harder to lockup

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wainmann

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I just reloaded my first shells for my 270wsm. When I chambered the first shell I noticed it takes about twice as much force (down pressure on the bolt) to lock up the reloads as a new shell. I also tried empty fired casings they locked up easily also. the reloaded shells are leaving an ocasional small brass grindings on the backside of the bolt also. I thought maybe I had the decapping pin set to far out and maybe it forced the bottom of the shell slightly out so I tried one with the decapping unit out barely far enough to push the old primer out and had the same results. They are Hornady dies and it is the first time they have been used, anyone have any thoughts. The shells are fireing fine, I am concerned that some of the small peices of brass may get in the barrel and cause a problem. Would appreciate any feedback.
Thanks, Wayne
 
did you trim your cases after sizing? if not they could be over the max, if they are fine there your oal may be too long, shoving the bullet(ogive) into the lands.as for brass "grindings"if you trimmed your cases did you deburr them? also check your case rims to see if extractor is causing it,how are you primers in the fired case's,
 
yes I trimmed my cases and deburred them, the shells seem to drop in the chamber with ease, once fired empty shells seem to rechamber easily also, my oal was under the max. by .15.
Thanks for the ideas. Wayne
 
you might have to check with a seating depth tool, to be sure your throat is in spec,could be a little short,that's the opposite of the way they usually are, but you never know,were you using the oal for the exact bullet and not just the max for the cartridge,
 
the oal was not for the bullet as i cannot find a spec. for berger bullets oal, but I tried chambering a resized cartridge with no bullet in it and had the same results.
Thanks, Wayne
 
Originally Posted By: wainmannI just reloaded my first shells for my 270wsm. When I chambered the first shell I noticed it takes about twice as much force (down pressure on the bolt) to lock up the reloads as a new shell. I also tried empty fired casings they locked up easily also. the reloaded shells are leaving an ocasional small brass grindings on the backside of the bolt also. I thought maybe I had the decapping pin set to far out and maybe it forced the bottom of the shell slightly out so I tried one with the decapping unit out barely far enough to push the old primer out and had the same results. They are Hornady dies and it is the first time they have been used, anyone have any thoughts. The shells are fireing fine, I am concerned that some of the small peices of brass may get in the barrel and cause a problem. Would appreciate any feedback.
Thanks, Wayne

I really feel you don't have the sizing die down far enough. Take 1 case and turn your sizing die down another 1/8 to 1/4 turn down towards the shell plate and see what happens. I agree with Mrgunslinger to bump the shoulder back further.
 
It's one of two things.

1. The shoulder needs pushed back a little. Screw the die down against the shell holder, and then back the shell holder off a bit, and screw the die down a little more (maybe a half turn).

2. It's the bullet touching the lands. I'm not sure why they give a cartridge OAL, because different bullets have different ogives. It's not the tip of the bullet you need to worry about, it's the edge where it touches the lands. Check the bullet on a cartridge that's been chambered. If it has a scratch where it hit the lands, that's likely your problem. You can also smoke a bullet so that you can see this easier.

About 9 times out of 10, it's the shoulder when I have this problem. My rifles all have long chambers rather than short, so I usually end up seating my bullets longer than suggested OAL for best accuracy.

Daryl
 
Just to inject something:

A die body is threaded 7/8-14, so a "half turn" is .036".
If the bolt is closing now, I very seriously doubt you would want to set the shoulder back anywhere near that amount.
Try about 1/16 of a turn to start with (.005).

And I agree, that's what it sounds like the problem is.
 
Originally Posted By: Evil_LurkerJust to inject something:

A die body is threaded 7/8-14, so a "half turn" is .036".
If the bolt is closing now, I very seriously doubt you would want to set the shoulder back anywhere near that amount.
Try about 1/16 of a turn to start with (.005).

And I agree, that's what it sounds like the problem is.



True enough, but if the die is already touching the shell holder, as the OP suggested above, it's sometimes necessary to put that little bit of extra pressure on the die to get the shoulder moved back (especially with larger cases). It'll only go so far into the die once the shell holder is firmly seated against the die.

My press will "lock" down when I need to push a shoulder back like that, but the case will only go into the die so far. On this one, your just looking for a firm press of the shell holder against the die.

That said, it never hurts to go slow.

Daryl
 
Another thing to try is to dry lube the inside of your case mouth, as double d said. Is it hard to pull the decapper pin out through the case mouth? I agree with Evil Lurker try 1/16 of a turn and work your way around.
 
Hi,
Maybe the handle isn't being pulledallteh way down and touching it's stopps. The resistance given by the last bit of sizing the web in front of the head can be quite tough - tougher than some want to push their press or think they should.

All soughts of things could be the casuse and it's impossible to be definite when we aren't there. Just lube the case and neck and make sure you are bottoming the press. See how that goes.
 
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