Am I the only one??

[James H]

[ QUOTE ]
POP,

Read my website, and you'll see why your 378 cases expand so much and why they're too tight. I get at least 2 or 3 phone calls a week from shooters having this problem with their 378 Weatherby handloads.

- Innovative

[/ QUOTE ]
So do you make a die for the 378 case?
Don't see it on your website.

James

 

[CatShooter]

[ QUOTE ]
Well you learn something everyday!
I just bought some once fired 378 WBY brass on e-bay. I FLR sized them and they still gave me one hell of a hard time chambering in my 378 WBY Mag.. I resized them again screwing the die down where it actually torqued the press when resized still the same!
Man this sux!

[/ QUOTE ]

Before you spend money, find out where the problem is - it is fairly common for fired cases (belted or not) to not fit a new gun after being full length sized... because sizing dies do vary and so do chambers.

After FL sizing, when you chambered a case, did it go in smoothly, and them get tough just before closing - if so, it's the length to the shoulder that's too long (aka headspace).

If it got tougher as you pushed the bolt forwards, then the body dia is larger then the chamber.

Before spending money on a new die that might not solve the problem, find out - you might take a "Sharpie" pen and blacken the FL sized case all over, and then chamber it a few times, and see when the ink is being pushed off. Then get the tool that you need.

.

 

[Innovative]

[ QUOTE ]

So do you make a die for the 378 case?
Don't see it on your website.

James

[/ QUOTE ]

James,
Our Belted Magnum Collet Resizing Die is a universal die that works for ALL of the belted calibers except the .378 Weatherby and the old .224 Weatherby.

However, the problem that you described is explained on our website in great detail, and after reading it . . . . I'll bet that you can now recognize the part of your case that's making it a tight fit. It's the case diameter at the pressure ring (jusy above the belt). Reloading belted magnums really is different from reloading the non-belted calibers. Take a few measurements with a set of calipers, and compare the pressue ring diameter to a factory round. You'll clearly see a huge difference after reloading a case 2 or 3 times.

Sorry, I can't aford to build a special die just for the 378 Weatherby. I know that this brass is super expensive, and a lot of shooters want one, but there just aren't enough shooters out there to make it an affordable project for a small outfit like mine.

- Innovative

 

[Jimm]

I thought you you lived in Crete ? Greece ? by now .

I remember that is where you said you were going ( cuz you're wife had kin there ) and that is why you had to sell all those guns back when .

 

[Innovative]

What the heck was that all about ???

 

[Fotis]

[ QUOTE ]
I thought you you lived in Crete ? Greece ? by now .

I remember that is where you said you were going ( cuz you're wife had kin there ) and that is why you had to sell all those guns back when .

[/ QUOTE ]

We both have kin there (actually we have no family here) however we have not decided on it 100% yet.

 

[Fotis]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Well you learn something everyday!
I just bought some once fired 378 WBY brass on e-bay. I FLR sized them and they still gave me one hell of a hard time chambering in my 378 WBY Mag.. I resized them again screwing the die down where it actually torqued the press when resized still the same!
Man this sux!

[/ QUOTE ]

Before you spend money, find out where the problem is - it is fairly common for fired cases (belted or not) to not fit a new gun after being full length sized... because sizing dies do vary and so do chambers.

After FL sizing, when you chambered a case, did it go in smoothly, and them get tough just before closing - if so, it's the length to the shoulder that's too long (aka headspace).

If it got tougher as you pushed the bolt forwards, then the body dia is larger then the chamber.

Before spending money on a new die that might not solve the problem, find out - you might take a "Sharpie" pen and blacken the FL sized case all over, and then chamber it a few times, and see when the ink is being pushed off. Then get the tool that you need.

.

[/ QUOTE ]

Well like goodgrouper said (more or less) RCBS SUX!

I bought a set of Forster dies in 378. FLR'ed the brass and they chamber like butter.

FLR'ed the rest (once fired in another 378) with the RCBS die and again would not chamber. FLR'ed them again with the Forster dies and voila!!!! Like virgin brass feeding!

NO more RC..BS for me. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/confused.gif

 

[Buffalobob]

This thread actually turned out to be very useful.

