Hi, I have just recently purchased a .416 rigby. I was able to get hold of some once fired Federal nickel plated brass cheep. HOWEVER, when theses cases are resized in my RCBS FL die, they still wont chamber, not at least untill I adjust the die so that it is well over 1 turn past where it bottoms out on the shell holder. Even with this amount of adjustment, the cases are still hard to chamber.

I coloured one case with a non permanent marker and chambered it, and found that there was a ring of marker missing 1/4 of an inch forward of the extracter grove. Upon measuring it showed to be 1-2 thou fatter than the cases of the brands I have that will chamber easily.

Soooooo, I am wondering if I get the local engineer down the road to bore out a piece of round stock 2 thou under the dia of the fat part where the cases are sticking, and have some sort of cone shape at the front would it be possible on a drill press to run these cases in to that "die" and reduce the diameter of the body at all? Do you think this will work at all? I have seen things like this for necking down cases.

Any help that you could give would be greatly appreciated
Cheers
Steve

. . . I coloured one case with a non permanent marker and chambered it, and found that there was a ring of marker missing 1/4 of an inch forward of the extracter grove. Upon measuring it showed to be 1-2 thou fatter than the cases of the brands I have that will chamber easily. Steve
Steve,
Why not just have a die made that will size the area forward of the extractor groove? Thread with standard 7/8"x14 threads, large diameter hole through most of the die body (allows you to knock out any stuck cases with a punch from the top), smaller constriction with the diameter that you want at the bottom of the die to size the case, mount in your press and you're set to go. No need to involve the drill press.:confused:

If it's this one bunch of brass you might be better off simply using brass that will chamber in your rifle. It appears that the brass you obtained once fired was fired in a really large chamber compared to yours. If it can be sized to fit in your rifle even with a tight fit once it's fired it should conform to your chamber and fit from there on out.

The sizing question isn't how many turns passed a certain point you have adjusted it, it's how far the case has entered the die.

Place a case in the press and insert it as high as it will go, then look to see if there isn't a gap between the bottom of the die and the case holder. If there is, turn the die down another eight turn and try it again, continue until the gap disappears while the press is under pressure.

If that doesn't fix the problem, call RCBS.

Hi all thanks for the info. I was thinking of useing the drill press, as I have seen a ste up like that for necking down cases. As for fireforming the cases in my rifle, would I want a warm load or a mild one
Thanks again
Steve

Yep - as above mentioned by Ranger, sounds like you haven't reallly bottomed out between the die and shell holder. May have excess slack in the break-over with the ram and handle. Adjust the die down until there's no break-over with the ram handle and you've bottomed snug against the shell holder while having a case in the die.

As Bob mentioned, the once-fired brass is most probably from a chamber with a larger bore than yours. You may have to resize a few times to eliminate the excess bulge. Also, until you can properly bottom the sizing die, you won't be able to just slightly bump the shoulder edge back to allow smooth chambering.

Be sure to have some lube on the cases while doing all this.

Sometimes, the shell holder or the bottom of the die may need to be shaved a few thoursandths to allow proper resizing. Have had to do this with a set of .308 Win dies from Lee.

I forgot to mention that the die was absolutly botttomed out on the shell holder
Steve

I forgot to mention that the die was absolutly botttomed out on the shell holder
Steve

The question is, Is it bottomed out and cammed over while sizing the brass, or just bottomed out with out brass?

Hi guys I fired one of these hard to chamber cases and it cured the problem totaly.
Thanks for the help
Cheers
Steve

You guys did it again. Good work. This site is amazing!

Amazing? You bet. No smart elic answers or comments. Just good old fashioned helpful information.

Well see, although I have a fair collection of rifles ranging from the tiny .17 Mach IV upto the .416 Rigby, with a .17 rem, a .204 ruger, a .222, a .22-250, a .270 plus the .340 wby mag (not including rimfires) all of which I handload for filling in the gaps, I am still only 24 and relativly new to some of these tricky little things that can happen when reloading.
So as I stated before I am very greatful for the help that was tenderd by the more experienced reloaders here, simple effective no nonsense answers to some of life little problems, which on occasion can stump us all. I am happy to again have things working for me, so I can go on with my load development
Cheers
Steve