resizing 243 problem

When I sold my Savage 243 I gave all my once fired brass to a friend that has a Remington 243. He bought a Hornady Fl die set to reload them. I was at his house this weekend fixing his truck and he mentioned, the brass I gave him won't resize correctly. The bolt is hard to close....

It seems like the shoulder isn't being bumped back far enough to fit his chamber....making the bolt hard to close. Could this be caused by using a RCBS #3 shell holder instead of a Hornady #1....they are both for the same sized base brass, I am wondering if there might be a slight difference in the two causing the problem. He has to get a Hornady shell holder anyway, since the rcbs won't work in his hornady case trimmer...should he try that first, or is there a possible die problem here.

Thanks for any input....

I wouldn't think that it would be the rcbs holder. I am going to ask a redundant question please dont be offended. Did he screw the die down to touch the shell holder then an additional 1/4 turn? I have set up my rcbs dies and hornady dies and just touched the shell holder and had the same problem you describe. one sure fire way to find out is to smoke a case then see if it shines up the shoulder.

that's a good question...one I would normally ask

Yes he had the die set correctly...That's the first thing I checked. The shell holder meets the die and with some resistance it cams over firm.

I recall somewhere in the past about someone either putting a 1-2 thousands shim under the base of the case or removing a some material from the top of the shell holder to allow the case to feed in to the die just enough to bump the shoulder back so it would chamber correctly.

I was just thinking it could be a manufacturing variance between the Hornady dies and the rcbs shell holder causing the issue.

you were loading these in a savage and he is doing it in a Remington. I have never loaded .243 and not sure if I am right in this thinking, didn't some rifles require a set of small base dies to chamber where others did not??

now there is an idea I wouldn't have thought about. get a feeler gage set and stick it under the case in the recess forcing the brass up that should work.

Daywalker wrote:you were loading these in a savage and he is doing it in a Remington. I have never loaded .243 and not sure if I am right in this thinking, didn't some rifles require a set of small base dies to chamber where others did not??

Yes i have small base dies for 243s that my uncles and once upon a time my mom had a semi auto 243 small base is just supposed to be for autos. but it would work for a tight bolt gun too.

I would try the hornady #1 it's a cheap thing to try, I wouldnt think the shell holder would make a difference, I use RCBS and lee shell holders and interchange them with ease.

You could always try a new friend, your fixing his truck, figuring out his reloading issuses, j/k

Tommy and I had a debate one time when he was having 6.5 Grendal issues about differences in shellholders. We ran a few UN-scientific tests and concluded it wasn't the issue, but that in very rare instances variations in the shellholders could be an issue.

1. I would try smoking a case as Tommy suggested, or marking the shoulder with a sharpie marker if you remember my old Hornady Headspace video where I showed how to do it.
2. I haven't seen anyone suggest this yet, and I don't know how familiar with your friend is with firearms, but I would check his rifle and make sure there isnt a problem with it. Is it only his reloads or does it do it with factory too?
3. I would call Hornady, while their dies are very nice quality your friends issue does tend to be very common issue for their dies.

I'm assuming the rifle is ok...he never complained about the bolt closing tough on the unfired factory ammo I gave him.

He tried the black marker approach, that's what led him to believe the should isn't getting sized back....it left marks on the shoulder.

He hasn't tried to chamber a unloaded resized case...but I don't think it will make any difference.

Since he has to get a #1 Hornady shell holder anyway, he's gonna try that first and if that doesn't work ,he'll be calling Hornady.

I wish he knew which ones were fired in his gun and which ones were fired in mine, so I could see how the ones he fired chambered....but he had them all mixed up.

Edit: Funny, the second time today the site automatically changed the wording, "hard'" and "on" to itching?

i have a Winchester Model670 in .243. had them same problem when i firsrt started reloading for it. bought the Redding competition shell holders with the press camming over but still could not get the sholder to bump back. called Forster as that was the dies that i was using and they had me send the sizing die back to them so that they could shorten it. have not had any problems since in getting the sholder to bump back. HTH
Rick

Remember this post from that "other" site some time ago Hawcer?

This shim is .010 thousandths made from a small piece of tin sheeting that I pounded with a hammer on my bench vise until it just barely fit between the bottom of the case and shell holder. It takes out just enough slop in the shell holder to bump the shoulder back about 1 deg. which is more than enough to get an easy bolt closure. Once it's fired in his rifle it will take the shape of the chamber in his rifle, of course you already know that but I thought I'd mention it anyway for the new guys who may not know.

I had to do this with some 22-250 brass that I bought 1xfired from a gun shop.

I'm marking this solved.....He had ordered a Hornady shell holder to go with his Hornady Dies and it now sizes them perfectly. They now chamber smoothly and with very little effort.

Goes to show...sometimes you can't get away with mix-n-match.