30-06 cases tight in chamber

[Bazoo]

Test it with a feeler gage slide a few thousands under the case in the shell holder than resize .

That's a good idea. I've found lee shell holders are a bit sloppy compared to others, you could probably shim the shell holder in the ram as well. Those together would get you .010 I'll bet.

[ulav8r]

Read post #2 again. If the gun's headspace is below minimum making corrections to the gun will allow use of any factory ammo and reduce problems with handloads. Proper loading procedures with unaltered dies and shellholders can still produce ammo that is a snug fit in the chamber while allowing for reliable functioning.

[Geezer in NH]

Get a shell holder made by the same company as the dies. I myself do not trust Lee holders.

If you decide to grind a little grind the shell holder they are cheaper than the die.

[Jim P.]

Read post #2 again. If the gun's headspace is below minimum making corrections to the gun will allow use of any factory ammo and reduce problems with handloads. Proper loading procedures with unaltered dies and shellholders can still produce ammo that is a snug fit in the chamber while allowing for reliable functioning.

My feeler gauges are at work so I ended up making a shim from thin card stock. It measures about .006 thick. I placed this between the shell holder and the cases and then resized and now all cases will chamber without much effort. I bought this gun at a gun show and I also bought a handfull of loaded ammo at the gun show also. It chambers just fine in the gun. I also bought a few different lots of brass at gun shows and it all chambers hard in this gun after sizing with my dies. It chambers fine if I size with my shim on the shell plate. If the guns head space is tight is there a way to adjust this without running a chamber reamer in the gun? I think I would just rather grind a few thousandths off the bottom of my die than alter the gun. I will probably always use reloaded ammo anyway.

[Bwana John]

Get a shell holder made by the same company as the dies. I myself do not trust Lee holders.

Yep, I have found it worth it to always use the same brand of shell holder and dies together.

[Jim P.]

Yep, I have found it worth it to always use the same brand of shell holder and dies together.

Ive been trying to find a shell holder for 30-06 for about 3 weeks now. I could not find one anywhere. I finally found this one on ebay and I had to pay 10.99 for it. Every place on line and at fin feather and fur were always sold out.

[Jedman]

Jim, It sounds like your original diagnosis was right. Now that you have a extra shell holder for your 30-06 if it doesn’t make a difference and I don’t think it will just grind a little at a time off the top of one of them a belt sander will work. If you cut the bottom of your die a good quality carbide tool bit in the lathe will cut most dies as I have cut many down making wildcats . Shouldn’t take much to get it right.

Jedman

[toallmy]

It wouldn’t hurt to do a pound cast of the chamber

[Gee_Wizz01]

I your rifle chambers factory ammo, I would not modify my rifle. If you do, you might have excessive headspace with factory ammo. I would not modify a rifle to fix a problem caused by out of spec reloading dies or shellholders. Although you don't think you will ever use factory ammo, you never know when an emergency will arise and you need factory ammo. More importantly if you pass the rifle on to your kids you could be handing them a time bomb if it has excessive headspace and they use factory ammo. However, it sounds like you have narrowed your problem to out of spec die or shell holder. Hopefully your new shell holder will solve your problem, if not I would contact Lyman before I modified the die. They should replace the die for no charge since it is defective.

[Bazoo]

It didn't dawn on me until now. A used savage axis?

Someone has removed the barrel and set the headspace tight.

[uscra112]

Once again: Factory Ammo Chambers. The rifle is fine. The die or the Lee shellholder is the problem.

[uscra112]

t.

Ive been trying to find a shell holder for 30-06 for about 3 weeks now. I could not find one anywhere. I finally found this one on ebay and I had to pay 10.99 for it. Every place on line and at fin feather and fur were always sold out.

O.T. but only a little: Ammo is super-tight. Primers are a memory. Ditto brass and factory bullets. I never would have predicted that reloading tools would go ballistic. Basic Lee .223 and .308 die sets over $100? Shellholders sold out? I bless my lucky stars the I'm such a pack rat! And that I'm a caster.

