Tight chamber in my 500 S&W?

[Walks with a gimp]

  I bought some 385 grain Remington bullets for my 500 and a set of dies in trying to get set up to do some loading. Appointments and work is keeping me form diving head first into geting down to loading some of these and doing some more shooting. I did play with the dies and an empty case and bullet though   I miked the Remingtom bullet and it's at .502 and I can barely get the bullet to seat in an empty and un-resized case. It took about all the strength I had to push the buller into the fired case, using the seater die and hand pressure. I understood that a bullet should be able to be seated easily back into a fired case if the chamber was proper size. Do I have a tight chamber or are the 385 grain Remington bullets oversized? These were the only bullets I have been able to find locally. Has anyone shot these and is your chamber "tight" like I think this one is?

[quickdtoo]

You need to expand and bell the cases slightly, most straight wall die sets come with an expander die that does that. If your die set didn't come with one, get a Lyman "M" die. Expanding and belling is essential for cast bullets, but also works well for jacketed. The Hornady brass is too tight to seat a bullet without at least partially full length sizing.

Tim

http://www.midwayusa.com/eproductpage.exe/showproduct?saleitemid=119645

http://www.midwayusa.com/eproductpage.exe/showproduct?saleitemid=620882

[Walks with a gimp]

       I've got the Hornady 4 die set,,, need more play time!!!!

[quickdtoo]

The Hornady die set is my first choice, but I got an RCBS steel set new for $12.50, so I couldn't complain!! You'll love the Hornady seater die, the design is tops in my book.

Tim

[stimpylu32]

Yep what Tim said , you are going to have to atleast partly size the cases and then bell the case mouth , it you are using new brass you will need to full size the cases to get them into spec .

I always full size all my cases , that way when i load i start at the same point every time . You relize that once you start loading you will shoot more and have to load more , it is a never ending cycle . but it can be alot of fun . 

stimpy

[Walks with a gimp]

  I've reloaded since '76 and this is the first case I've seen of not being able to insert a new bullet into a fired case without much pressure. I just thought it might be a tight chamber.

[Mac11700]

I just thought it might be a tight chamber.

Are you seating a loaded case into the chamber and it not going in all the way? Or...is it that you are trying to seat a bullet into the empty case? I use Hornady one shot in all of my cases...on the out side and on the case mouths when reloading...it aids in making it easier to load the bullets correctly..and is needed when resizing your brass..

Mac

[Walks with a gimp]

I just thought it might be a tight chamber.

Are you seating a loaded case into the chamber and it not going in all the way? Or...is it that you are trying to seat a bullet into the empty case? I use Hornady one shot in all of my cases...on the out side and on the case mouths when reloading...it aids in making it easier to load the bullets correctly..and is needed when resizing your brass..

Mac

  I seated a new bullet into a fired and not resized or belled case and it took all the hand pressure I could muster to get the bullet to the cannalure. I actually wanted to check bullet length to the lands and the gun wouldn't go shut (gently) until I pushed the bullet in farther by hand.

  I just checked an old 44 mag brass and tried to seat a new bullet into it and it won't go either, must be a straight wall case thing. I know the center fire rifle bottlekneck cartridges will let a new bullet enter the case neck easily. I'll stop worring about a tight chamber.....

  The 500 S&W dwarfs a .44 mag case