HELP!!! with 270WSM

[utah300rum]

My neighboor came over last night to reload some shells for his 270WSM. He brought his own die set and everything.

Here is the info

Once fired brass from his rifle some nickel cases some brass cases

RCBS full length die

He tried to size some of the brass on his dads Lee press but none would chamber in his gun. He had measured each case with calipers so they should have been all the same length. He then cam over to my house to try on my RCBS press.

We ran several thru the sizer after setting it up per instructions. We treied about the first 4 abd they chamberd fine. we did not pay attention but they were all nickel cases.

We ran the rest about 30 or so thru then primed and loaded them. The OAL is correct as per manual. Most of the nickel casa all but one to be exact will chamber fine.

None of the brass cases will. I covered it in dry erase marker them tried to chamber them. It apears to be catching right on the start of the taper from the full cases witdth. I dont know if that is the "shoulder" or not. It is not hitting the bullet or on the other ond of the sholder at the start of the "neck" It seems to hit at the start of the shoulder at the full case diameter.

Any one have any suggestions???

I have loaded several calibers and never had this problem

[klsm54]

What model rifle is it?

Is this the first time that any ammo has been loaded with these dies?

[utah300rum]

The rifle is a Tikka

and the dies are new. He tried to load some on another press and couldnt get any to chamber. So he took the die back and the guy at the shop put it in a press and grabbes some brass from the shop and ran thru it and it chambered in the gun. So my neighbor figured it was just him. This is his first try at reloading.

I have loaded quite a few calibers 223,22-250,270,30-06,300 win, 300RUM, 38,357,44,and 40 and have never had any problems. I have just got lucky I guess. I always follow the instructions with the dies and load shells. So this one has me frustrated. I am gonna have him bring me over a few cases that I can mess with this weekend.

[klsm54]

I thought maybe it was a BAR, or BLR, or something that required a small base die. The Tikka, or any bolt gun for that matter, should work fine with standard dies. It is a mystery to me why one type of brass will chamber, and the other won't. Keep us updated on what you find.

I did get a set of dies with a bad seating punch one time, threads were'nt cut far enough and you couldn't seat the bullets deeper than about 1/8". But this one is a stumper, although the dies are not ruled out....yet.

[utah300rum]

I had my friend bring over three of each cases and his die set last night. He had the expander/primer punch out very far. I pulled apart both dies and cleaned them out really well. For new dies they had all kinds of crap in them. Then I set them up. Also I dont think he locked the set screw on his lock ring last time. I sized all the cases then measured them. The nickel cases were all 2.16 the brass were 2.24 max case lenght is 2.1 and I was told to trim about 0.1 to under max length. I trimmed them up. I will try them in his gun later today. I dont see how being too long would cause the case to hit where it is hitting, but I will find out.

[klsm54]

The case could be hitting where you said, and still chamber. The length may be an issue, and not having the locking ring tite could cause major inconsistency.

I always disassemble a new set of dies and thoroughly clean them. They vary from brand to brand, and even from one time to the next, but often have a lot of crud in them. Some of that crud can be abrasive polishing compound.

That 2.24" length is severely over max and most likely caused a problem, hence the brass cases not chambering. You want to trim the cases .010" below max, not .100". Your trim to length should be 2.090". A lesson to be learned here is that all brass should be checked for length, even new or once fired. I have found new brass to be over max on many occasions.

[utah300rum]

klsm,

yeah sorry I meant .01

He tried all 6 in his gun and they all chambered ok. Now I have to pull the bullets on the rest and trim them up.

I will finish loading a few then try again just to make sure they are going in ok.

[calsibley]

You're not by any chance using neck dies are you? The reason I ask is that neck dies don't bump the shoulder back so the case can become extremely hard to chamber. Another problem that can occur is similar, and that's when the expander ball pulls the neck back out after it has been resized. This can occur with both neck sized and full length sized cases. When you get it straightened out let us know and maybe save someone else the same heartache. Best wishes.

Cal - Montreal