Stiff bolt closing

[psharon97]

For the last couple of years myself and my dad have been fighting with stiff bolt closing on several different rifles from different calibers and different makes. My dad read an article stating that when you buy new dies, you should buy new shelholders because the die companies design their sizing dies to match to that generation shell holder. My dad had no intention to purchasing new shellholders, nor did he want to take his current shell holders to the bench grinder.

Both him and me have various neck sizing dies for different calibers we purchased to try and alleviate the problem. He decided to instead of purchasing the a new die and shellholder and die, to take a neck sizing die and shave the bottom of the die with the bench grinder. He would shave off a few hundredths of an inch off and try and chamber the case in the rifle. Chambering the round got a little easier. He kept trimming a few hundredths of an inch until the case felt like a brand new case. I'll try and get some pictures the next time I have to do this, or just take some pictures of the bottom of the die.

Doing this has allowed my brass to finally chamber easier.

[LHitchcox]

Neck sizing will allow the brass to slowly grow. A full length sizer should be used occasionally to bring the brass back to specification. I normally do not use a dedicated neck sizer. I simply adjust my full length sizer to set the shoulder back just enough to close the bolt easily. On one rifle I have needed to grind about .003 off the shell holder to get the brass to chamber. That was on a friend's .243 WSSM. On my son's .308 tactical rifle I had to use a small base sizer to get once fired military brass to chamber. That brass went through a machine gun with an oversize chamber.