My 1x fired brass still chambers easily??

[Shooter_308]

Hey all, little bit of conundrum here. So i shot all 200 cases of the new Lapua brass I ordered a few weeks ago finally and now it's time to reload the once fired brass. Here's the thing. If i take a once fired case and chamber it in the rifle, it goes in with absolutely no resistance.

When i measure it, each case has grown .003-.004". But, when i stick it in a Wilson headspace gauge it still checks out with no issues, according to the gauge it seems to be in SAAMI spec, as far as shoulder goes.

Am I missing something here? I was thinking about getting a Lee Collet die to size the neck and keep my fireform sizing until it has to be changed.

My main question is, what gives? Is this a common thing??

Some info about the gun and load:

R700 AAC (all stock except stock and brake)

Original Load:
New Lapua Brass FL Sized
Fed 210m Primer
42gr Varget
178gr AMAX

Sorry for another noobish post, just trying to get some help from you knowledgeable guys. I have the new brass loading down, but I feel like i'm starting all over with the once fired brass!

 

[rrflyer]

Re: My 1x fired brass still chambers easily??

Pretty common. The cases usually expand and then shrink somewhat immediately after firing.

42gns of varget is a little on the light side.


You should be good to neck size only. Especially if you're wanting to extend your brass life.

 

[Shooter_308]

Re: My 1x fired brass still chambers easily??

Just the type of answer I was looking for, thank you man. Yeah i'm trying not to push my loads too high only because i don't shoot farther than 200 yards at the moment so i can get away with it.

Looks like i have some ordering to do!

 

[TexIndian]

Re: My 1x fired brass still chambers easily??

The spring-back of the brass is at its best when the brass is new. As it gets more firings on it, it won't spring back as much. You can anneal the neck area to revive the springiness there, but the rest of the case continues to work-harden as you continue to shoot it.

 

[Gene Poole]

Re: My 1x fired brass still chambers easily??

I usually get 3 or 4 firings before I get any tight fitting cases and it's the shoulder, not the neck. I have a home-made shoulder only die (just a FL die with the neck cut out to 0.350 and no button) and I've gotten to the point where I automatically run brass through it after 2 firings and I may see one in a hundred that is a little tight in the chamber on the first reloading (no shoulder bump). I use the Lee collet die every time and use the Forester 3-in-1 to chamfer the neck, but it does very little cutting. With no neck deformation in the FL die, and the collet die to resize the neck, there is practically no stretching and very little neck prep (and very little brass loss from trimming).

Edit: I also anneal after every 4th firing.

 

[oldfatguy]

Re: My 1x fired brass still chambers easily??

Yup, agree with the above as far as Lee collet die and 2nd-3rd firing shoulder bump with a body die. Time for me to start annealing too.

OFG

 

[Conqueror]

Re: My 1x fired brass still chambers easily??

I didn't ever bump the shoulders until they started getting hard to chamber.

Now what I do is take a 3-4x case that chambers tightly, measure it, and set a shoulder bump of about .002". Then I just run all my brass through that bump, every firing. If they are still undersize it doesn't really touch them, but eventually they all become uniform and a perfect fit to the chamber.

 

[AZIROC]

Re: My 1x fired brass still chambers easily??

they are fine.

 

[leadbullet]

Re: My 1x fired brass still chambers easily??

i don't see a problem so keep reloading and shooting them.
cheers.