Ring Left On New Lapua Brass When Resizing

[BucolicBuffalo]

I am a bit puzzled by this. It's been many years since I last reloaded, but with the help of books I am picking it up again. Then I run into this little problem.

New Lapua 22-250 brass. Foster Co-ax press and Foster full-length sizing die. I have the die set for the press to lightly cam-over and it leaves about 1/16" unsized. Seems to be bumping the shoulder slightly. Overall length increases about .001. But that unsized ring is about .003 larger than it should be. You can tell that it chambers in my rifle. If the effort closing the bolt increases, it is slight. I can reduce the ring slightly by lowering the die just a bit and getting a heavy cam-over from the press.

I thought I would pull apart the die again and scrub it with solvent. Not likely it will make any difference. Sure I cleaned it well to start with.

Thoughts?

121517

[country gent]

Also disassemble the shell plate assembly and clean it well also. The universal shell holder on this press can get crud under it holding the slides up possibly causing this effect. Also check to make sure plates cover isnt warpped or sprung and everything sits flat and true

[BucolicBuffalo]

That's a good idea. I have had it apart. But maybe too much lube on the plate. I have the after market heavy-duty holder. But that should not affect it as the die goes down inside. I had looked at that and wondered if that changed something.

[RG1911]

My opinion is to ignore the ring. I get it with all my full length sizing dies because the die can't go all the way down due to the thickness of the top of the shell holder. It's never caused me any problems, either in bolt-actions or semi-autos.

My recommendation is to go to a neck-only bushing sizing die. All the good companies make them. I usually use Redding dies and bushings. You should get 2-4 reloadings before you have to use your full-length die to bump the shoulder. Or get a bump die.

Cheers,
Richard

[Love Life]

Holy sized down brass, Batman!!

[dragon813gt]

What were the specs before and after sizing? From the looks if it the brass was grossly oversized to begin w/.

[tomme boy]

You have bad brass if it is new or you have a bad die. Not unheard of for either.

First thing. NEVER FL size new brass. Just neck size it to clean up the neck. Case head separations are going to happen way sooner than non FL sized brass.

If you have any that you have not sized yet, See if it chambers.

Also see if the brass you sized chambers. You are going to need to load these cases very long with the bullets so the bullets are jammed hard into the rifling to save the cases.

[BucolicBuffalo]

What were the specs before and after sizing? From the looks if it the brass was grossly oversized to begin w/.

.464 at the point above where the ring would be. Both unsized new and sized seem to be about that, at that point. .469 on the ring, and that is the widest on unsized also.

My manuals showed that area to be .467 or .4668, but at what appears to be where the web is inside and not the widest point. The rim is still larger. Where the ring is probably should be a couple thousands larger than .464 since it's tapered.

Richard, I am inclined to do just that. I will clean things again to be sure. Thinking out loud here. I didn't have anything like this when I resized Lake City once fired 308 to 358 Winchester using the Redding full-length sizer. I did look at the chamfer on my dies and the Forster is a bit larger than the Redding. I used my caliper and compared some factory Winchester rounds to the Lapua brass. I think it will happen on the Winchester brass once it's been fired. Once it is fired I had planned on just neck sizing both the 22-250 and the 358 Winchester.

Thanks for the things to think about.

[BucolicBuffalo]

You have bad brass if it is new or you have a bad die. Not unheard of for either.

First thing. NEVER FL size new brass. Just neck size it to clean up the neck. Case head separations are going to happen way sooner than non FL sized brass.

If you have any that you have not sized yet, See if it chambers.

Also see if the brass you sized chambers. You are going to need to load these cases very long with the bullets so the bullets are jammed hard into the rifling to save the cases.

Curious. I need to do more reading as I thought it was always best to full-length resize new brass. But, both the new and the few I have sized chamber with equal effort, meaning nearly no effort detectable. The area of the ring from resizing is down below the web in solid brass. I don't understand why I would have to load them long?

[blaser.306]

Load them long so the slug will hold the case back against the breech face. When fired the shoulder will be at the proper point! From there on in for the next few firings just neck size. No over working of your brass and quite likely better accuracy to boot.

[BucolicBuffalo]

Load them long so the slug will hold the case back against the breech face. When fired the shoulder will be at the proper point! From there on in for the next few firings just neck size. No over working of your brass and quite likely better accuracy to boot.

Thanks! Now I understand.

[EDG]

you might benefit from a couple of different measureing tools if you are the curious type

1. A set of pin gauges in .001 increments would allow you to measure the base diameter of your die.
2. The Hornady case headspace tool will allow you to measure the head to datum length of your cases before and after.

About your brass ring
You are using Lapua brass. They might have used the standard 30-06 head size for their 22-250 brass.
However .250 Savage and .22-250 (a child cat) case heads are smaller than 30-06 by .002 to .004.
CIP for the .22-250 says .4698 at the front edge or the extractor groove.
SAAMI says .4668 at the .200 Basic above the case head.
Due to case taper over the length from the extractor groove to the .200 dim there may be .003 difference in diameter.

I suspect your die is ok and your chamber is ok but the Lapua brass is a little big.
It is easy to fix if you want to bother with it.

Measure the base of your chamber and your FL die. Polish the base of the FL die to .002 smaller than the chamber base or about .001 or 002 larger than the base of the brass.
Or you could send a few cases with your die to Forster and they could polish it.
Or you might just buy an extra die from Forster and ask them to polish it to fit your brass.