If not the case, I’d suspect a tight chamber; cut with a worn reamer. Or more likely, tolerance stacking between that and very slightly over-length cases.
Several years ago when we had a 2 year long debate about SB dies on another forum I called the die manufacturing companies. I asked what their planned design was. Redding would not answer at all. Hornady said all of their dies are designed to be .004" in diameter under the minimum chamber size. RCBS said their small base die diameters are .004" under minimum chamber size and the FL are .002" under, there is no difference in length or headspace adj. Forster and Lee said the same as RCBS. From this it looks like all of Hornady dies are small base whether they say it or not.
Everything manufactured has tolerances, even the reamers used to make the dies have tolerances usually +-.001".
ETA- no dies are designed to resize brass smaller than factory made brass.
I was using a Hornady FL die. My cases were .002 larger than Hornady factory loads, as measured just above the groove. Now I’m using an RCBS SB die and my cases are exactly the same diameter as the factory loads. And best of all, I’m able to cycle my AR with no issues anymore.Several years ago when we had a 2 year long debate about SB dies on another forum I called the die manufacturing companies. I asked what their planned design was. Redding would not answer at all. Hornady said all of their dies are designed to be .004" in diameter under the minimum chamber size. RCBS said their small base die diameters are .004" under minimum chamber size and the FL are .002" under, there is no difference in length or headspace adj. Forster and Lee said the same as RCBS. From this it looks like all of Hornady dies are small base whether they say it or not.
Everything manufactured has tolerances, even the reamers used to make the dies have tolerances usually +-.001".
ETA- no dies are designed to resize brass smaller than factory made brass.
Still no, not really. Sizing to the correct dimensions is needed. Small base dies and/or camming the press over are not necessarily required to do that, and in most cases small base dies are NOT needed.I agree to a point, the heavier military type cases need over camming. I shoot 243wsm, 6x6.8, and a 20x6.8. They all need that extra pressure to cycle in an ar. It is similar to what you say without trimming the bottom of the die.
I was using a Hornady FL die. My cases were .002 larger than Hornady factory loads, as measured just above the groove. Now I’m using an RCBS SB die and my cases are exactly the same diameter as the factory loads. And best of all, I’m able to cycle my AR with no issues anymore.
Problem solved. Thanks everyone.