Swelling brass

[Walleye Steve]

Im
Having problems resizing.270 wsm brass after shooting. This has been going on for awhile now, fired brass after resizing will not fit into receiver. I bought another set of dies thinking I had a bad set, same issue. Now trying to just resize neck with standard resizing die and it is better but still stiff. Ive resorted to throwing fired brass out and loading new when I need loads. Any ideas?

 

[P7M13]

Brass headstamp?
Your brass is getting a woody in anticipation of losing its load....

 

[dok7mm]

Can you take some pictures of some resized brass you have tried to chamber?

Sounds like over-pressure, what bullet and what powder & charge are you using? Also some measurements right above the web on fired vs. new brass.

 

[Varmint Hunter]

My guess would be that your sizer die is not turned down far enough. If it is in firm contact with the ram than you may need to have a few thousandths taken off the die or the shell holder.
Are you measuring the headspace?

 

[ShtrRdy]

My guess would be that your sizer die is not turned down far enough. If it is in firm contact with the ram than you may need to have a few thousandths taken off the die or the shell holder.
Are you measuring the headspace?

This is what I'm thinking too. You'll need to take some case base to shoulder measurements to compare unfired to fired. You can use a pistol case like a 40 S&W to get the relative measurement.

 

[Walleye Steve]

My guess would be that your sizer die is not turned down far enough. If it is in firm contact with the ram than you may need to have a few thousandths taken off the die or the shell holder.
Are you measuring the headspace?

Ive thought about shaving one of the dies to see if that cures problem . It's been frustrating. Pressure is not the problem as far as I can tell

 

[Varmint Hunter]

It would be helpful if you could determine if the case shoulders are being pushed back a few thousandths. When a case is initially pushed into a FL die it often causes the shoulders to move FOWARD until the die actually sets them back. Occasionally you hear about a situation where the die just falls short of pushing the shoulder back even when the die is set to firmly contact the shell holder when the ram is in its highest position.

If you determine this to be the case then you can just have the shell holder milled or ground down a few thousandths so that the die can be adjusted a bit lower. I believe that Redding has a set of shell holders which may allow you to do the same thing. Someone else can chime in on that.

 

[Walleye Steve]

It would be helpful if you could determine if the case shoulders are being pushed back a few thousandths. When a case is initially pushed into a FL die it often causes the shoulders to move FOWARD until the die actually sets them back. Occasionally you hear about a situation where the die just falls short of pushing the shoulder back even when the die is set to firmly contact the shell holder when the ram is in its highest position.

If you determine this to be the case then you can just have the shell holder milled or ground down a few thousandths so that the die can be adjusted a bit lower. I believe that Redding has a set of shell holders which may allow you to do the same thing. Someone else can chime in on that.

Thank you for that. I have two sets of dies and will take one to local machine shop and have them take 5,000 off to start with and go from there. I've been using Winchester brass and going to switch to nosler and see if perhaps that will help any. Thank you

 

[Dosh]

Steve, were they hard to extract? Have you checked the trim length?

 

[Varmint Hunter]

FL dies are hardened. It would be easier to mill down the shell holder. Just sayin'.

 

[Walleye Steve]

FL dies are hardened. It would be easier to mill down the shell holder. Just sayin'.

Good to know. Thank you

 

[338 dude]

It would be helpful if you could determine if the case shoulders are being pushed back a few thousandths. When a case is initially pushed into a FL die it often causes the shoulders to move FOWARD until the die actually sets them back. Occasionally you hear about a situation where the die just falls short of pushing the shoulder back even when the die is set to firmly contact the shell holder when the ram is in its highest position.

If you determine this to be the case then you can just have the shell holder milled or ground down a few thousandths so that the die can be adjusted a bit lower. I believe that Redding has a set of shell holders which may allow you to do the same thing. Someone else can chime in on that.

Redding competition shell holders will give you a longer case and less sizing

 

[johnnyk]

What is the rifle? I ask because, just last night, I was resizing some 270 Win brass and a box (20rds) of R P that someone gave me would not resize without getting stuck. I didn't get any stuck but I could tell if I pushed it they would have.
I was measuring all the brass off the datum line and these were at least .010" longer than any of the other brass I was processing. I tried several, lubing the inside of the necks and the case body but to no avail. As I set there pondering what to do I was spinning the case body in my fingers and could feel ridges, not out of round but several ridges that ran the length of the body. Neck and shoulder felt fine. Made me think the cases had been stretched during the firing/extraction process. Not to offend anyone but I figured a Browning BAR shooter may have given them to me. Not sure though.
Either way, I tossed them and kept on prep'n.

 

[sedancowboy]

If you have a set of feeler gauges you can do a quick test by making sure the shell holder is contacting the die and then lower the ram and put a feeler gauge inbetween the shell holder and case and see if it helps. if so you can use some fine emery cloth and a flat surface and take some off the top of the shell holder. if you use a circular motion or a figure 8 motion and it will stay even. You can measure your progress with calipers.