257 weatherby help

[jones]

hey guys, i have a 257 weatherby in a remington 700 action that i just got back from the gunsmith. the barrel is a broughton 26" barrel. My scope finally came in and so i went to the range today to put break in the barrel and to sight the scope in. i had 3 factory weathery rounds and they chambered and shot fine. but when i went to my handloads the bolt would go all the way forward but i wasnt able to close it.

the brass was from my vanguard before i sold it and had the gunsmith build my new rifle. i am using froster seater and sizer dies set up per their directions.

does it seem like i dont have the dies set up right? im kinda at a lost as to why my handloads wouldnt chamber. is there something that i can change so i can still use the brass or am i going to have to buy new brass? If yall can help me out i would really appreciate it. thanks for your time.

[MT4XFore]

It sounds like you might have a match chamber, which means a chamber cut to minimum dimensions. The cure for that is usually buying new brass, in fact I would recommend that anytime you have a new barrel chambered. Innovative Technologies makes a die for belted magnums that re-sizes the brass immediately above the belt. I suspect that would work too.The web site is: Innovative Technologies - Reloading Equipment . I suspect that will solve the problem also. Take your choice, but I would still recommend new brass. Good luck.

[jones]

Ok thanks for ur help. that makes sense I didn't think about that when I did the loads. Me in my dad both have a 7 mag, his is a remington action n mine is a weatherby action. I forgot which way it is but either I can't chamber his rounds n he can chamber mine or he can't chamber mine in I can chamber his. Guess every chamber is diff.

Got another ? for ya, which brass would u recommend. Wetherby, norma or nosler?
Again thanks for help

[MT4XFore]

Norma makes Weatherby, so whichever you can get the cheapest. I'm not familiar with Nosler's brass but I have heard conflicting reports about it.

[sp6x6]

Ask your smith how he reamed your chamber. Most factory brass is short as much as .005.You probably just are not getting shoulder bumped back enough. I had to turn my forester die about 1/4 past touch to get the shoulder back .002. I dont like caming my press like that so I just touched my shell holder to my vertical belt sander, they also make shell holders with varing thickness for this sold in a set of 5. you want all same make of brass and track times sized, if your brass is not shot out it should be fine, I prefer the norma brass / weatherby

[jones]

i played with my sizer die today. i turned it down a little bit then resized the brass and then tired to load it, till i was able to chamber it. i think that might have been the problem, that i didnt have it down far enough.

should i go ahead and resize the rest of my brass this way, or should i do like MT4XFore said and just buy new brass? what is the advantage of using new brass when you get a new rifle?

[MT4XFore]

if you can size them now so that they chamber ok, then go ahead and do that. But like 6x6 said, you should keep track of # of times reloaded. It's always good to start with new brass.