Home Forums Reloading Varmint Rifles Problems with Bonanza .17 Rem die

Has anyone ever had problems with a Bonanza did not sizing correctly. I have an old Bonanza .17 Remington FL die set that won’t size the neck down or bump the shoulder back. I have tried two different presses and had someone who has 40 plus years experience in reloading look at it and neither one of us can figure it out. Thanks in advance.

Have used many Bonanza/Forster dies

never an issue

have had same issue with other dies...

turned out the problem was using a different shell holder than normally

another time, the die evidently got bumped and was not sizing it down all the way,

or the brass gets so brittle, annealing it would return enough elasticity to be able to bump it down enough...

or finally that could happen if your brass finally needs a trim....

The problem sounds like a die set-up problem. Do a basic resizing die set-up as outlined in the instructions. At this point it is likely that the issue will be solved, if so then you can start backing the die out a bit at a time until you find the proper resizing adjustment for your chamber.

These instructions should get you to where you need to be - http://pdf.textfiles.com/manuals/FIREARMS/forster_benchrestdies.pdf

drover

make sure you are running all the way up if thats what you need. cam it over tight, check to see if the die is making contact with the shell holder when the die and shell holder meet.. that should push the shoulder back the max amount, If not it wouldn't be the first time a shell holder was ground down enough to get shoulder setback.

Appreciate your guy’s input. I’ll give a little more background on my situation. I have another set of RCBS dies that I normally use for my .17 Rem. I have had these dies sitting around for several years since my grandfather passed away. I thought I had would set the them up and reload a few rounds with them for the heck of it. When I started through trying to set them up I ran into this issue. I have an older Forester co-ax press that was grandpa’s also. When I couldn’t get it to size properly even with a hard cam over on it, I switched the die over to my RC II press. Went through the setup process on that press with no luck.

I will check the shell holder, since that was brought up it reminded me that I had to do that for my 6-06 to get the right amount of shoulder bump.