what the problem is. I've seen shoulders bulged after bullet seating that caused chambering problems, but that was an oddity. Just make comparative measurements till you discover the problem. If you're trying to reload without a caliper, it's time you got one.

eldeguello

The darn caseings wont go in the bore if I seat a bullet in them. They will fit without the bullet though.

IF a resized case will go back into the rifle without a seated bullet, but NOT go back into the chamber fully after the bullet is seated, there are two possible causes that I can think of:

A. When you seat a bullet, the bullet is expanding the neck to a diameter that is too big to let the case neck back into the chamber neck. If this is happening, the case neck walls are too thick, and must be reduced in thickness with a neck turning tool. Here, I doubt that this is the cause, however.

B. The crimping shoulder in the die is trying to apply a crimp at the wrong place on the bullet as you seat the bullet. (Not where the canelure is located.) Since the neck brass has no place to go, it causes the shoulder of the case to buckle slightly, enlarging the diameter of the case at the junnction of the shoulder and body to the point that the case won't re-enter the chamber. Backing the seating die out a couple of turns before you seat a bullet, so the crimping shoulder won't touch the case, will cure this.

A similar shoulder-expanding problem can occur if you are loading a compressed load, when a powder charge expands the case shoulder when the bullet is seated, BUT since this case is empty, obviously this is not happening here.... I think it would be obvious to you if the seated bullet were sticking out too far, as there would be rifling marks on it when you extracted the dummy round. Or the bullet would be stuck in th rifling, and not come out with the case when you pulled it out.

I like the idea of making up a dummy round after you have developed a load, so your dies can be easily re-set to produce the same round again later. I have such dummies for almost all my die sets.