Resizing used 308 Lapua brass for tight Tac Ops chamber with small base dies?

[ZLBubba]

I recently picked up a Tac Ops Tango 51 and the rifle's a laser. The one problem I have is that my previously used Lapua brass with 155 scenars and 175 SMKs loaded up don't chamber well at all because they were fired in different rifles, some bolts guns and my GAP-10, all of which apparently had looser chambers.

My plan is to fire my loaded rounds through my GAP-10, then size everything down using a Redding small base die to get the rounds back to minimum specs for their next loading to hopefully fit correctly into my Tac Ops rifle. Will this work, or are these pieces of Lapua brass a lost cause? Should I just buy some virgin Win or Lapua brass and start over on the Tac Ops load development?

 

[jwrowland77]

I ran into the same exact issue.

I just FL resized everything after pulling all the bullets and powder, and everything worked great after that.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[mdmp5]

The chamber in a tac ops is very tight compared to a factory barrel, but I don't think you need a small base die. You will have to set the shoulder back quite a bit though. If you can do it, measure the headspace on piece of federal gold medal match and set the shoulder back close to that. Note that you will have to reduce your load that works well in another gun because it will be very hot in the tac ops.

 

[buffybuster]

I had a similar issue; would get that stiff click on the last little bit of bolt lift. I had a die (in my junk pile - everyone has one of those right) that would size the casehead down far enough to get rid of the ring but it also pushed the shoulder back farther than I would like (based upon my headspace). I had the neck and shoulder part of the die bored out, so now it's just a body die, without the shoulder bump.

MG fired brass, no problem. Allows me to salvage just about any 0.473" piece of brass, until something ready to let go.

 

[ZLBubba]

Here's the rub: I actually did do FL resizing for all of that brass it doesn't fit, leading me to think it does boil down to bumping the shoulder back. Will the small base dies do that for me, or can I do it correctly with my Redding FL sizing die?

 

[supercorndogs]

your full length die will bump the shoulder back. just screw it down until it touches the shell plate. a small base sizes the case all the way to the base.