Help with brass sizing

[stangfish]

all you have to do is measure and just back the die out a bit, and everything goes back to normal.

I am not disagreeing that he could possibly fix his problem by removing material off the base of the die.
If it is bumping the shoulder of the lapua brass to -.002 with the current setup, then the die is doing its job the way it is. And if he can leave the die set in one place for his rifle for both brands of brass in my opinion he is better off rather than tuning the die for each headstamp.

Taking .002 to .005 off the die is easy enough but possibly unnecessary. Adding steps to my reloading process is something I try to avoid.

So, my question is, do you fix the problem with the privi brass(or at least do a test on one piece), or do you forgo any experimentation and mod the dies. Im my mind you are doing that to over size the brass trying to get it to spring back to where you want it and hope for it to be somewhat consistent at best.

Your posts have helped me in the past and your experience has helped many others as well. I just asked a few more questions and took a different slant. I am not saying modifying the die is wrong I am just saying do some tests and find out why. I may be overthinking it, but that is the approach I would take. The barrel nut in my opinion has made removing material from the base of a die obsolete. If there is a disagrement there it was not intentional on my part.

[n10sivern]

Well I'm just going to hold on to the brass til later and get new brass for the rifle I'm building. Just not worth all of this for a couple hundred pieces of brass. If anything I may make a shim to put beneath the brass and resize it, but it's going in my brass bin for storage for now.

[CharlieNC]

For understanding, it sounds like (this is as much question as observation):
1. The headspace for the Mauser is quite a bit longer than the Savage
2. Headspace on the Savage is tight
3. Fired Lapua brass fits fine without sizing, and the die is probably only sizing the neck
4. Since the die is not working for the long head space Privi brass, whenever the Lapua stretches more the die probably will no longer size it enough either.

So how did you set the headspace on the Savage? Maybe the answer is to increase it slightly??

[stangfish]

My opinion for 1 and 2 is the same. For 3 the OP stated that he bumped the lapua shoulder back .002 loose in the chamber.

Number 4


Since the die is not working for the long head space Privi brass, whenever the Lapua stretches more the die probably will no longer size it enough either.


I have found that if the brass is in reloadable condition that spring back is minimal. There may be some people that size hardened brass by adjusting the die to account for springback of the shoulder but I have never known anyone or seen anything written that advocates this. Accuracy suffers. Unequal neck tension and inconsistent shoulder length is a biproduct of such practice as well as split necks etc....

There is always a die or chamber that missed inspection and was shipped out that may not be in spec. Due to the success of the lapua sizing I do not see this as the case here. The experiment of annealing one or two pieces of brass will answer all of the questions though.

[n10sivern]

Headspace was set with a go/no go gauge. It is a match chamber. Headspace was set with very little tolerance between go and no go (0.002") per jim briggs recommendation. My dies are set up to bump the shoulder back 0.002" from fired lapua brass. My dies size any brass lapua or cheap stuff fired from my savage without any problems. If anything I need to check the headspace on military rifles. I think the issue is the brass is blown out from the opened chamber of the military rifles. They may have just been stretched beyond what my dies will size without modifying the dies, or the brass is spring back too much after sizing and need to be annealed. Either way it is a moot point as I'm just getting new brass.

[CharlieNC]

How does not being able to size the Privi to spec reconcile with the ability to size brass either up or down to form a different caliber? Does this perhaps relate to the Privi not being sizeable due to being overworked and therefore needing annealing? I'm still learning about this brass stuff!

[pitsnipe]

Coffee table, sandpaper of various grit, acetone. Sounds like a machine shop to me.

Or a mess the little lady will KILL me for makin!!!
back to learnin from you guys

[davemuzz]

How does not being able to size the Privi to spec reconcile with the ability to size brass either up or down to form a different caliber? Does this perhaps relate to the Privi not being sizeable due to being overworked and therefore needing annealing? I'm still learning about this brass stuff!

Well.....Yeah....Kind of. If his sizing die is set to size the datum line of his brass (the datum line is the line half-way between the bottom of the neck, and the shoulder---well....kind of) to provide a clearance of a "selected rifle" of 2-thousands of an inch.....and then he attempts to size a piece of brass that is work-hardened, and for this example let's assume this brass piece is 6-thousands over (longer) than the sizer die is set for. So, the brass is sized, and pressure is applied and the user "feels" the brass being re-sized. However, perhaps what has actually happened is the piece of brass was pressed down to the die setting of the 2-thousands less than the "selected rifle" chamber setting, but when the brass was removed it "sprang" back to "even" or perhaps +1-thousands more (longer) than the selected rifle chamber setting. Therefore, when the attempt was made to chamber this now re-sized brass, it still will not fit because it is not yet to size.

See?

At times if the brass is too overworked it will simply crumple or crush during the resizing stage.

Dave