Author Topic: 7mm Rem. Mag reloaded case tightness (Read 973 times)

Lagavulin · « **on:** August 05, 2003, 12:42:23 PM »

I personally am very new to reloading, but am teaming up with my friend who IS experienced, but not to the 7mm rem mag. We're discovering after resizing, case triming, loading etc that about 10% of the reloaded rounds are too tight to cycle into the chamber. It will enter the chamber, but the bolt does not want to go down without a lot of effort. This happens to once fired brass and up, the new brass works great. The action in my Tikka stainless hunter is normally so smooth. We've checked the measurments on the 'tight' rounds but everything appears to be normal.
Does anyone else have this problem? Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
By the way, this happens to all bullet sizes and makes, 139-175 from hornady, barnes and nosler.

Thanks!

jhm · « **Reply #1 on:** August 05, 2003, 01:00:16 PM »

Lagavulin : Sounds like it could be a couple things, make sure your ram is caming over and you are getting the full length of the brass into the die it will require you to set the die a little lower in the press and to get the caming you will need to set the die so that it dont just stop at the shell holder, a little deeper is required, also double check the over all length could be you are running a little close to max. length and you could have a reached the length of your chamber, also make sure you are setting the shoulder back, the shell headspaces off the shoulder. good luck and keep us informed.

JIM

jhm · « **Reply #2 on:** August 05, 2003, 01:04:03 PM »

BTW; Just work with a piece of MT brass and keep adjusting the die until it will chamber in the rifle, also remember to lube the inside of the necks as a dry un-lubed neck will pull lengthwise as you lower the ram

JIM

Lagavulin · « **Reply #3 on:** August 05, 2003, 01:22:09 PM »

Thanks!

We'll have to try that. I've heard that 7mm rem mag was hard on brass and thought this was the result. A guess a little tinkering is needed here.

Lagavulin · « **Reply #4 on:** August 05, 2003, 01:29:12 PM »

jhm,

Forgot to mention we did check the length of the brass of the tight ones and they were the same as the others that fed well. They're are no visible markings on the brass to show where its binding if it is.

jhm · « **Reply #5 on:** August 05, 2003, 01:40:47 PM »

Double check again sometimes and I do it myself I will think they are the same length but they are in reality vary close it wont take much to bind you up, I had a 700 rem in 7mag that was almost imposible to reload for, also measure the neck thickness because if you are using a mixture of different brass the thickness of the brass in the neck area will cause problems, dont worry it will be figured out, there are some vary nolegeable people here will to help.

JIM

Power · « **Reply #6 on:** August 05, 2003, 02:35:00 PM »

Also make sure the brass was fired originally from the gun you are reloading it for. Different guns will be different sizes and brass fired in one won't always fit in another unless you do a full-length resize. To get the most loads out of a shell they suggest you neck-size only but if you use brass shot in another rifle this would be the results.

longwinters · « **Reply #7 on:** August 05, 2003, 02:44:38 PM »

I had gotten some reloaded 30-06 shells from a friend and they did the same thing. But when I recently got into reloading I thought I read (RCBS) that you should leave a small space between the shell holder and the die bottom (on your bullet seating die) unless you wanted to crimp the brass onto the bullet. I shoot a 7mm and have shot the same brass 5 times with low, medium and hot loads and have not had any problems. Even with resizing all I did was leave that space between the shell holder and the bottom of the die. I left everything else as was from the factory. So now I am somewhat confused also :? I wish I had a personal on site(at my house) reloading tutor.

jhm · « **Reply #8 on:** August 05, 2003, 03:12:18 PM »

Longwinters: That was the way we used to set up our dies to neck size only, after we had the dies set to full length size , we would adj the dies the thickness of a penny between the shell holder and the bottom of the die to neck size only, it holds the die high enough to only do the necks, of course the brass has had to have been fired in the same rifle as power has pointed out.

JIM

Carl l. · « **Reply #9 on:** August 05, 2003, 04:33:55 PM »

Lagavulin, I think you have gotten real good advice here already. The only thing I can think of : Are you full lenght resizing? If you are do you have the right size shell holder for the 7mm. I have found out that some cases are soft and when they pull out of the full lenght resizer, they pull the lip up around where the primer is. I had that trouble years ago and I don't full size anymore just the neck. I am not saying this is the case with you. Just a thought. Stay with it and I hope you can work it out. If you do let us know. Carl L.

HBL · « **Reply #10 on:** August 05, 2003, 04:39:49 PM »

I had the same problem with my 7mag when I first started reloading.

You probably have a tight/close tolerance chamber. I solved my problem with a small base sizer. before that I was not only utilizing the entire die to fl size, but I was also putting some shims in the shell holder to raise the brass just enough to be able to size the brass with two passes. I still wouldn't size enough with one pass.

My rounds chamber as well as factory loads now that I use the small base sizer. Mine is RCBS, but any make will do.

Good luck,

HBL

Lagavulin · « **Reply #11 on:** August 05, 2003, 05:57:56 PM »

Thanks for all the advice here. Unfortunatly i live one province away from the reloading equipment (yet to buy my own) but will mention all these ideas to my friend and try them out when I load up a bunch more. For now i had to chamber about 100 rounds and pull out the super tight ones before going hunting or to the range.

:toast:

I'll let you know If we get this resolved!

PA-Joe · « **Reply #12 on:** August 06, 2003, 01:29:56 AM »

Longwinters

In genreal I don't hink that sizing dies have anything to do with crimping the bullet. That is usually done by the seating die. So it should be ok to set the sizing die all the way down.

You may want to smoke those tight cases and run them through the chamber to see where they are hanging up. I have a REM Model 7 in stainless and the chamber is at min. size. The fire rounds actually measure less than the reloaded rounds.

longwinters · « **Reply #13 on:** August 06, 2003, 04:37:18 PM »

Yes, I did not make myself clear. I have the space also on my bullet seater die . . . because I thought I read in my RCBS literature that to have the shell holder snug up to the die would be for crimping (which isnt always what you would want). So I have that space on both dies (resizing and bullet seating).