[remy3424]

A couple posts mentioned removing the expander, could be causing case stretch. If you have imperial dry neck lube, try that (in the case necks), or mica, and see if that changes anything. If you don't already have these products, they might be hard to find now. If you use a "wet" neck lube, you will want to tumble them to remove that lube. If that doesn't change anything, I would give the die another eighth or quarter turn down and see what that does. If that does solve it, then I would modify the top of the shell holder for that firearm. Good luck.

[Jim P.]

I your rifle chambers factory ammo, I would not modify my rifle. If you do, you might have excessive headspace with factory ammo. I would not modify a rifle to fix a problem caused by out of spec reloading dies or shellholders. Although you don't think you will ever use factory ammo, you never know when an emergency will arise and you need factory ammo. More importantly if you pass the rifle on to your kids you could be handing them a time bomb if it has excessive headspace and they use factory ammo. However, it sounds like you have narrowed your problem to out of spec die or shell holder. Hopefully your new shell holder will solve your problem, if not I would contact Lyman before I modified the die. They should replace the die for no charge since it is defective.

I only have this 1 lee shell holder. I looked for it for 3 weeks. 30-06 shell holders are all but extinct right now.

[Jim P.]

t.

O.T. but only a little: Ammo is super-tight. Primers are a memory. Ditto brass and factory bullets. I never would have predicted that reloading tools would go ballistic. Basic Lee .223 and .308 die sets over $100? Shellholders sold out? I bless my lucky stars the I'm such a pack rat! And that I'm a caster.

I see you are also from ohio. I live in Salem, Ohio which is northeastern ohio. I have been going to my local fin feather and fur store every weekend for probably 2 months. I have never found a 30-06 shell holder. At first powder was available and I bought an extra pound of tite group. Now powder is completely gone and has been for about a month. I wish I would have bought some rifle powder back then but I didnt have the rifle at that time. They do almost always have primers. You can only buy 100 of rifle and 100 pistol. I usually take my wife so we get 400. They have been about 6.99 per hundred but last week they went up to 9.99. I havnt bought any since. Actually the primers are costing me more than that because every time we go I have to take my wife out to eat. Lol

[rugerman1]

I see you are also from ohio. I live in Salem, Ohio which is northeastern ohio. I have been going to my local fin feather and fur store every weekend for probably 2 months. I have never found a 30-06 shell holder. At first powder was available and I bought an extra pound of tite group. Now powder is completely gone and has been for about a month. I wish I would have bought some rifle powder back then but I didnt have the rifle at that time. They do almost always have primers. You can only buy 100 of rifle and 100 pistol. I usually take my wife so we get 400. They have been about 6.99 per hundred but last week they went up to 9.99. I havnt bought any since. Actually the primers are costing me more than that because every time we go I have to take my wife out to eat. Lol

Fin, feather and fur is less than an hour from me and used to have a great powder selection. Their sale prices were unbeatable by even mail-order standards. I saw their primers last time I stopped in for $6.99/100 myself,didn’t know they raised them. I was bummed when they took out Carrabba's Italian Grill in that plaza.

[Texas by God]

Are you trying just the sized brass and finding it difficult to chamber or are you talking about loaded rounds? If the seating die is set too close to the shell holder it is possible to swell the shoulder a bit with some dies and shell holder combos.

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[Larry Gibson]

I'd screw the FL die in just enough so the ram does not cam over at but the shell holder bumps solidly against the bottom of the FL die.

I've run into this problem several times with various rifle/die combinations. Many times simply trying another shell holder corrects the situation. Or put a sheet of 80 - 120 grit sand paper on a hard flat surface and then placing the shell holder top down on it and rotate it a few times will remove just enough so the case can go into the die .001 - .002 farther.

BTW; tight headspace is good.

[gumbo333]

I know there are a ton of Lee haters here but I have used Lee shell holders for many, many, many years. I have 2 full sets in their green boxes. Use them for nearly everything. But a single shell holder from any company could get by that doesn't meet specks.

[Jim P.]

Are you trying just the sized brass and finding it difficult to chamber or are you talking about loaded rounds? If the seating die is set too close to the shell holder it is possible to swell the shoulder a bit with some dies and shell holder combos.

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Yes just the sized case is tight before a bullet is loaded.