Reloaders help me out

[liquidsniper]

Ok, so I got into reloading because of the 300 Blackout. I have a RCBS rock chucker set up and got all the necessary goodies to go with it. I did my reading and loaded up some 300 Blackout Subsonic in 220 GR SMK in some reformed lake city brass from Brad. I am sizing and seating using the redding 300/221 dies. The charge is 10.7 grains of A1680, which BTW sounded like it went supersonic. However, here is the problem. Sometimes the round won't go into battery and is very hard to eject by hand. I measured my CL and all were in spec. I loaded to an average of 2.075 OAL. I even tried a OAL loaded to the max length of 2.089. What am I doing wrong?

[trey_phish83]

make sure the shell holder is extremely tight against the die.

run the press up to the die, tighten, then tighten some more. back off a bit on the press, then give it an extra 1/8 twist

this might not be the answer, but try it as it couldn't hurt. i'd hate to buy another set of dies because i'm not taking my time resizing my brass.

good luck

[Kublah]

Interesting. This is the same issue I had with my forster 300 blk dies...

[glock17l]

make sure the shell holder is extremely tight against the die.

run the press up to the die, tighten, then tighten some more. back off a bit on the press, then give it an extra 1/8 twist

this might not be the answer, but try it as it couldn't hurt. i'd hate to buy another set of dies because i'm not taking my time resizing my brass.

good luck

This is good advice most presses flex under the resizing stress so bump the resizing die pretty hard against the shell holder. You might also try to chamber some of the rounds with out the bullet and this would confirm the issue of sizing. Remember this is a new round and whew are there some different dimensions being used!! It is very hard to make all equipment work is this wide of a velocity range some are wanting very hot supersonic loads while there are people like me who love the cartridge for what it is designed for sub sonic and heavy bullets. Back to the sizing die might even take a few thousands off the bottom of it to allow the case to go a little further in the die, moving the shoulder back ever so slightly if you do this be careful and don't move it back to far, if the shoulder is moved back to far it will cause case head separation.

[liquidsniper]

Thanks for the advice. I will try sizing it tighter, if not I will take a look at the lighter test and see where the case is getting stuck in the chamber. Hopefully I will be able to put some rounds downrange this weekend and figure out whats going on.

[imyomama]

if they are new ...take your die apart and clean it thoroughly .. I actually bought the same dies and I was crushing cases at first.. couldn't figure out why .. some rounds would not chamber either..

I took the die apart .. sprayed gunscrubber .. and got it cleaned .. now it works perfect...

[dpkdavis]

I have had that trouble alot, given most .223/5.56mm is fired in semi auto and full auto guns, the brass has to be full length sized thats a given, I have head space drop gages i made out of the ends of barrel (2") i head space them with a PTG 300 AAC Blackout reamer i use them to drop my brass in, even full length sized some won't seat ll the way, so i started using a RCBS small base die and resized all my brass to ensure the very bottom of the brass is fully sized, as the above talked about getting your die all the way down on your shell holder, I have made over 500,000 rounds of 300 fireball brass and the RCBS small base die really did it for me. just my .02

[silencertalk]

The max length is 2.260. 2.089 is just a length suggested to work well with AR magazines.

[silencertalk]

I have a Hornady headspace gauge that tells me if the shoulder is in the correct location. You need to measure the neck with a caliper or micrometer and see if it is oversized when loaded. 0.334 is the max allowed size.

[liquidsniper]

So over the weekend I shot some handloads and I have good things to report. Charging from the handle would not let the bolt go into battery but if I used the bolt release, no problem. The handloads all worked great though. I loaded another group after my initial loading and really tightened down the sizing die. These seemed to chamber easily. However, with both loadings not one malfunction was witnessed. Overall I am pretty pleased. I have not had a chance to check the neck size but I will take a look at that. I picked up the fired brass and they did not seem damaged or split so I will use them again after a thorough cleaning and inspection.

[Dr.Phil]

So over the weekend I shot some handloads and I have good things to report. Charging from the handle would not let the bolt go into battery but if I used the bolt release, no problem.

I have the same results with my Noveske 10" and Forster Gen I dies.
viewtopic.php?f=128&t=64909&start=75

[wildfowler]

I have a Hornady headspace gauge that tells me if the shoulder is in the correct location.

You wouldn't happen to have a part # for this item would you?


Thanks.

[jasonusvi]

I have a Hornady headspace gauge that tells me if the shoulder is in the correct location.

You wouldn't happen to have a part # for this item would you?


Thanks.

Don't have the number but think this is what he is referring to and should help you find the part number on the Hornady website:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P-UrMTyJ1_E

[Notar]

For 300 Blackout cases, I use the "B" 350 bushing. They are sold individual, but the set has a more value.

http://www.midwayusa.com/viewproduct/?p ... ber=479704

It's a good product, it's almost a must have for rifle reloading.

