Reloading help?

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Jun 12, 2013
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Can someone help me out here? I am new to reloading. The left is new brass that I resized and shot once. The right is older brass that has been reloaded 3 times. What is causing this to happen to my brass? Rifle is a M70 Winchester from the 90's that I bought from my uncle 15+ years ago that has been a safe queen it's whole life. Just started shooting it this spring. I am using RCBS dies and the load is 59gr of IMR4831 and 162 eldx's
 

N2TRKYS

WKR
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Apr 17, 2016
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Excessive headspace. Take it to a gunsmith and have them set the barrel back and rechamber. Or put a new barrel on it.
 

GKPrice

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excessive headspace - happens commonly - 6 months ago I had 2 NIB 7mm RM's of a well respected company's have it, 3rd was fine

It happens ......
 

Rolando

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I've seen that from rifles with in-spec headspace but tight bores which caused excessive pressure. How do your primers look?
 
OP
R
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I took it to a retired gunsmith who is a friend of a friend. He didn't have the tool to measure headspace, but he did tape the rear of the case to take up space. On the 3rd piece he felt some resistance. He measured the crushed pieces and came up with about 9 thousandths of space.....
 
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where's that leave him with factory ammo ?

We don't know yet. From what I've read he hasn't tried factory ammo yet. I'm interested in what factory ammo looks like once fired. If factory ammo has a ring after being fired once, then I'd definitely say we have a head space problem.


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Oct 8, 2012
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How are you sizing your brass? Full Length sizing I assume. Setup your die to just bump the shoulder about .001-.002. Run your ram on your press all the way up and screw your die down until it touches the shell holder. Back the die up a little ways and size a case. Keep adjusting the die down until it just makes contact with the shoulder and bumps it. You can color or soot the shoulder to see once it's being touched by the die. I use a headspace tool from hornady to measure the bump.
This method will help reduce your brass stretch and case life. It does seem a bit excessive on the headspace but only way to fix that would be a set back and that IMO isn't worth the trouble with the factory barrel. Is it a push feed or control round feed M70?
 

rayporter

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if you are oversizing 9 thou that will cause your problem.

if you dont have the tools to measure shoulder bump yet you can neck size only with one piece of brass and dont touch the shoulder and see if that piece of brass will hold up for 4 shots of a medium load.

bumping the die against the shell holder may be the problem. there are shell holders [redding] to cure that particular problem.
 

GKPrice

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a SIMPLE and CONCLUSIVE way to tell what is going on would be to fire 3 or 4 FACTORY rounds, see what they look like - My bet is the same ...

I've had case head separation from fatigued brass too, although similar, not the same -
 
OP
R
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Jun 12, 2013
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Well I tried some hornaday 154 set factory ammo and they look the same... I have been full length resizing. I might try to resize with just bumping the neck, but I will also think about a new barrel. I
 
OP
R
Joined
Jun 12, 2013
Messages
676
How are you sizing your brass? Full Length sizing I assume. Setup your die to just bump the shoulder about .001-.002. Run your ram on your press all the way up and screw your die down until it touches the shell holder. Back the die up a little ways and size a case. Keep adjusting the die down until it just makes contact with the shoulder and bumps it. You can color or soot the shoulder to see once it's being touched by the die. I use a headspace tool from hornady to measure the bump.
This method will help reduce your brass stretch and case life. It does seem a bit excessive on the headspace but only way to fix that would be a set back and that IMO isn't worth the trouble with the factory barrel. Is it a push feed or control round feed M70?

I agree it's not worth putting the factory back on. It is a push feed
 
Joined
Oct 8, 2012
Messages
2,122
Well I tried some hornaday 154 set factory ammo and they look the same... I have been full length resizing. I might try to resize with just bumping the neck, but I will also think about a new barrel. I

You could size with a neck die or you can just bump the shoulder with your FL die. Factory belted magnums are setup to headspace off the belt. Once initial fired you can set them up off the shoulder like a regular cartridge.
How does the rifle shoot? Average group size?
 
OP
R
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You could size with a neck die or you can just bump the shoulder with your FL die. Factory belted magnums are setup to headspace off the belt. Once initial fired you can set them up off the shoulder like a regular cartridge.
How does the rifle shoot? Average group size?
Group size has been all over the place. Initially 60.3 grain 3 shot group was great. The next time out 2" group. 59gr has been the most consistent. With a couple of groups around 1". I did have a day where I shot 5 loads where 2 shots were close and the 3rd 1 1/2 - 2"s away.
 
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