Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Savage Collectors Why am I crushing Savage 300 case shoulders?

Is this happening during the sizing/decapping operation, or in the bullet seating operation? I read your post twice, and although I may have overlooked it, I didn't find where you said either way.

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I'm with Gnoahhh on this "crimping" business... and I always trim my cases to the recommended length... that's a "must" in my book. I've also found that if you hand-load .300 Savage cartridges up to close to "maximum" loads, the case's neck tends to stretch quite a bit after just one firing.

I've never crimped any of my center-fire rifle cartridges... not even in my pre-'64 Model 70 Winchester in .338 Winchester Magnum which I used for elk and moose. My hunting hand-loads in the .338 (75.0 grains of IMR4350 behind a 210 grain Nosler Partition Bullet @ 3,015 fps chronographed) had "considerable" recoil... trust me.

With the majority of center-fire rifle cartridges, merely re-sizing the cartridge's neck back down to it's original size is "enough" to hold the bullet in place.

In fact, the .338's heavy recoil was the primary reason I started using the Model 99 in .300 Savage for hunting. There's a "world-of-difference" between the recoil of my "hot" hand-loads in the .338 of 34 ft/lbs and 14 ft/lbs of recoil in the .300 Savage.

The .338 was just beatin' me to death... especially if I had to remove the scope for some reason (like seared-off scope screws) and had to sight the rifle/scope combo back "in" (usually using at least 9 to 12 shots off the bench-rest) when I put the scope back on the big Winchester.

That .338 "got-to-me" and wasn't any "fun" to shoot very much. Even as a younger man of 28 years old, the .338 "hurt me" after 17 rounds off the "bench", whereas I can shoot the Model 99 in .300 Savage all day long and it didn't/doesn't really "bother" me.

Jus' my 2�...


Strength & Honor...

Ron T.

Greg. its looks like there is a bullet in the crush case.
that,s why I'm thinking expander ball or like hugajackass said
chamfering

???
plab

From RCBS home page. miles

Step 19 - Bullet Seating (Part 1)
Step 19 Image

Thread the seater die a few turns into the press. Put a case in the shell holder and lower the press handle, running the ram with the case to the top of the press stroke. Turn the die body down until it stops. The crimp shoulder in the die is now pressing against the top of the case mouth. Back the die out one turn, raising the crimp shoulder above the case mouth. Secure the die in position with the die lock ring.

Wow...thanks for the responses to all!

Our internet connection has been on the fritz the past few days so I finally made to the library to check back in here. Been a while since I've been to a "studious" place like this

Anyway, first to clarify the shoulder crushing was occurring during the bullet seating operation, not the decap/resize operation. In my original pic, the case on the left was after running through the decap/resize die, the one on the right through the bullet seating die.

I applied most everyone's recommendations:

1) The dies are indeed 300 Savage
2) I cleaned the bullet seating die thoroughly including the seating stem
3) The seating stem/neck resizer is a straight cylinder rather than a ball. Diameter measures 0.305"
4) All cases were trimmed to a hair under max per Lymans 49th (I don't recall what this measurement is...at library remember? ) This was done previously anyway
5) All cases were deburred/chamferred. This was done previously too
6) I removed the die and shell holder and inserted a case to measure the gap between the bottom of the die and shell holder (no force applied) Gap measured 0.040". Reset the die in the press with this same gap and kept readjusting the seating stem until max OAL was achieved.

So while each of the above steps was advantageous, I believe item #6 was where the primary problem was. No more crushed cases!

I'd post a pic of the final result but remember...I'm at the library

Thanks again to all!

You had the seating die screwed too far in the press. Unless you are crimping, not necessary for 300 Savage, the dies should be backed off until it doesn't touch the mouth of the case. Seating depth should be adjusted by turning the threaded screw on top of the die.

... What Gregintenn said and/OR...

The base of the bullet is NOT fitting into the mouth of the case thus, as you lower the ram on your reloading press, the bottom of the bullet is refusing to "start" in... and fit into the case's open mouth and thus the bottom of the bullet is crushing the whole cartridge's neck "down" yielding the "problem" you're having and why the second case looks as it does.

However, if this is the reason, then I'd expect that part of the edge of the case-mouth would very likely be bend over... either inwardly or outwardly where the bullet's base touched the case's mouth and refused to slide into it.

While I believe it's been previously mentioned, it also could be that you've got either the resizing die or the bullet-seating die screwed down much too far and the die is crushing down the case's neck and driving it down into the case's powder chamber. I say this because it appears in the 2nd. picture of the case, your case's shoulder has practically disappeared.

To determine this... simply LOOK at the case's neck and shoulder after resizing it and before attempting to seat the bullet in the case. I.E., does the shoulder look like the 2nd. picture BEFORE or AFTER you attempt to seat the bullet.

I.E., the case's "shoulder" has practically disappeared because the whole case-neck has apparently been driven down because either the die is set too low or the base of the bullet you're attempting to put into the case's open "mouth" refuses to slide into the open case-mouth.

This could be caused by your resizing die's expander-button NOT opening up the case-mouth far enough... or I suppose it is possible that your expander button doesn't have a large enough outside diameter. However, RCBS makes excellent and very "precision" dies, so I question that it's the expander-button's fault.

At least, these are my "guesses" from the new information you just posted.

Jus' my 2�... 'cause I've run out of ideas.


Strength & Honor...

Ron T.

Thanks Greg and Ron.

Relative to the bullet not fitting in the case mouth, I'm currently using 150gr Nosler Ballistic tips with the boatail base so getting the bullet started is not an issue. However, I'll certainly have to keep a close eye on fittment when loading up the Nosler Partitions on hand.

Even though I set the gap as detailed in my previous post at 0.040", it's since been reset again with everything in the press. In other words, raised the ram until just feeling the case shoulder and then tightened everything down. Haven't measured the new gap but it must be very close to 0.040"

I loaded up 10 cases with 38.0 grains of IMR4064 and 10 with 39.0 grains. Will see what shoots better this weekend. Cutting it close to the opener but am looking forward to toting the 99 again!

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