Why won't my old brass fit?

[gilream]

Recently rebarreled my 7mm Rem Mag rifle. Wanted to be able to use my Norma brass fired in the previous barrel but even after fl resizing it wont chamber. Why?

 

[Cort]

Your new chamber is tighter than your dies. Are your dies adjusted properly?

What happens with factory rounds?

Check your head space.

What happens when you chamber empty, resized brass? Check your necks for a donut or for being overly thick (necks may need turning).

If you have calipers, check the dimensions of your brass as compared with a standard chamber drawing.

There is a good reason your rounds won't chamber; some dimension is "wrong". Once you know what it is, then you can fix it or get appropriate advice from someone on this site.

 

[fdshuster]

gilream: Common problem that I encountered several times when re-barreling, a 243 Douglas barrel to a 243 Shilen barrel. Each chamber cut with a different reamer, both within SAAMI specs, but still "different" enough that brass was not interchangable. All it takes is a case head diameter that is .002" larger diameter, and the brass will not permit bolt closing. Sometimes, if available, a small base die can be used to fix the problem. Now when I re-barrel, new barrel equals new brass.

 

[glo]

Well, the first question I have is, are you resizing to the shoulders or truly resizing right to the belt. If you are resizing down to the belt double check your shell holder. It may be extra thick on the top.

I recently had to file off a few thousandths of an inch from the top of my # 3 RCBS shell holder to resize my wife’s .243 cases. Having a newly rebarreled rifle you may have a short (also known as tight) headspace

 

[retiredracer]

I have had the same problem with bare FL resized cases that wont fit in my chamber. Some of the cases that are resized will chamber fine, but not all. I have looked everywhere and received all kinds of good tips but nothing has worked. My die was adjusted properly and the cases were trimmed, still nothing. Then I annealed the necks run it through the FL resizer and bingo, it works great! Apparently once the brass becomes brittle and you resize it the shoulder doesn't hold the shape when removed from the die. Once it is annealed it becomes pliable and will hold its shape after being FL resized. Any reloading book will tell how to anneal the case. Its simple. Hope this helps

 

[1000yardstare]

A Palma buddy had a new 30 inch stainless .308 barrel fitted to his action. His old brass would not chamber in the new barrel despite being F/L sized.

Talking to the barrelsmith revealed that the `smith had given the chamber reamer "one more sharpening" before cutting the new chamber. This reduced the chamber to minimum SAAMI.

My buddy had to buy a small base sizing die meant for semi-auto hunting rifles to obtain workable brass.

Reamers are not cheap and an economic decision must be made by the `smith when ordering a new reamer. Start with maximum SAAMI to get the most sharpenings and maybe start with a sloppy chamber. Or order a medium SAAMI to start with a tight chamber but maybe give the reamer one too many sharpenings.

 

[retiredracer]

I may have jumped the gun about annealing the brass. 50% of my cases would chamber after annealing and the other half would not. I called hornady about the issue and after a short discussion they told me to grind the bottom of the die so that it would move the shoulder back. This did correct 100% of my problem. I am using new dimention dies. I did find another post where someone else did the same.