Does anyone make a small base die for the 7mm SAUM? My chamber is just a touch on the tight side apparently and after a few firings they are hard to chamber after at the end of the bolt cycle. I have found several other calibers but not he 7mm SAUM yet. If I missed it I apologize but haven't found one yet.
Small base die? 7mm SAUM
- Thread starter Tazman
- Start date
I do not think there is one. One way would be to send 3 fired cases to Whidden, have them make a custom die to fit your chamber. Easiest is to buy a Redding body die, have a smith or machinist bore the shoulder off or out, then remove 10-15 thou off the bottom of the die.
You should also be getting bolt click at the top of the lift upon extraction if base dia is too great. I would guess your chamber is not so tight as much as your die is out of spec or just does not match the chamber, too much of this lately.
That may be a waste of money, if you called Redding direct and asked for a spec on mouth opening, maybe they could find one in their inventory and buy direct.
I have what you need, it is loaned out right now, not sure where, but it only works in a coax. It'd work in a reg press if there was an extended shellholder made, I doubt that though too.
I haven't dealt with Whidden before but maybe I can send 2 of th fired cases that are tight and 2 that have been fired once to get a die made. If the brass wasn't so hard to find I would just throw it away and buy more. I has 6 firings on it.
Difficulty on bolt close sounds like tight headspace vs being a tighter chamber. You use tools to measure shoulder bump? You're not jamming bullets into lands? Usually a tight base shows up as a symptom of bolt lift, click on primary extraction, etc.
I've explored the smaller base 7 SAUM dies and the Hornady and RCBS dies were already at the smaller end of the spectrum.
I've explored the smaller base 7 SAUM dies and the Hornady and RCBS dies were already at the smaller end of the spectrum.
I appreciate the feedback but I measure the neck bump and always go .002, This is just the sized brass I am testing, no bullet and the base is larger than the spec. I will need a different die to resolve it. The mouth of my die is actually not contacting the bottom of the shell and creating a ledge. I have tried shimming the shell holder but the die is just not going to work. Like I said, they are just the basic RCBS dies so I will get a good set that is sized correct or send this one back to RCBS and have it replaced or fixed.
So there's a visible gap between shell holder and the base of the die? That sounds more like the issue is that the die body isn't long enough or your chamber is too long, leaving an unsized portion of the case that's causing you problems. That wouldn't necessarily mean that you needed a smaller diameter, but perhaps just a different die that will reach the full length of the case body.
I'd try out a Hornady FL die and see what that does. They are cheap and readily available. That's what I switched to on my 7SAUM after I was having issues with insufficient base sizing with a different die.
Guy said the die is creating a ledge on his brass. No die reaches the full length of the case. He has an oversize chamber, not undersize.
Not sure how what I posted contradicts that.
Seems out of the ordinary to have gap between shell holder and sizing die. All my dies have some degree of cam over or shell holder to die contact.
I've had more than one type s Redding where yes you cam the press over, no die to shellholder contact. I do not think my saum die contacts the shellholder which is a type s, press a T-7.
In retrospect, pics and hard numbers here would help a lot.
I had this issue with a 300 wsm and Hornady FL die. Sent the die back and they faced off a few thou. [ made the die shorter ] Solved the problem. Later on I bought a Redding FL S die and never had a problem.
So the bottom of the brass is about .003 larger than the brass that chambers with no issues. If I shim the shell holder and get the brass farther in the dies, it does help but it then pushes the shoulder back .007 instead of .002. I ordered a Redding body die to see if the issue can be resolved but it's possible after 6 loading the brass is just expanded beyond recovery. I have plenty of 7mmSAUM brass but want to see if a small base die or better quality die will have a affect on the size. And yes...the brass is expanded beyond the SAAMI spec at the base.
As stated above, most dies don't size all the way to the base but that's usually not a problem but this chamber seems a little tight and I might be able to recover the brass or maybe not. Time will tell. Best load so far is RL26 and running the 175ELDX at 2940 fps with a 24 inch Proof barrel.
As stated above, most dies don't size all the way to the base but that's usually not a problem but this chamber seems a little tight and I might be able to recover the brass or maybe not. Time will tell. Best load so far is RL26 and running the 175ELDX at 2940 fps with a 24 inch Proof barrel.
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