I was getting my 240 Wby brass ready for reloading. It had seen some pretty fierce pressures (at least as bad as what Wildcat does and then some). I deprimed, neck sized, trimmed, cleaned the primer pockets and then tumbled it. After that, I took and ran each empty case through the action and about half of them were so big that I had to force the bolt down and closed. So I sorted out the ones that were just fine and took the ones that were too big and full length sized them in a RCBS die. They were still too big. So I got out my calipers and started measuring stuff. Of course my calipers are so old they were first used by Copernicus and are not so accurate. Nonetheless, it was clear that the belt diameter was too large and the case in front of the belt was too large and maybe the shoulder was too far forward. So after about an hour of trying to measure the distance from the shellholder base to the edge of the belt groove inside the die I gave that up as a useless effort.

This particular thread came to my mind and so I pondered how a machinist would cut a few thou off the bottom of a die and decided that didn't matter what a machinist would do because I would just have to make do with what I had at hand. So I went out to the garage and started looking around. My belt sander caught my attention and the rusty gears in my feeble mind started cranking around and pretty soon I had the sander plugged in and turned up side down and was just sanding the fool off the bottom of the die. So when my experienced eyeball said I had removed a few thou I rinsed it out and slapped it in the press and what do you know, but it sized those cases right down to where you would not even know a case was in the chamber when you closed the bolt. Of course the excessive pressures the cases had seen caused the primer pockets to enlarge and so I lost 6 out of the 40 but I still was 34 to the good.

 

[Jimm]

And just how bad were those primer pockets BB ? Would the primer stay in at all ? Could you push them in with your thumb ?

Do you know of or have tucked away a thread about primer pockets that somewhere in the thread related the fact that some famous shooter ( Lones Wigger ? ) would show up at matches with the loaded rounds bullet down ?

Yup ! so the primer wouldn't fall out .

Jim B.

 

[royinidaho]

Yo jimm,

Just to let you know that I know someone of importance.

My neighbor and fellow shooter out shot the famous Lones Wigger at the Canadian National Championships. Cool, huh! /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif

That must make me impotent too. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif

BTW, I haven't found that seating primers by thumb to be detrimental to accuracy in any way, so far

 

[Jimm]

[ QUOTE ]
That must make me impotent too.



[/ QUOTE ]

That is probably a good thing . /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif

This brings to mind another thing regarding pressure . With the custom actions being built today with tighter than factory dimensions and considering the enlarged bolt diameters and lugs as well as single shot frames and even integral bases as an additional stiffener it seems that brass as we know it is the limiting factor. Even the best of brass, such as Lapua or RWS .

What about a new alloy specifically designed for reloaders that want to push the limits hard on velocity with all these new slow burning powders and others soon to come .

Surely there will be some such improvements at some point down the road , just thinking it would be great if that point was now .

Jim B

 

[jwp475]

[ QUOTE ]


That must make me impotent too. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif



[/ QUOTE ]



Sorry about that.................. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/shocked.gif

 

[jb1000br]

taking 10 thou off the bottom of REDDING 223AI dies today...won't touch the shoulder...

JB

 

[CatShooter]

[ QUOTE ]
I can honestly say I have NEVER, EVER had this problem with RCBS dies.

-

The reason is... I haven't bought a set of RCBS does in over 25 years.


And it is because RCBS is now a shadow of the company they were in years past. Now, most products are outsourced - presses are made in China, dies and other parts are made by job shops around the country... RCBS is a group of offices and a warehouse for shipping. The customer service folks are no longer shooters, and they answer your questions from a printed F.A.Q. sheet.

The RCBS of today is living on the Reputation of a company that died many years ago.

[/ QUOTE ]

-

Well...

I broke my own rule, and got bit in the *** for it!

I bought a Remington 700 CDL Limited, in 17 Fireball.

No one had loading dies at the time, and RCBS was the first out with them, and Redding was still 8 weeks away.

Making cases for the 17 Fireball from .223 requires a bunch of forming dies (which I have) but requires a 17 FireBall full length sizer as the last step.

So I gave in, and ordered the RCBS set of dies... I mean it's just an FL die, right?


... and the Godamned FL sizer has too much headspace, and the cases won't chamber, cuz they are now too long to the shoulder!

Plus the neck/shoulder junction is "rounded" like a Weatherby... WHAT???

They are on the way back to Midway, and new Redding dies are on the way.

I got the message this time - no more RCBS dies.

.