Fixed My Brass, maybe

[EasyShooter]

I have a some of once fired 30-378 brass that I was going to use in a 30-378 rifle I build. Got the rifle done and the once fired brass kept getting stuck in the chamber even after sizing. Bolt wouldn’t even close. Figured the gun that shot the brass originally has a bunch of headspace and mine doesn't. Got some new ammo and it loaded fine. Hated the thought of throwing out all this once fired brass I had because it isn't cheap. Put the brass in the shell holder and shimmed it up with a .012” feeler gauge so it gets pushed up tight to the top of the shell holder and sized again. Bolt will close tightly on the brass now and comes out fine. Should be good to go now right? Anybody see any problems with doing this?

 

[sawcarver]

Ive also ground some off the surface of the shell holder so the die can come down a little bit farther. That may be a more permanent solution if your fired brass ends up needing the shims too

 

[acloco]

Maybe. Sometimes, by resizing brass fired in another chamber, you have created wrinkles or beginning separations inside the brass structure.

 

[FeMan]

If you continue to have trouble, you might try the collet sizing die from Innovative Technologies. https://www.larrywillis.com/

Sizing the base of belted mags can be frustrating and this die does a better bob than anything I have seen or tried.

 

[MagnumManiac]

I’ve had to turn .010” off the top of a shell holder and keep it with my 375Bee die set ever since I re-chambered from 375H&H.
I have a short chamber and a long die.
When I was figuring out the issue using feeler gauges under the case head, I found I needed .008” to get the shoulder bump right. Turning .010” off gave me some adjustment, as this brass tends to become tighter on each firing.
It is the best solution and beats buying another expensive custom die set.

Cheers.

 

[AckleymanII]

New custom barrel = using new brass

Problem solved. Old brass retains the memory of the larger chamber.

 

[EasyShooter]

New custom barrel = using new brass

Problem solved. Old brass retains the memory of the larger chamber.

I have heard that and knew I was taking a gamble when buying the once fired brass but hoped I would get lucky. Turns out I wasn't. I was thinking if it happens to the brass fired out of the new gun I might remove some off the bottom of the die. That way it doesn't modify the shell holder and I can still use it for other calibers. Not sure I will ever need it for anything besides 30-378 though.

 

[Jackal2016]

I have heard that and knew I was taking a gamble when buying the once fired brass but hoped I would get lucky. Turns out I wasn't. I was thinking if it happens to the brass fired out of the new gun I might remove some off the bottom of the die. That way it doesn't modify the shell holder and I can still use it for other calipers. Not sure I will ever need it for anything besides 30-378 though.

The shell holder is a less costly piece to modify and easy to pick up an other one for a different cartridge if required than modifying the die. One can easily remove a few thousandths from a shell holder with an abrasive on a flat surface. ie wet/dry sand paper with many options of grit size.

 

[KMart]

By removing some off the top of the shell holder, you are allowing more space so you can screw the die further down. The shelf on the shell holder stays in the same place. That is where the case head sits.
I have one shell holder that has .010" taken off the top. All my cases that uses a .473 head uses that shell holder no matter who the die is made by or what the cartridge is. All dies have manufacturing tolerances and they are different.
However the belt on the case and the recess in the die for the belt may deal you some misery if the belt gets distorted.
I would not take any off the bottom of the die.

 

[EasyShooter]

Thanks Jack and Kmart, wasn’t thinking about it like that. Guess as long as I measure for bump instead of running the shell holder to the bottom of the die it won’t matter if the shell holder is cut short.