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.300 wsm reloading problems

MarshalTex

Private
Full Member
Minuteman
Jul 14, 2010
47
0
39
Plano, TX
Ok guys need yalls help with this one to make sure im on the right track.

My buddy came over yesterday to load some shells for his new rifle (Snipershide GB Special-Stiller Action Rock Creek Barrel in 300 wsm) and I am having a issue that I have run into only slightly on other factory built .300 wsm's.

Heres was my process for first load development:

Measure O-give with hornady tools to find the lands with intention to hold off .002"

Resize one sacrificial piece of Winchester once fired brass (fl sized and trimmed) to set up seating die for proper bullet depth and to check for markings on bullet (assuming bolt closes)

Did all this to find that the rifle was set up to factory specs when comparing custom load ogive to factory loaded ogive.

We placed the blank cartridge in the rifle with bullet seated and the stinkin bolt wont close. (repeated 4 times seat bullet in .005" every try with no luck"

Called the armorer here in dallas who built the gun ( i dont know him yall probably do) and went through the process with him with no luck.

While he and my bud were on the phone I took a resized (swapped rcbs fl for a horandy fl) and trimmed piece of never shot norma brass and stuck it in the gun. Bolt closed perfectly. Seated a bullet in it .002" off of ogive and bolt closed fine.

What gives??

He probably has 300 pc of winchester brass that is looking like it will be usless, and as I type this am wondering if once that norma brass gets shot once it will do the same thing. I know from other research and loading for a couple of factory wsm's that this is a common problem when reloading. In my experience every fourth or fifth casing would do this in factory gun.

My thoughts and questions are:

After searching and reading some people are saying that the FL sizing needs to go all the way to the head of the case just before the ejector groove. I have read that some people have modified there die to allow the case to go all the way in by grinding the inside of the die. This could make sense.

Would the back of the case make this much difference in the bolt closing? I guess it could but if this was the case why wouldn't hornady and rcbs make their dies to compensate?

Do we need custom dies?

Thanks for the help!!!
 
Re: .300 wsm reloading problems

Sorry!! I duck my head in shame....will move to the reloading section that i didnt scroll down far enough too see...pure laziness on my part lol
 
Re: .300 wsm reloading problems

Sounds like you have a tight match chamber.

I had a similar problem with an AR type rifle. I could not get the bolt into battery with standard re-sized cases. I had to order a small base sizing die.

Hope this helps.

Kind regards,
Jared
 
Re: .300 wsm reloading problems

+1 on case base size. Also, don't try to close the bolt, drop the empty sized case into the open chamber while holding the rifle muzzle down. It should drop in easily. You should be able to see and hear the case jump up and down in the chamber if you shake the rifle up and down. If not, the case is stuck in the chamber (doesn't fit), and so if the chamber is right, then the case isn't.
 
Re: .300 wsm reloading problems

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: MarshalTex</div><div class="ubbcode-body">Sorry!! I duck my head in shame....will move to the reloading section that i didnt scroll down far enough too see...pure laziness on my part lol </div></div>

No, sir! No shame at all. Lots of folks in this section can easily answer your question I'm positive of that. Might get more feedback in the other section, though.
 
Re: .300 wsm reloading problems

Well I hauled an extra hornady die down to the machine shop and had them modify it so that the casing would go all the way down to the extractor and cut the top half off where the shoulder begins. Twenty dollars beats the heck outta 250 for a custom base die. Also, all that used brass we bought we can re-fire form and utilize. If anyone wants to know exactly how I did it lemme know!