6.5 PRC Hornady brass wont size correctly. Dent on shoulder. Confused.....

seeing the brass wasn't fired in your gun good chance it was fired in the larger AW2 chamber. you can rent the larger reamer from here just do the search, I don't remember the member that rented them pretty easy fix you can do yourself. also try annealing your brass because your probably getting a lot of spring back when sizing your brass. the Hornady brass is just fine don't be pushed into new brass until you figure out the problems or you likely have the same problem just with expensive brass.
 
Hornady brass is fine for what it's worth. I have tried most of them as well and stick with ADG, Peterson, or Lapua, for my own guns, but I have had pretty good luck with Hornady over the years too. It might not last as long as the big boy brass, but if you already purchased it, maybe keep it?

For what it's worth, here are photos of a seat test that I ran on my friend's Christensen 6.5 PRC the other day using new Hornady Brass and 143 eld-x an RL-23. Groups labeled 3, 4, and F, were 100-yard groups with seat depths differing 5 thousandths. The 4th group with calipers in the photos was from 275 yards as I wanted to check a group with a little more distance.

PS: Please don't bash me for touching a CA…It is my friend's new rifle and I was trying to be nice and develop a load for him. I told him that he won the lottery on that rifle.😂
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Before anyone gets carried away let's make sure we're clear on the facts.

You mentioned if you screw the die down till contact plus a quarter turn or so, the brass will chamber?

When you do this you get a dent in the shoulder? Is the dent there after sizing in the die or after chambering it in the rifle?

Is the rifle factory or custom? If I recall correctly 6.5 and 300 PRC both have a clearance issue at the web and .2 above the web. This could be causing your sticky chambering.

Have you checked that the brass is at the proper trim to length after sizing to be sure your necks aren't jamming?
 
You should trim after sizing because that's typically when they grow. However if you trimmed before sizing I highly doubt they stretched enough to cause any issues. Double check the length after sizing just to be certain.

If those dents come during sizing it is most likely too much lube.

I would proceed by trying to figure out exactly where the contact is happening. Take a case that chambers hard but you can close the bolt on, color the shoulder with a sharpie marker (or layout blue if you have it) and see if contact is made here. If not color the bottom fourth of the case and see if the contact is there.
 
Like so many others here have said, your brass is fine, a little less lube to get rid of the dents and shave a little off your case holder or die. Do just a bit at a time till they chamber nicely. I had to do that with my 6.5 PRC. I took the die to the side of the wheel on a chop saw. Not very sientific but it worked. Problem solved.
 
Yes sir. I have actually been thinking about shaving a little off the top of the shell holder and seeing what happens. Im already touching it with the die and then probably another 1/4 turn after that. Now after listening to everyone to find out im using too much lube as well............Ive been reloading since i was 20 yrs old and im 48 now and just figuring this out..........frustrating.
This makes 40 years of reloading for me and I never had problems until I was on forums about reloading...............I went back to the way I've always done it and fixed what didn't need to be fixed. Example........small base dies..........like what is that (I did find out)...........I reload a lot for AR's and never had any issues when chambering or extracting with AR's of the same cartridge........there is useful info here (not necessarily this post, but the forum itself)..............
 

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