JohnH
10-23-2016, 07:38 PM
Bought this rifle about 3 weeks ago. Bought 2 boxes each Federal American Eagle and Winchester ammo. I pulled the bullets and reloaded the cases without resizing them with Lee 312-185 and 20 grains of 7383 and the RCBS 30-150 CM and 7 grains of Red Dot. Took them to the range, everything fired fine. Ran the cases through a wet tumbling and resized and reloaded with the same loads using Redding dies. The dies instruction sheet speaks of the dies being cut/ground to minimum chamber dimensions. I set the resizing die up in the customary manner with the die touching the shell holder +1/16 to 1/8 turn down. Reloaded the cases with the same loads, go to the range and about every fourth case misfired. About half went bang with a second strike. The firing pin strike looked light on the cases that din't go bang even with being hit as many as three time. On the way home I recalled the instructions and decided I had set the shoulder back enough to create enough headspace that the firing pin was driving the case forward in the chamber without setting the primer off. I had in the meantime bought 100 once fired cases and I took them, reset the sizing die with a .012 feeler gage between the die and shellholder. Loaded up 60 rounds and went to the range today and fired them. Everything went bang. Problem solved at least somewhat.
The current set up is stopping about 1/64 to just under 1/32 short of the shoulder. All the cases chambered, a few required a bit of effort to close the bolt, most chambered a little hard, a few chambered with ease. As the instructions speak to buying a set of shellholders from Redding ground in .002 increments to tailor the resizing to the chamber, I'm just gonna do essentially the same thing using a feeler gage, closing the gap between the shellholder and the die in .002 increments until everything is firing and the bolt closes with a consistent effort.
But I am still left with cases that won't go bang. I don't know anyone with an SKS or AK to fire the cases in. Is there any other way to reset the shoulder on those cases? I have thought of knocking the primers out, and re priming but leaving the primers slightly proud of the case head to give the case a fit against the shoulder of the chamber so the case can be fired. This will of course require carefully single loading but it seems it would work. Any other suggestions?
For those who want to know, I've loaded 20 and 21 grains of 7383 under the Lee 312-185 I've used both large rifle and large rifle magnum primers and cant tell any difference. The loads I shot today made groups that will easily go under a 50 cent piece and are 21 grains of 7383 and Federal large rifle primers A bit dirty but it shoots well. Following up with loads of 8.5 grains of Unique and the RCBS 30-150 CM cleans things right up. The 185 grain boolit does shoot best, with the 150 making 2" groups, but both are fun play.
The current set up is stopping about 1/64 to just under 1/32 short of the shoulder. All the cases chambered, a few required a bit of effort to close the bolt, most chambered a little hard, a few chambered with ease. As the instructions speak to buying a set of shellholders from Redding ground in .002 increments to tailor the resizing to the chamber, I'm just gonna do essentially the same thing using a feeler gage, closing the gap between the shellholder and the die in .002 increments until everything is firing and the bolt closes with a consistent effort.
But I am still left with cases that won't go bang. I don't know anyone with an SKS or AK to fire the cases in. Is there any other way to reset the shoulder on those cases? I have thought of knocking the primers out, and re priming but leaving the primers slightly proud of the case head to give the case a fit against the shoulder of the chamber so the case can be fired. This will of course require carefully single loading but it seems it would work. Any other suggestions?
For those who want to know, I've loaded 20 and 21 grains of 7383 under the Lee 312-185 I've used both large rifle and large rifle magnum primers and cant tell any difference. The loads I shot today made groups that will easily go under a 50 cent piece and are 21 grains of 7383 and Federal large rifle primers A bit dirty but it shoots well. Following up with loads of 8.5 grains of Unique and the RCBS 30-150 CM cleans things right up. The 185 grain boolit does shoot best, with the 150 making 2" groups, but both are fun play.