Is it time for to me to give up on my wildcat?

[Tac-O]

Right. I think ALL commercially made dies are hardened. The reports I've seen of guys saying they don't need to be hardened were from guys who either reamed their own and didn't harden, or had their smith make them and didn't harden them.

I am of the opinion that they should be through hardened to provide more structural strength rather than just surface hardened. That is my opinion though.

 

[Tac-O]

I talked so someone at Manson on the phone this morning, and they're going to get me fixed up with a diagnosis.

I'll be sending them my reamers, some fired and sized brass, and the sizing die. They'll be able to do some measurements on everything and help me figure out if it's the reamers, gunsmithing job, or die blank.

Cheers, and thanks for the suggestion @Jud96

 

[Jud96]

I talked so someone at Manson on the phone this morning, and they're going to get me fixed up with a diagnosis.

I'll be sending them my reamers, some fired and sized brass, and the sizing die. They'll be able to do some measurements on everything and help me figure out if it's the reamers, gunsmithing job, or die blank.

Cheers, and thanks for the suggestion @Jud96

Very good. It's been my experience and opinion to always approach your gunsmith first and if he doesn't help, then the manufacturer. Manson has been great to deal with in my experience and they'll either take care of you or point out your problems and get you off in the right direction.

 

[Mike D Texas]

I talked so someone at Manson on the phone this morning, and they're going to get me fixed up with a diagnosis.

I'll be sending them my reamers, some fired and sized brass, and the sizing die. They'll be able to do some measurements on everything and help me figure out if it's the reamers, gunsmithing job, or die blank.

Cheers, and thanks for the suggestion @Jud96

Manson is a good group of folks. I hope they retain the same business practices as when Dave was in charge.

Ray Gross over there is a wealth of knowledge and a good guy to deal with.

 

[del2les]

I have been screwing around with a 30-284 since mid-2021. I've sunk so many dollars into it and still feel like something is not right. I'm getting tired of spending way too much time trouble shooting and loading instead of just quickly loading some and being able to spend more time practicing in the field.
(edit)
What do you guys think? How many of you have thrown in the towel on wildcats, went to factory ammo or at least simplified your loading and became much happier with your rifles? I might be at the point of saying F it.

Ugh.......Never, ever went to factory ammo, but you weren't overly clear as to what your issue is. Personally, I haven't had many issues with discovering a good load for any of my rifles.

 

[cajun]

No advantage to that case over current factory. Sometimes a wildcat makes no sense especially if you do not have money to waste on it

This right here. Sorry to say it. You can get an 06 to 2800 with a 180. The cartridge is just the delivery vehicle. Of course your pretty far down the rabbit hole now.

 

[Tac-O]

Manson is a good group of folks. I hope they retain the same business practices as when Dave was in charge.

Ray Gross over there is a wealth of knowledge and a good guy to deal with.

I've chatted with Ray a bit and he's who helped me design this one. He's an awesome guy and seems to know his stuff.

 

[Tac-O]

This right here. Sorry to say it. You can get an 06 to 2800 with a 180. The cartridge is just the delivery vehicle. Of course your pretty far down the rabbit hole now.

The intent was to have a shorter '06 with .473 bolt face for my Tikka, and also because I wanted something different in the same bore/capacity range.

 

[VinceMule]

Some of us have been down a rabbit hole like this, and it teaches volumes....especially in humility.

When dies are heat treated, dimensions change!

Neck turning should be assumed as necessary when wildcatting, watch for K & M used.

 

[kyshooter74]

clickers are generally and issue with brass not being sized down enough or a chamber die mismatch.

 

[Taylorbok]

crappy you are having these issues, hopefully Manson can figure you out.
For what it's worth I'm running a non hardened die for my 284 Win-imp, I've got 4 firings on that brass now with no issues.
If you are running a really hot load you will see expansion at the 200 line.
You could have the neck on that Cortina die reamed locally, it's not a critical measurement as long it doesn't touch the neck of case.

 

[VinceMule]

Clickers abound when the New Brass dimension is very close to the chamber dimension! Trying to re-size the brass to smaller than the new brass dimension can be done, but This involves Scraping off brass.

 

[Tac-O]

crappy you are having these issues, hopefully Manson can figure you out.
For what it's worth I'm running a non hardened die for my 284 Win-imp, I've got 4 firings on that brass now with no issues.
If you are running a really hot load you will see expansion at the 200 line.
You could have the neck on that Cortina die reamed locally, it's not a critical measurement as long it doesn't touch the neck of case.

What blank did you use? Did you get it Nitrided or did the smith just ream and polish it?

 

[xsn10s]

I seem to recall that the smith blue printed your Tikka action.