Did I ruin my 6BR brass?

[juanvaldez]

Had some trouble full length sizing by 6MMBR brass. Even after FL sizing the brass I could barely close the bolt. Had a friend machine a couple thous off my shell holder. Sized all my brass and all is well...so I think. Double check my shellholder and 8-9 thous has been machined off. Just sized 50 once fired lapua cases that are really hard to come by and expensive where I live. So my question is can I fire them back to size and keep using them with a new shellholder or do I chuck them?

Cheers

 

[juanvaldez]

Any help much appreciated.

Cheers

 

[juanvaldez]

Thanks. This was the first FL sizing. Necked once or twice then they got really tight. Was wondering about that too. Could the rifle have too little head space? It was headspaced off a FL sized case and was pretty tight.

 

[DukeDuke]

Maybe the FL die is no to spec?!

 

[Eddie Harren]

You really need to check to find out how far back you're pushing the shoulder. If you are pushing it back more than .003-.004" then you will probably have short case life.

 

[Preacher]

I always noticed that if you tried to partial size a case in a full length die it would make the case longer. Kinda like a tube of toothpaste, when you squeeze it, it needs to go someplace. When ever I set the dies up to totally full length size the case, the problem always went away......
When you neck size only, after a few shots the cases will be harder to chamber and will need to have the shoulder set back just enough to chamber with a tiny bit of resistance.
I now use Harrell's Full Length bushing dies and rarely have a problem with my 6br cases doing anything they shouldn't...