Home Forums Reloading Big Game Rifles Redding die problems?

I am having a problem with my new Redding weatherby 6.5 RPM FL dies. New weatherby brass, new dies and some new factory ammunition. The problem is that I have sized two rounds of new brass and stuck both cases in the sizing die. I cleaned the dies first and then shot some hornady case lube in the die and let it dry. Adjusted die to just touch the shell holder. Shot all the brass with the hornady one shot and let dry a bit. Ran the brass into the die and felt resistance about a .125 from bottoming out. Ran the ram all the way down and pulled the rim off on the up stroke. Removed the case, cleaned the die and put imperial sizing wax on the next case. Same result. So now I’m confident that it’s not a lube problem. So I did some measurements. New brass is 0.4995 at the largest part of the web. Factory loaded ammunition is 0.498 and the two pieces of sized brass are 0.498. The rifle will chamber the new brass with no resistance. The saami spec for the web is 0.500 . I haven’t fired the rifle yet so I don’t have any fired brass to measure or try to size. But I don’t think that the fired brass will get any smaller 😀. The sizing die looks to be finished with a scotch bright. I am tempted to polish out the die and see if that corrects the problem but at 100.00 a set I’m thinking I need to call Redding first. Any ideas?

Then why in the world are you sizing it?

Get some imperial sizing wax. Then back the die off.
Now shoot some off the brass and then take a measurement with a comparator from CBTO and then throw the instructions in the die box in the garbage and adjust your FL die to bump the shoulders .002-.003

I always size new brass to uniform the necks on the brass. Most are out of round.

I have some imperial sizing wax. Used it on the second piece of brass that got stuck. I don’t think that I’m going to be able to move the shoulder at all with the die the way it is now. I was only able to size the case necks to about 80% without the case starting to put up more resistance than I thought I could get away with. Essentially making it a neck sizing die. Not what I want for this rifle.

I guess I should have said that the rifle has a proof barrel and a match chamber. I don’t think that it will move that far forward after first firing. But you could be right and it might. But still something is wrong here.

You don't need to FL size brass to do this. Simply push the necks over an expander.

I understand your thoughts. Not my way of doing it and not a solution to the problem I’m having. I have loaded thousands of rounds this way without ever having this problem.

True, I haven't addressed your problem at hand.

Forgive me if we've "talked" before but I've had so many conversations on this site I have trouble remembering a lot of them. So without knowing your background/experience and your own why's and wherefores I dispensed what I thought may have been a useful tip. Old teacher's bad habit I guess.

I have run into what I consider undersized FL dies, one Hornady 223 die really sticks out in my mind.

New dies, new brass, pulled off the rim... Wondering if the shellholder fits correctly? Stranger things have happened.

Are you lubricating the brass all the way to the head with imperial?

I don’t think that we have talked before and I do appreciate your input on my situation. It is what I am here asking for. My final thoughts are the possibility of a undersized die or a unfinished die that is grabbing the sides of the case with enough tension to overcome the strength of the case head. That is why I posted the information about the case web sizing between new brass, factory weatherby ammunition and the sized brass. In addition of the pictures of the inside surface of the die. The case web isn’t going to get any smaller by firing it. But I do appreciate the fact that the case shoulder might move forward enough to properly set the shoulder back a couple thousands for a correct sizing for the chamber without sticking the case. But with the die starting to stick about.125 from full cam on the press I don’t think that it’s possible with a match chamber. The new brass will chamber now without sizing and is .4995 So I can assume that the chamber is larger than this number. I don’t know how much is too much when sizing the web of the case. The die is probably at least one or two thousands under the sized brass. I just measured it with my starrett at .496

Only putting the imperial sizing wax on the case body and a little in the case mouth.

No lube on the outside of the neck?

Very little. A little of this stuff goes a long way and we can assume the neck is correctly sized already. But everything was lubed the first case with hornady one shot.

Load and shoot several then send they and the dies back and let them see what the problem is.

And if the fired brass was not fired in this rifle's chamber the rifle that they were shot in might be on the large side.

One thing what type of press are you using?

Are you trying to push the shoulders back on new brass?

Lube the entire case making sure you are going all the way down as far as you can put lube at the head. Let's see if that helps. Use the Imperial wax to do this.

Call Redding on Monday and tell them your measurement of .496 and see if that is correct.

It’s all new weatherby brass. New rifle that I have never shot. Not trying to push back the shoulder. Just trying to uniform the brass for the first firing. Probably a little load development with some 6.5 eld-x. Like I said before. Firing the brass is not going to change the brass in any way that is going to make these dies do anything that they aren’t doing now. After firing the brass will be larger not smaller. Using a RCBS rockchucker.

Try it with the decapping rod assembly, backed way out or removed have had issues with Redding sizing buttons they sent me new ones with more taper.