Savage model 12 bolt rebuild ?

[rebs]

My die must have moved, the fired cases measure 1.460 to shoulder and the ones that didn't fire are 1.453 to shoulder. Thats a bump of .007 Can anything be done to salvage these cases ?

 

[boltfluter]

My die must have moved, the fired cases measure 1.460 to shoulder and the ones that didn't fire are 1.453 to shoulder. Thats a bump of .007 Can anything be done to salvage these cases ?

Yes, no problem. Neck the cases up to the next caliber, and then, neck back down to create a new little shoulder with a snug fit in chamber. Or, increase neck tension and seat bullets hard into the rifling, hopefully holding case against the bolt face to re-form to correct head space.
Paul

 

[AlNyhus]

.....fired cases measure 1.460 to shoulder and the ones that didn't fire are 1.453 to shoulder. Thats a bump of .007 Can anything be done to salvage these cases ?

Make sure you're checking the cases with the primer removed...that can add .002-.003 to your measurement.

As to cases having the shoulders pushed back too far, I intentionally push the shoulders back from .010-.015 prior to the first firing. As Paul mentioned, just get the bullets into the rifling a fair amount. On fired cases where the shoulders have ended up further back than I wanted, the same method works.

Nothing bad is going to happen from blowing the shoulder forward the width of two human hairs. Plus, the extractor is holding the back of the case. You'd have to have some pretty sloppy extractor fit for that to ever be a problem.

 

[Bill K]

As mentioned use fireforming steps and you probably can salvage those cases.
Also, regarding headspace, after you switch to another bolt head. More often the headspace will be fine, BUT always check it with proper gauges to make sure and reset headspace if necessary, for your safety and the rifle.

 

[Rocketvapor]

I have more than one entire bolt set up for the wife's 22 Nosler, Savage bolt gun.
Experimenting with cocking ramp modification, springs, and bolt lift mods, having more than one with the same headspace is a plus.
Measure lug length, subtract face depth and that is the contribution to headspace that the bolt head makes.
See previous picture I posted (post #7).

When I start reloading a batch I start with as fired, and size down until I get a slight bolt lift effort with a sized case. Takes 3 or 4 cases to find the right point.

New Nosler cases are a few thousandths SHORT to start with.
I set the barrel to a guesstimated 1.5 to 2 thousandths less than the GO gauge.
Then I size fired cases to a guesstimated 1 thousand shorter using bolt lift as a guide.
By the time I have once fired cases they have expanded in length.
This gives me the ability to size cases for a couple AR's with 2 to 3 thousandths with the same die settings.
I also measure lug length and face depth on my AR bolts.