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So resizing only 50% of the brass, would allow the expanded brass down near the head to fit tighter?

Thank you, I'll be sure and take some detailed notes.

Yes, but then other things may arise. This is one of those I could make it clear in a very few minutes situations if I were there at your loading bench.

Partial sizing brass can lead to the head to shoulder distance increasing which then can lead to difficult chambering. The effect varies with the taper of the cartridge body and the particular sizing die.

Another thing to consider is the expanded ring may not be concentric with the rest of the case body. You can end up with a close fitting, but crooked cartridge.

I did notice when I put them into the tumbler, they all had a flash burn on the neck of the case, that covered about 25% of the neck.

That's a common thing.

Thanks for all the advice.

I've been telling people for years that these newfangled rimless cartridges were a crazy idea, but would anybody listen?

I've had a couple 30-30s over the years that were prone to splitting case heads after a few loadings 😛

One of my best friends actually has the last one of them now, but he only shoots factory stuff out of it so it isn't a big deal to him.

My lame attempt at humor aside, rimmed cartridges are as prone as anything else to case failures due to excess headspace brought on by sloppy breeching. Creation of a secondary shoulder on virgin brass that effectively presses the head back firmly against the breech face for initial firing, and subsequent neck sizing only when reloading the brass, will ameliorate the issue greatly - just as it does when employing rimless cases.

A favorite trick with new brass when facing this issue simply entails running the case over a larger expander button (ie: a .35 when doing a .30 caliber), and then re-sizing in the "normal" die only until the bolt closes on it with resistance, which leaves a tiny little shoulder just forward of the "regular" shoulder that is sufficient to satisfy the protocol outlined above. The same procedure can be performed after the fact too, as stated in previous posts, but by then the damage is done and not a helluva lot of extra case life will be realized.

Once a rifle has been determined to have sloppy headspace (and it amazes me that even a lot of serious riflemen don't own headspace gauges with which to check old used guns before ever firing them) it behooves a guy who plans to re-use his brass to not shoot factory stuff and go straight to the protocols I described above. Of course for the occasional hunter/shooter it's a moot point as more often than not the waste can is the receptacle for spent brass.

I made that mistake with my first 300. I gauged the current one I have before I bought it. Life lesson 😬

So I’m taking all of this in, and it’s a lot for a greenhorn.

So if I understand correctly, if one buys new brass and ran it through a neck die, it would feed into a 99 receiver, but if only neck sized for the next reload, the brass expands so much inside the 99’s receiver on the first firing, it will now most likely not load into the receiver a second time?

Therefor one must experiment with a FL die, setting it up in the press so that it only sizes the top half of the brass, so this will allow it to feed, but the head sill expanded so much, will not allow the case head to expand so much multiple times?

Am I understanding correctly?

Pretty much. The whole case will be resized but you will not be pushing the shoulder back as much so it is compensating for the longer chamber.

Have you read the RCBS setup instructions carefully?

Before you go too far down this rabbit hole you need to confirm some dimensions of your rifle. Check its headspace with a set of gauges so you know for a fact if you're dealing with a headspace issue or not. Guessing/surmising is not what you want to be doing. Knowing positively what you're dealing with can save you a lot of time, money, and frustration. I sense your head is swirling with an awful lot of esoteric stuff - perhaps it's time to stop, take a deep breath, and start from Square One.

A chamber cast wouldn't be a bad idea also by which to get a firm idea of exactly what you're dealing with.

As stated above, it sure would be nice to be physically there to monitor what's going on!

As far as setting up the dies, yes. Raise the shell holder, screw down the die until contact, then another 1/4 turn, tighten lock nut..adjust de-capping pin?
I am a green horn for sure, but have reloaded for my 06 for a few years with good results, I have just never had to solve any problems, it has all worked out just like the book said it should. 😉🤣.

Thanks for the help, it’s all appreciated.

Untill I pick it back out. I like freebees.

More lame humor.

I'm glad I found this thread. New to me, 1923 vintage model 99 takedown, just picked up two weeks ago. In the venerable 300 Savage, of course. After all, this is a PA deer rifle.

Mechanically sound, with a Marbles folding rear sight & original Lyman tang sight. Cool thing is, using factory Remington 150 grain core-lokts, it's shooting 1 inch groups at 50 yards with the tang sight, 1.5 inch groups with the regular sights - Right on top of each other.

So, that made me happy. BUT, same exact issue with fired brass. Now I seem to remember reading in the past, and I find posts all over the place now, complaining about bolt thrust and bolt compression - to which I am inclined to say - BS - not at the pressures this cartridge operates at. I'm thinking it's either head spacing or just an overly generous chamber. FWIW, it is a takedown model and I can't get it to actually come apart. Not sure if someone silver soldered it in place.

I was thinking maybe looking for a small base sizer die until I read this thread.

I did buy 100 virgin Hornady brass, and my take away from this thread is to use the false shoulder trick to size the brass to this particular chamber. I suppose I could get a cast made and then go the custom die route.....but that will easily double the cost of this project - which I am inclined NOT to do.

In the end, I supposed I could put away a bunch of Factory ammo and give up handloading.....but that is no fun either!

Just asking, did you open the lever first? It won't turn with the lever still closed.

Yes. I decided not to force the issue. I've made plenty of ham fisted mistakes before and other than wanting to clean it from the chamber side, there is no good reason to take it down. It's not like I have some custom carry case for it.

This chamber issue has me more concerned, because I really had plans to handload for it due to the lack of factory alternatives.

OH, and to add to this. I just went down to put the brass I took the picture of back in the Remington box and decided to check the other brass.

1) The bulge is more prominent on one side of the all the fired brass. One side is worst, and opposite that side is almost flat.
2) Remington brass must be thinner/weaker, because this malady is worse on the Remington cases than it is on the Federal loads I tried. Both are basically ballistic twins based on the info on the side of the box. While we all know that pressure curves are different for different powders, I doubt there is much difference between the two.

All this leads me to believe it's an out of spec chamber. Makes me want to try harder to get the barrel off for a chamber inspection.

My opinion is you just have an oversized chamber. If you look closely at the two cases you posted you will see the case diameter has increased during firing back to the point where the wall thickness increases at the base.

I also don't think any of the photos in this thread show signs of head separation other than the diagram of how to check for it.

With heads space problems on a rimless case the upper case and shoulder expand and hold to the chamber walls. The rear of the case moves back to the bolt face which causes the brass to stretch length ways. Wherever the brass is the thinnest you will see the beginning of a shiny ring which as it gets worse will appear to be stretching within the ring. See the diagram in the above posting.