Brass and dies not perfectly lined up - OK or not?

[IMtheNRA]

Now that I have my first set of rifle dies, I noticed that the brass case is not in perfect alighnment with the seating die. The die has a chamfered alignment sleeve that guides the bullet and case into the die, so it still works as designed.

Without the bullet in the case, I can see that the case mouth is misaligned by about 1mm, perhaps slightly less, from the center of the seating sleeve. If I tilt the top of the case with my finger, it goes in perfectly. If I don't, the empty case mouth contacts the chamfered surface of the alignment sleeve and usually slips into the sleeve. About 20% of the time, it does not slip in, and keeps pushing the sleeve into the die. I found this out when the die crushed the neck of an empty case I ran up into the die without a bullet.

I turned the shell holder 180 degrees and sure enough, the case mouth contacts the alignment sleeve on that side now. Thinking that I have a defective shell holder, I tried two different RCBS #2 shell holders with the same results.

My equipment is RCBS Rockchucker Supreme with the Hornady L-N-L bushing conversion, RCBS shell holder, Hornady 7.5 Swiss dies, Norma brass, GP-11 brass.

I am wondering what effect this has on the quality of the finished cartridge and its accuracy potential.

 

[The Bushmaster]

Everything on your press is designed to self adjust to a small amount of misalignment. The die is locked and does not move and aligns the case and bullet as it enters...Yer good...

 

[rcmodel]

Sounds kind of odd, and if it's doing it with the seating die, it has to be doing it with the sizing die too.
And that's not good atall!

Sounds like you have tried all the usual suspects, and narrowed it down to turning the shell holder. This indicates either weird brass that isn't going over in the shell-holder far enough, or a mis-aligned press ram.
O.K.! SO 7.5 Swiss is weird brass!

Can you try another U.S. made brand of brass with the same head size?
Doesn't have to be the right caliber, just the same head size like 30-06, .308, .243, anything. See if it does it with that brass also.

If so, it's not anything peculiar to 7.5 brass, and is clearly a press problem.

If that is the case, I would call RCBS customer service and have a long talk with them. I am positively sure they will get to the bottom of it.

PS: One other thing to try.
Loosen the die lock ring and run a case all the way up in the die.

Now lock the lock ring.

If you locked the ring down tight without the die centered on a case, it is just thread slop holding the die over out of alignment.


rcmodel

 

[BEARMAN]

If "rcmodel" instructions don't work, try another brand of shell holder.

 

[Canuck-IL]

I suspect RCBS is going to blame it on the Hornady bushing conversion. Can you try it w/o the bushing as it was originally designed?
/Bryan

 

[Pumpkinheaver]

Is your bench perfectly level? Case might be leaning due to unlevel bench?