What am I doing wrong with sizing brass?

Hi guys,

I need some help. I've been reloading for about 8 years now. I've run into something that's got me totally frustrated. It's happened a couple of times and I'll be damned if I can figure out what it is.So I just prepped some once fired Norma 7 mag brass. Resized. Trimmed to length and chamfered with VLD trimming bit. Checked length and everything is perfect. Put in my 7 mag Hornady case gauge and fits perfect. I then charged the case and seated a 180 Berger VLD. The problem I have is after seating the bullet the round is not fitting into the case gauge. See pics below. The first 2 pics show the brass only in the case gauge and the last 2 are the completed round. I've had a similar situation recently with a 6.5 Creedmoor. It makes me think I'm not resizing the brass properly. I only full length resize all of my brass. I'm using Redding Master Hunter series dies. I also have a set of Lee and I got the same results. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

View attachment 214779View attachment 214780View attachment 214781View attachment 214782
 
The gauges are good for AR, lever guns etc where you full length resize. Your rifle chamber is best to use for a gauge as it is unique. Must be neck dimensions . It is all you are effecting I believe...
 
I had this similar problem, but with a different caliber. I removed the firing pin assembly from my 700 and ran all the ammo through the chamber. I went through 800 rounds. About 75 rounds would not allow the bolt to close as it should or not at all.

I checked the neck diameters on the the good rounds vs the rounds that would not chamber and found the no chambering rounds were slightly larger that the good rounds. I pulled the bullet and saved the powder and punched out the primer. I then turned the necks only no sizing etc. Put all back together and it was not perfect.

So now after I reload a bunch of rounds I check them all before I go on a hunt.
 
How much pressure are you using to seat the bullet ? Too much and you might bulge the neck slightly. Check the diameter of the Lot of bullets you are using and the I.D. of the neck and O.D. of the sized case and then the O.D. of the loaded case. Might give a clue.
A compressed powder charge upon setting could push the bullet some.
If it chambers, measure COL then chamber a blackened bullet and remove from chamber and measure COL again. Any change ?
Good Luck.
 
Undoubtedly the crimp mechanism is seated wrong and the top of the case is being bumped back, resulting in an oversized ring at the top of the case. In fact, the ring can be seen in your picture. Since you are not using a cannulared bullet, back off of the crimping.
 
For those of you interested and reading this old thread... to crimp with a standard die the beast must be trimmed AND the bullet must have a Canalure or crimping groove for monos, and must be crimped in the groove. No seating depth adjustments to any degree allowed. The Lee factory crimp die breaks all of these rules.
 

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