Hornady Custom Grade New Dimension Series I Rifle 2-Die Set 6.5 Creedmoor

[SegmentFault]

Hello all, i'm a new reloader and I have been having issues with sizing 6.5 CM brass down to SAMMI specs. Its probably not a big deal as long as it chambers in my rifle but what's happening is when I full length resize, it doesn't press the base enough to fit properly into a case gauge. I try to seat the die deeper into the press and it will help some but the cam-over action is just too much to correct the base size problem and it will end up pushing my shoulder way too short. I called Hornady about it and they said they don't size to minimum SAMMI specs on these dies which struck me as being really strange. I mean, seriously, why are you going to make a case gauge if the die you use isn't going to be able to have a proper fit?

It just seems like they make the length of their dies too big and the case is not forming properly inside the die.

Anybody have this same issue or do I have a lemon of a die? I like Hornady generally but I didn't like their answer this time.

Thanks,
Paul

 

[spife7980]

Your dies are fine.

Are you expecting the gauge to show you the minimum or maximum saami spec? Because its a range of values, not a single number. Can you tell me where your chamber is in relation to that spec? I doubt it...

Dont size to saami spec unless you like for your brass to fail prematurely.

Size them to fit in your chamber. Ditch the plunk gauge, its for fudds.
Get a headspace comparator so that you can size your brass intelligently.
You dont fire your brass out of a case gauge, you fire it out of your chamber so measure the brass for your chamber instead of an arbitrary spec.

Make a chart like this for your brass to compare fired vs sized measurements to see what’s actually going on.

 

[SegmentFault]

Thank you for your great response. I agree with you. It chambers just fine in my rifle. I checked the length to the shoulder of my fired brass and it stretched an average of it stretched +3 thou so I full length resized the case and allowed it to stay +3 thou longer than new brass. Hopefully, the cases will experience less stretching and still chambers nicely for me.

Thanks!!

 

[supercorndogs]

You want your shoulder bumped .001-.003 from fired length. You are working on having case head separations in a couple firings, because you are bumping the shoulders way too far.

The +/- on sami spec is more than .003. So just because a dies wont reach minimum SAMMI doest mean its not getting the brass inside SAMMI specs. But again we don't care SAMMI specs. We want our brass to fit our chamber, with .001-.003 shoulder clearance.