Hornady and BHA reloaded brass chambers tight

[captnmo]

I just got through reloading some 2nd and 3rd used Hornady and Black Hills Ammo brass with Hornady 168 gr .308. I loaded to 2.800 COAL and 2.178-2.180 from the ogive. All these reloads have been FL resized through Forester dies. I noticed they're a bit stiff when cambering into my Savage 10FCP. I double checked with some Federal brass I had reloaded (same bullet and depth) and new Winchester 150 gr loads and the Federal and Winchester is not tight.

I checked the case length and the Hornady and BHA was, in most cases, shorter than the Federal and Winchester. Thinking the Winchester is a shorter COAL, I checked it off the ogive and was almost exactly the same as the Hornady and BHA. I even pressed down one of the tight rounds from 2.180 to 2.150 and its still tight when closing the bolt

The ONLY difference I could find in the brass was that the rim of the tight brass was about .003 wider.

I know I'm probably answering my own question, but wanted to get second opinions and see if I'm missing anything.

 

[B y r o n]

Re: Hornady and BHA reloaded brass chambers tight

If you are saying that the base of the brass is bigger you probably found your answer. One fix is to run the brass through a small base die used mostly for semi-auto guns.

 

[captnmo]

Re: Hornady and BHA reloaded brass chambers tight

I think "wider" was the wrong word. The rim that is held by the extractor is thicker. Possibly what is causing the difficulty in rotating the bolt closed?

 

[bcrich]

Re: Hornady and BHA reloaded brass chambers tight

Sounds like you need to check the headspace on the tight chambering brass! they sound like they are longer than the federal cases that chamber easily. Do you have a way to measure them? If not just slip an empty 9mm case over the necks and check the distance from base to base, does that make sense? It's not true headspace but who cares it's just for checking if one is longer than the other.

 

[Philt1]

Re: Hornady and BHA reloaded brass chambers tight

yeah , might need to bump your shoulder back a little more .

Do you have a head space gauge ? Dillion makes a good 1 if not

 

[Mike Casselton]

Re: Hornady and BHA reloaded brass chambers tight

+ 1 on the possible need for a small base die. You could also use a Redding body die to do the same thing.

If your base to shoulder dimension is shorter on the resized cases, it isn't headspace.

Smoke adummy round with a scented candle and chamber it. Extract it and you will see where the problem is.

 

[captnmo]

Re: Hornady and BHA reloaded brass chambers tight

Not sure what you mean by the "small base die."

I hadn't heard of the technique of slipping a 9mm case over the neck but that makes sense. I hadn't thought about the head space. I'm new to this, can you tell?

 

[captnmo]

Re: Hornady and BHA reloaded brass chambers tight

And no, no head space guage....I'm going to look into getting one.

 

[captnmo]

Re: Hornady and BHA reloaded brass chambers tight

I've confirmed it's the headspace. So from here do I:

A) Just shoot them even though they chamber tight or...

B) pull all 37 of them and start over?