Once fired brass

[Ross308]

Got a problem with in-consistent fire formed brass. Useing Winchester brass in standard 308 Win. Had the barrel set back 3/16 in. so 155 grn. Palmas would seat without falling out of the case. Also turn necks just enough to clean up equally for neck tension. The problem is after loading for second time, the bolt closed kind of stiff on about 20% of the reloads. After fireing I used my Lee Collet neck sizeing die and reprimed them. Tried them in my rifle and if anything more of the brass was tight. Then I took my RCBS sizeing die and pulled the decapper out and full length sized them. They slip in fine now. But it kind of defeats the purpose of fireforming a round to a specific chamber. Shouldn't they be good to go with just neck sizeing, at least for a few rounds? I'm not shooting overly hot loads. I believe I've seen this same question asked before on here or maybe at the club. Just can't remember the answer. Any help will be appreciated.
thanks
Dan R.

 

[Kenny474]

First off, how much effort was required to close the bolt with the collet sized rounds? If it's just a little tight and doesn't require a ton of force, then you are probably OK. Brass that is fireformed is going to be a little tighter and require slight pressure to close the bolt. Not so much that you need to hold the rifle tight and muscle it, but a bit more pressure than full length sized rounds. I normally run a slight crush fit on the brass in my bolt guns used for target shooting, and the bolt requires a bit of pressure to close. I can still use 2 fingers to push it down, any more and I bump the shoulder and size the body.

If you don't have a full length die with neck bushings, you will need to expand the neck after sizing if you don't use the expander ball. Just run the brass into the collet die after and you will be fine, though you only need to go far enough for the mandrel to expand the neck and not use the collet to squeeze the brass. If you don't do this, you will have excessive neck tension as the FL die sizes the neck far smaller than needed so the expander ball can set the inside diameter properly for neck tension.

There are a few other possibilities of what could be causing the hard bolt close, and some rifles just handle pressure better than others. What kind of action are you using and has any truing work been done to it? If the lugs are not seating evenly, it could be allowing the brass to stretch unevenly, as one side will stretch a bit more than the other as one lug will give a few thousandths more than the one making contact.

Also, how is the bolt lift on ejection after firing? Does it lift easily or require force?

 

[Ross308]

Kenny,
Thanks for the quick info. This is a Rem. Varminter with no work done as far as trueing the action. Opening the bolt was not that hard but not the same for all rounds. I did what you suggested and checked the brass on the Lee mandrel and it slipped right in after being full length resized on my RCBS dies. This was with the mandrel out of the die and pushed in by hand. No resistance at all. No expander plug in the RCBS. The bolt opened with about the same resistance on all rounds. I think I should fire another fifty or so and get back to you. Thanks again.
Dan R.