What should my next steps be?

[Don Fischer]

Much appreciated, cahunter

I've sourced the problem to the sizing die - the manual says to screw it down until it touches the shell holder, but that didn't provide enough bump. I turned the die an additional 1/16 turn and my cases are fitting much better and the bolt is closing as expected.

I'm planning to load up more of the 54 gr at the current seating depth, then have a few with seating depth adjusted each way.

Thanks for the input and responses everyone, always good to touch base and get some different opinions

cahunter. Maybe you should read his post again. His words, "manual say's screw it down till it touch's the shell holder..." I've never seen directions like that. Every set I've ever seen say's that and then screw down , either another 1/8 or 1/4 turn more. Guessing he read the direction's wrong! That is a newbe mistake, why should the die go down farther than the shell holder? Spring in the press!

Now why pop up all of a sudden? Well he actually wasn't FL sizing. You neck size with an FL die and the first time, maybe first two time's the case's will chamber, Then do the same thing again and the case wont chamber. Reason being the case has finally filled out the case to capacity not allowing it to chamber again. When early on I neck Sized with an FL die about every third time I had to FL size again to get the case to chamber. That's probably what he got. But if you set the FL die up to partial size or bump the shoulder, what happens is every time the die is put through the die again it get's re-size completely to where you originally set it. You cannot bump the shoulder without bumping the entire case. If you could there would be a donut around the body/neck junction that would not allow the case to chamber!

 

[COElkChaser]

 

[COElkChaser]

Don, just because you haven't seen it doesn't mean it isn't true.

 

[cahunter805]

cahunter. Maybe you should read his post again. His words, "manual say's screw it down till it touch's the shell holder..." I've never seen directions like that. Every set I've ever seen say's that and then screw down , either another 1/8 or 1/4 turn more. Guessing he read the direction's wrong! That is a newbe mistake, why should the die go down farther than the shell holder? Spring in the press!

Now why pop up all of a sudden? Well he actually wasn't FL sizing. You neck size with an FL die and the first time, maybe first two time's the case's will chamber, Then do the same thing again and the case wont chamber. Reason being the case has finally filled out the case to capacity not allowing it to chamber again. When early on I neck Sized with an FL die about every third time I had to FL size again to get the case to chamber. That's probably what he got. But if you set the FL die up to partial size or bump the shoulder, what happens is every time the die is put through the die again it get's re-size completely to where you originally set it. You cannot bump the shoulder without bumping the entire case. If you could there would be a donut around the body/neck junction that would not allow the case to chamber!

He was actually sizing once fired brass and apparently he did read the directions but the die needed to be a little bit deeper in the press to get him the correct bump for HIS chamber. Also note the directions talk about excessive headspace and moving the die UP as in away from the shell holder like I originally posted.

COElk- Just continue your load workup and let’s see some group pictures. Also if you want to step up to some much better dies I’d recommend some Redding Comp dies or Forster dies.

 

[COElkChaser]

Measuring out powder now, good times!

Thanks for the recommendation on dies

 

[Don Fischer]

Don, just because you haven't seen it doesn't mean it isn't true.

I've never seen the Hornday dies before. Do it that way and the press springs a bit and what happened to him will maybe happen.

Nosler say's what I have always read elsewhere. "Turn the die down into the press until the bottom of the die is in full contact with the top of the shell holder. Lower the ram and turn the die down another quarter turn". That is the 5th edition

Speer #14 "With the ram at the top, screw the sizing die until it touch's the shell holder. Release the ram slightly and tighten the die one quarter turn more".

Speer #10. Says pretty much the same thing as #14

As I recall, the same direction's come with RCBS, Lyman, and Redding dies. perhaps the Hornady press has been designed so it won't spring at all. Maybe that bushing has something to do with it.

Now I read in the Sierra manual to adjust the die down to the shell holder then back it out, I think it was 7/8 turn. Run a case through and if it chamber's hard, turn the die down a bit and try again. They are talking about what is known as bumping the shoulder of more properly partial sizing in making the case fit the chamber. They do acknowledge that the case will fit the chamber it was fired in but maybe not another, partial sizing. By going to the shell holder and stopping, it would work but only if the press doesn't spring at all, most do to some degree. That is what the extra 1/4 turn is for and the case you get from it will fit in every rifle using that cartridge.

 

[Don Fischer]

This is strange, Just checked on the RCBS web site and they claim to adjust their dies as I said above. About Redding dies, I have one maybe two set's. Beautifully made die's. I only have one or two set's as they are to expensive for me! And what I've found out is they really don't do anything I need better than the other set's I have. I have Redding, RCBS, Lyman, Lee and Herter.

 

[cahunter805]

To each their own! I prefer other methods but whatever works for someone else is fine. Also the worst runout I’ve ever seen was from RCBS dies and a Lyman set like .015 runout.