[wildfowler]

Ok, video was helpful.

I called Hornady. I didn't really understand how this worked. I was originally thinking this was cartridge specific. The die to be used for blackout (whisper was all the Hornady rep had access to) is the "B" .350.



Is it possible to use this tool to measure the exact shoulder position when forming brass from .223? I see how this takes comparative measurements when adjusting dies, but am not sure how to use this for other measurements. Is there another tool or gauge that's available to let me know that I've formed the brass correctly? It seems to me that unless I have the die adjusted exactly correct, I could get the shoulder in the wrong place.


Thanks.

[silencertalk]

I am not aware of anyone making dies which allow you to put the shoulder in the wrong place.

[wildfowler]

I am not aware of anyone making dies which allow you to put the shoulder in the wrong place.

I hate it when I don't know how to ask the right questions.



This is an exaggerated illustration of what I'm worried might happen to me. The instructions with the die say to screw all the way down, then back off a 1/2 turn. If I don't get the 1/2 turn exactly right, doesn't it change the position of the shoulder that's formed on the case? In the picture, the case on the left, die screwed all the way down, then backed off 1/2 turn. The case on right, die screwed out many turns for illustration.

If this is nothing to worry about, then I won't. I was thinking that every 1/4 turn on the die has got to equal some amount of variation of shoulder position doesn't it? It seems like this is important when making brass from a different case?

The instructions with the Dillon case trimmer (for example) say to use a case gauge to check for shoulder length of a sized case.

[wildfowler]

I think I'm getting my bugs worked out (round not chambering, difficult to eject) by screwing the size die down even tighter as mentioned above rather than backing it off.

Thanks for the help/discussion.

[jasonusvi]

You need a correctly sized case that chambers and ejects well to use as the basis to compare against... using the Hornady gage zero your caliper on the correctly sized case and compare your newly formed brass. That should tell you where you need to adjust your die.

[silencertalk]

The instructions with the die say to screw all the way down, then back off a 1/2 turn. If I don't get the 1/2 turn exactly right, doesn't it change the position of the shoulder that's formed on the case?

You are worrying about the wrong thing.

If you want to worry about where the shoulder goes, then don't worry about if your 1/2 turn is really 1/2 a turn. Worry about if your shell plate was made dead on. Worry about if they ground the bottom of the die in the correct location. Worry about if they made the reamer with the shoulder in a good spot.

If you care to that level, then you must measure the resulting brass and verify it.

People who are neurotic about this get a Hornady/StoneyPoint, or other case headspace measurement and take one-fired brass from their rifle and set the die to bump the shoulder 0.002 for a bolt action rifle, and maybe 0.004 for an auto rifle.

You could also get a full set of 5 or 10 incremental headspace gauges, and first verify that your rifle has minimal headspace. If it does not, you have to bump the shoulder that much more.

Last night I measured the headspace of a rifle at GO+0.002. I then saw that the new Forster dies were moving the shoulder by 0.005. So they are bumping the shoulder of a 0 headspace rifle by 0.003.

This was with the die screwed all the way down to cam-over.

[wildfowler]

Last night I measured the headspace of a rifle at GO+0.002. I then saw that the new Forster dies were moving the shoulder by 0.005. So they are bumping the shoulder of a 0 headspace rifle by 0.003.

What is the headspace measurement you're getting on your once fired case. Assuming you reset the dial to zero with the Hornady headspace gauge in place.

I'm getting 1.076 on once fired case.
I'm getting 1.072 on a newly formed and sized case.


I haven't resized any once fired brass to see if they change yet. But if I'm understanding this correctly, I think that I am forming and sizing these cases pretty close to exactly right for an autoloader on their first use?

Initially, I was having trouble getting loads to chamber and pull out of chamber freely and didn't understand what I was doing wrong. I do appreciate the help.


Thanks.

[eastern_hunter]

I make my cases from 5.56 LC brass. Fortunately, when I had my barrel made I also had a cartridge gauge made at the same time.

I cut the cases to length on a milling machine using a Lyman drill press case trimming head using a special vice that I made to hold the case. I then chamfer the mouth of the case. Then it gets run through a sizing die. I found it necessary to use an RCBS small base FL sizing die on brass that was probably fired in SAW.

During setup cases are checked with the chambering gauge, and every loaded round is also checked. I do this for every round of ammo I load to be fired in a semi or full auto weapon.

[robpiat]

Unless I am neck sizing, I have always screwed the die all the way to where it touched the shell holder. No back off at all.

Backing it off is neck sizing in my opinion.