Size or unsized cases

[Harpman]

I experimented some today...My never fired remington brass loads were fine...BUt when I went to load unsized, once fired brass even at 65 grains FF..some rounds would not chamber.....I dont think I can raise the OAL length enough either..to stop it from expanding the case while compressing...with the unfired cases I can get 70 grains and loads fine...But the other would stop just a hair short of full chambering, just enough to where you could not close it up...I was cleaning between each shot also...maybe I am overlooking something ?....using the Lyman 535 postel, Pedersoli sharps......I did manage to get my standard deviation down to 8.9 FPS with the new unfired remingtons..also wondering if this is close and start adjusting something other than powder charge...or keep working powder to reduce even more..using regular Goex FF..

[13Echo]

Are you finger seating the bullets or using the seater die? If you are seating the bullets a tad too deep on the powder so they are compressing the powder they may expand just a bit from the pressure of the seater and interfer with chambering, likewise if they are seated out too long they may be contacting the rifling.

Jerry Liles

[SharpsShooter]

I experimented some today...My never fired remington brass loads were fine...BUt when I went to load unsized, once fired brass even at 65 grains FF..some rounds would not chamber.....I dont think I can raise the OAL length enough either..to stop it from expanding the case while compressing...with the unfired cases I can get 70 grains and loads fine...But the other would stop just a hair short of full chambering, just enough to where you could not close it up...I was cleaning between each shot also...maybe I am overlooking something ?....using the Lyman 535 postel, Pedersoli sharps......I did manage to get my standard deviation down to 8.9 FPS with the new unfired remingtons..also wondering if this is close and start adjusting something other than powder charge...or keep working powder to reduce even more..using regular Goex FF..


I have the same problem after compression of the powder and seating the boolit. The only way I have found to solve it is to adjust your full length sizing die to neck size only and remove the decapping stem. I spray the assembed rounds with Hornady One Shot case lube and run em through the die. It seems that the case gets a bit egg shaped from the compression and the tight chamber on my 75 Sharps will not tolerate it at all. Yes, you are sizing the case into the boolit, but my groups indicate that it does no harm in my case.


SS

[Harpman]

On the once fired, the bullets just slide right down to the powder wad...no pressure.

[montana_charlie]

You could try .030 wads, instead of your .060's to reduce the amount of compression needed to get your required seating depth. That might be enough change to keep from bulging the case.
CM

[martinibelgian]

Another possibility might be either a breechblock which isn't square with the barrel, or an out-of-round chamber. Try rotating the rounds a bit at a time and see if they won't fit. It doesn't take much to stop rounds from chambering...

[44man]

The first thing to try is to take a newly compressed load without a boolit in it and see if it will chamber. Your compressing must be done slowly and held at the high point of the over center handle movement for a short time. If you just ram down the handle, the powder doesn't have a chance to take shape and you are putting too much pressure at the top of the powder column. Doing this can also let the wad creep out a little and push the boolit out too far to chamber.
I hope you are not using the boolit to compress!
I have loaded up to 74 gr's in the 45-70 and my friend compressed in stages to get 83 gr's in a few cases. They did not swell and chambered easy. I shoot 71 gr's all the time with a Postell style and the 540 Brooks Creedmore. I have never seen a case expand by compressing the powder so I suspect it is the way you compress that is causing the problem.
Something you might want to try is the way I size. I set the die for full length sizing first, then unscrew it until I get the case diameter just to the point that a boolit hand fits snug. I then measure under the die and make a spacer to fit. My spacer is 9/16" thick. (I remove the spacer when sizing for my revolver.) I then flare to the point that a case will chamber and do not remove the flare. This holds the front of a chambered round straight. No case expansion is needed and I only have to lube about every fifth case, sometimes I don't even lube because there is almost no friction. Loaded rounds drop all the way into the chamber.
I just recently started sizing this way to get a straighter boolit fit in the case. I never used to size at all before, just flare a little, and never had a problem chambering no matter how much powder or what wad I used. Some guys compress over 1/2".
Make the compression stroke SLOOOW!

[Boz330]

Remington cases are usually a little thicker and I can't imagine that you are putting that much preasure on the powder to expand the case. If the powder and wad are creeping forward after compression and extending the OAL that could be your problem, but I would have thought the new cases would do that as well. You might check your fired cases and make sure they are expanded evenly all the way around. I have seen cases fired in an oversize chamber that would only go in one way, but Pedersoli seems to have pretty good QC. There are couple at my club that kick my butt regularly[smilie=1: . Couldn't be anything that I am doing wrong:neutral:

Bob

[44man]

Boz, my thoughts too. 65 gr's is nothing, takes very little compression and there is no way to expand the brass, even the thin WW's. I think the brass is out of round from a bad chamber or the boolit is just too far out.

[felix]

44man, brass can be out of round because of extra metal on one side of the case, or one side not annealed the same as the other. Out of round chambers, maybe but not nearly equal to that of the cases. ... felix

[Harpman]

OK, I got it, It was compressed tooooooooo much, I adjusted my OAL to 3.045 and that did it...only tried 3, but last 2 were 1/2 inch at 110 yards..going to load some more and check this out..I think this is just touching the rifling, I had to tap the bullet out lightly when I removed the test case..it was sticking just enough for it to slide out of the case.

[44man]

Felix, maybe, but in all of my reloading life, I have never found brass so bad that a fired case could not be re-chambered in any direction. I have seen bad chambers though and barrels screwed in crooked so bad that the back of the cases were expanded longer on one side then the other. Put them on the bench and they leaned. I have neck turned and reamed a ton of brass and never removed much from a thick side, .001" at the most, on the average, surely not enough to prevent chambering.
Most of the time a bad chamber is not out of round but out of line with the bore. Turn a case from this condition and the action won't close.