6.5 creedmoor resizing and shoulder bump

[flatsticks]

Koni that is what I was trying to do .

The brass is not fitting in my chamber very well after resizing .

The bolt is very tough to close .

Tried the RCBS die today and it does appear to take the brass smaller but not enough.

Sized and trimmed it seems like maybe the brass is not going up all the way in the die.

Do I try a couple new shellholders , send the Hornandy die back with a couple fired cases so they can trim it or just look for fl small base die and back off it and get what I need.

A guy at the range told me he bought two 6.5 and the one he had to buy a small base die the bolt would not close but the other one was fine with it .

Did get a chance to seat some bullets and have that die set up at a good starting point.

 

[JFrank]

If your bolt has resistance when closing it's a good indicator the round is fully formed in that the neck shoulder junction and the case shoulder junction have expanded forward and ready to bump back a couple thousandths , resistance at bolt opening ( called clickers) it is the base that needs a bit more sizing.
Measuring before during and after will keep you ahead of the curve...
Also ensure that your overall length does not exceed the sammi max if so than trim and try again..
In the attached drawing im comparing two different dies and how each are sizing at these critical points. The Wilson i sent back for a touch more honing as my preference is about .002 for a comp rifle, this die also needs a few thousands off the bottom.
BTW - some fellas face off a couple thousandths from the shell holder as an alternative to get a tad more bump.

 

[Blue68f100]

If your bottoming out on the sizing die against the shell plate. Add a shim under the base of the brass to extend the brass further up. Use foil, paper or anything usable for a shim. If you use paper it will compress some. This will tell you how much your short once you get one to chamber freely.

 

[jmorris]

The brass is not fitting in my chamber very well after resizing .

The bolt is very tough to close .

Do you have any factory unfired rounds?

 

[flatsticks]

Do you have any factory unfired rounds?

I do have some factory rounds sitting around .
Couple different versions of Hornandy .

 

[jmorris]

I do have some factory rounds sitting around .
Couple different versions of Hornandy .

Great
1. If you try them like in #19, what happens? Bolt handle falls, slight resistance, won’t close?

2. If you take one of them, you have only fired in that rifle but NOT sized, how is it?

3. remove the decapping stem/ expander, lube the case, with the shell holder contacting the bottom of the die, what happens with a sized case?

4. Reinstall decapping stem/expander and what happens then?

Trying to narrow our focus/locate the problem.

If it doesn’t drop in #1, I would suspect the rifle. If the bolt closes at #2 with less effort than 3 or 4, something in the sizing process is messing up the case. If it’s good in 3 but 4 messes it up. Your die and setting are not the problem but the expander is pulling the case out of wack upon exit and you need to lube the inside of the neck more effectively.

 

[flatsticks]

Will have to get to taking the bolt apart as you suggested to try out the tests.

I can say I know for sure it is not the expander pulling the case as I removed that before resizing and have not put it back in .

Tested a therory I had last night by rezsizing some of the once fired brass that had the shortest measurment from base to shoulder .

Just did a couple and they seemed to load just like the once fired case which i thought was a good thing.

Took a couple once fired cases that were the longest measurement base to shoulder resized and they were very tight closing .

Just seems like they need to be sized better as I measured after sizing and they all grew a little in that measurement I took , shoulder pushed forward then ?

I ordered a new shell case holder and once it arrives I can try and take it out and also take some material off of the old shellholder.

The RCBS die is sizing them a little smaller than the Hornandy set up the exact same way touching the shellholder when the ram is all the way up.

Did try some foil to raise the hell and got me a little extra in the die but not a lot .

 

[JFrank]

Good job working it out.... I feel there is always a mathematical solution you just have to find it.

 

[Charlie98]

Question for you... and you probably have checked this already...

Setting the die against the ram is one thing, but once you introduce a cartridge case into the sizing die it does change the tolerances. First time I resized brass (.30-30,) I set the die to bump the shellholder, and locked it down. Then I sized my brass. They were all too long for the Marlin 336 to chamber like they should have... and it really stumped me. So I tried again... and only then realized with the pressures of the sizing die against a case... there was a gap between the shellholder and the bottom of the die.

 

[flatsticks]

I did check both dies and had them set and shined a light from one side to see if I could see a gap but no light came through.

Will double check when the case is in there to see if actually goes all the way in or not

Charlie98 what was your fix for the issue you had , turn the die down a little or something else?

Seems like I know what the issue is now just need to see if the new shellholder will work or modding the old one will will allow me to get

all of the once fired brass I have resized to fit the chamber .

 

[Charlie98]

Charlie98 what was your fix for the issue you had , turn the die down a little or something else?

With the case past the expander ball, but not rammed up all the way, I continued to adjust the die down until it was touching the die with the case all the way up. A little trial and error, but I eventually got it right. I had to do the same thing to size my .30-06 cases down enough to easily chamber in my M1 Garand.

 

[jmorris]

Just seems like they need to be sized better as I measured after sizing and they all grew a little in that measurement I took , shoulder pushed forward then ?

Without knowing what measurement you took I don’t have any idea what they need but it’s pretty hard to see a die pushing a shoulder forward (further from the case head) by lowering a die onto it.

 

[flatsticks]

Just wanted to give an update for all that tried to get me up and running on sizinng for my 6.5 creedmoor .

Tried another shell holder and that seemed to help some .

Took the advice of Charlie98 and made sure the case was running all the way up , was a small adjustment to get it there .

Did my best to get the bolt ( with the firing pin removed like in the video ) to fall half way and it would not do it with a case in the chanber .

Empty it will fall on its own so I did what jmorris suggested and took some factory ammo and it also would not let the bolt fall on its own .

It just takes a little nudge to close the bolt versus it falling by itself to halfway , must be a thing with my gun .

The dummy rounds and a few live rounds I made up all seem to be chambering fine, firing and extracting like they should.

Wanted to take the time to thank everybody helping me understand the process better .

 

[Charlie98]

We love it when a plan comes together!