Undersized cases

[Mr.Snerdly]

I got a bunch of cases given to me. They seem to be in good shape but they have been resized with the shoulder being bumped too far back. Some of the worst ones are about .007" under what I checked from factory ammo. This would give quite a bit of headspace. is this something I should be concerned about? .007" is the worst I have measured but there are a lot about .004" under factory. They have also been fired a few times. I don't know how bad they were to begin with but you would think they surely grew a little.

[bigedp51]

How much shorter are these cases from a case fired in your rifle. I have had new factory cases .009 shorter than a GO gauge, that could make them .010 to .011 shorter than chamber headspace.

[J.Baker]

Simple solution is to just load them with your bullets slightly jammed into the lands. This will prevent the case from being pushed forward by the firing pin, and the shoulders will be blown forward accordingly. Same method most use to fire form standard brass for Ackley Improved and other wildcat chambers.

[Nor Cal Mikie]

What Jim said AND, when it comes to resizing, make sure you don't push the shoulders back too far and have that same situation all over again.

[GaCop]

Simple solution is to just load them with your bullets slightly jammed into the lands. This will prevent the case from being pushed forward by the firing pin, and the shoulders will be blown forward accordingly. Same method most use to fire form standard brass for Ackley Improved and other wildcat chambers. :thumb::thumb:

[Mr.Snerdly]

What Jim said AND, when it comes to resizing, make sure you don't push the shoulders back too far and have that same situation all over again. I try to size them just enough so they have just a few thousandths of clearance between the bolt face and cartridge head. This even varies between 2 rifles. I have 2 settings, 1 for the Savage and one for the Ruger 243 and 2 settings for the 223 Axis and Remington. Amazing how much difference there is. Not a great amount on the chamber length but the distance to lands is so much you would almost think something was wrong. The Axis needs the bullets seated out about .070" more to get the same distance to lands as the Remington and the 243 Savage needs about .030" more than the Ruger..