snert
Silver $$ Contributor
Stay with me on this one and read carefully, please.
I bought some formed and fired 30 Herrett brass from a guy, anticipating buying a barrel for my Contender someday.
I bought an RCBS 30 Herrett FL die, seat die and Form/trim die from ANOTHER guy, later, same reason.
I bought a 30 Herrett barrel from a THIRD guy.
Today tested the brass from guy 1, which had been fired in his gun. With no sizing it fit fine and the TC passed the cock and fire on a dead primer test for headspace.
So then I sized that fired brass. A couple things happened. First, it grew in length from 1.605 to 1.610. But more glaringly, it shaved off a tad of brass near the base (see photo). I barely bumped the shoulder because these guns shoot best when the shoulder is tight to the chamber/breach face. At that time, since the brass I was sizing had been fired in another gun, and the "shaving" seemed to occur mostly on one side, not all the way around, I surmised that the guy who owned the brass had an infamously TC barrel...with a egg shaped chamber. I decided I could live with it. I trimmed the cases to 1.60, the TRIM TO length, then loaded 16 of them with 23 grains of 4227, a WLR primer and a 125 Sierra SP.
Off to the range where they all fired (good, no extraction issues, though one was tight, and all went off, so no headspace issues).
Back home tonight I decided to size all the rest of the brass and prep it for load testing, as I was unhappy with the groups I shot. TC can be finicky, so I was not surprised at that.
I first sized the brass now fired in my gun. This time it took off MORE brass, all the way around. Ok, my chamber isn't egg shaped, but it is larger. The cases grew back from a "timmed and fired" length of 1.601 ish, to 1.605. That seemed to be a bit much in my mind for case life! But more frustrating was the shaving on the sidewall.
So for giggles I pulled out a new 30-30 Starline case (for once I decide on a bullet I like) and ran it into the die. It sized easily for step one of making Herret, with no shaving.
So...here is the question for all you guys...
Should I be worried about this RCBS die taking so much off (see my shaving on the "finger photo")? And I might add it sure seems like it is the non-radius edge at the die entrance that grabs it. My Redding dies don't seem to do that on any cases like my 357 Herrett.
And is there a solution, or is this a non-issue?


I bought some formed and fired 30 Herrett brass from a guy, anticipating buying a barrel for my Contender someday.
I bought an RCBS 30 Herrett FL die, seat die and Form/trim die from ANOTHER guy, later, same reason.
I bought a 30 Herrett barrel from a THIRD guy.
Today tested the brass from guy 1, which had been fired in his gun. With no sizing it fit fine and the TC passed the cock and fire on a dead primer test for headspace.
So then I sized that fired brass. A couple things happened. First, it grew in length from 1.605 to 1.610. But more glaringly, it shaved off a tad of brass near the base (see photo). I barely bumped the shoulder because these guns shoot best when the shoulder is tight to the chamber/breach face. At that time, since the brass I was sizing had been fired in another gun, and the "shaving" seemed to occur mostly on one side, not all the way around, I surmised that the guy who owned the brass had an infamously TC barrel...with a egg shaped chamber. I decided I could live with it. I trimmed the cases to 1.60, the TRIM TO length, then loaded 16 of them with 23 grains of 4227, a WLR primer and a 125 Sierra SP.
Off to the range where they all fired (good, no extraction issues, though one was tight, and all went off, so no headspace issues).
Back home tonight I decided to size all the rest of the brass and prep it for load testing, as I was unhappy with the groups I shot. TC can be finicky, so I was not surprised at that.
I first sized the brass now fired in my gun. This time it took off MORE brass, all the way around. Ok, my chamber isn't egg shaped, but it is larger. The cases grew back from a "timmed and fired" length of 1.601 ish, to 1.605. That seemed to be a bit much in my mind for case life! But more frustrating was the shaving on the sidewall.
So for giggles I pulled out a new 30-30 Starline case (for once I decide on a bullet I like) and ran it into the die. It sized easily for step one of making Herret, with no shaving.
So...here is the question for all you guys...
Should I be worried about this RCBS die taking so much off (see my shaving on the "finger photo")? And I might add it sure seems like it is the non-radius edge at the die entrance that grabs it. My Redding dies don't seem to do that on any cases like my 357 Herrett.
And is there a solution, or is this a non-issue?

