Home Forums Reloading Big Game Rifles My new 30-06 Dies

I bought a new set of dies for my 30-06 and I set the sizing dies up as per the instructions they seemed a little lose in chambering so I backed them out a little but still the newly sized cases seem to chamber almost too easy. I am concerned about shooting one of these new cases. Is this going to blow up in my face or what. I have been reloading for many years but still consider myself a novice. Any help would be appreciated.
Thanks
31 bertram

New brass or once fired ?

284LUVR....At least once fired and maybe more.

Too loose? Please - no offense intended - but I find it difficult to imagine how you can tell or feel that it's "too loose". Think of it this way - factory ammo - it always chambers (or should) with zero difficulty. If it's a bolt action rifle it would difficult if not impossible to dectect "too loose".

If you're full length sizing brass there shouldn't be any resistance when chambering a round. Even if your only neck sizing. When you start feeling resistance it's time reset the the die or full length size.

The only exception to having zero resistance when chambering resized brass is if you have set up your die set up to achieve a very slight crush fit. This is something requires being able to set the die to within tolerences of a thousandth of an inch (give or take a fraction). The crush fit should be so slight that you should only feel very slight resistance on only the last little bit of the bolt throw.

There's a sticky at the top of this page that's a good read on setting up dies - "Hand Loading for Long range 1:Brass case prep". Also the article by John Barness here.

http://www.24hourcampfire.com/reloading.html

There's a lot of varying opinions on what method of resizing is best - neck sizing, FL resizing or PFLR (partial full length resing). For me, I PFLR and set the shoulder to exactly fit the chamber with that ever so slight crush fit or with a minimum of shoulder clearance - less than a .0015" or so.

If you have concerns that you're oversizing your brass compare a piece of resized brass to an unfired piece of factory brass. You'll have to be able measure it in exactly the same places so I'd suggest using something as spacer to find the same distance from just forward of the case head and just behind the shoulder/neck junction. The taper in the brass is what makes it important to measure in the same places. The outside case dimensions should be within a few thousandths. Maybe .002" or .003" + or - a little - depending. If it was beyond .005" or .006" then I might be concerned. I'm guessing a little bit on the dimensions as it's hard to say exactly due to manufacturing tolerences.

I'd be willing to bet that everthing is fine with your new dies. Of course there's always the chance of having a defective die but that's a very rare occurrence.

I'm trying to give you some info to inspire some confidence. I've been there where doubt makes you wonder "Am I going blow myself up?". That's not always a bad thing either. It's a good thing to question and double check your reloading procedures.

If you honestly feel that you have created an excessive headspace problem then toss the brass or seat the bullets hard into the lands and fire to "restore" them.

If you want to "feel" the brass as you close the bolt then it's going to require some time and effort on your part to get to that point.Various chamber and brass measuring tools are out there to help you fit your brass to the chamber as well.

With a FL die you don't have to jam the shell holder to the die. In fact you may want to try backing off the press so you only resize 2/3 of the neck. My .264WM sporting gun will chamber these partially FL sized cartridges quite well. Brass will last longer, and you may gain accuracy.

Take a look at Redding's competition shellholder set. Allows you to finesse a crush fit with FL dies.

Nah... Lee Collet Die! Those things are the cat's a$$! I've got cases I've loaded >15x that haven't needed a shoulder bump or annealing. And that die is a lot cheaper (working on exactly the same concept) than the Redding.

I have told people before....how do you know it's OK if you don�t measure the shoulder at the C/L datum point to (absolutely for sure) know you have bumped your shoulder back to much, just enough, or none at all!!!!

These pictures show a once fired case with the calipers set at zero and the same case after sized "by the book" all the way to the shell holder.....I then backed up my nut about .022 to get a .003 bump.

It is a simple tool anybody can use and make.....measure your brass, it just makes sense.

I like that approach, very well represented with the pics and details.

It works!! I now know 100% that my brass will chamber or even brass from another rifle.....How?

Because I measured it.