Savage FCP .338 pressure issues

[backcountryguide]

Guys I need some pointers to help confirm my suspicions as to what the hell is going on with this rifle. I started out with fresh Lapua brass and found a good shooting load with 90gr of Retumbo and the 300gr Berger Hybrid. After getting a few fired I neck sized and reloaded the same combo. First group with the reloads was about 2 moa high and extraction was tough. All cases had a good extractor marks and the group size was shit. I stopped there to try and get it figured out. The brass from the first firing measured 2.720 and I failed to catch that before I redloaded them. So do you guys think this is a sizing issue or is the brass to long? Should I be bumping the shoulders back or is neck sizing till the get a little tight acceptable? I know these rifes are known for having tight chambers but I figured I would get away with neck sizing a couple times. What say you?

 

[Sniper260]

may need to full length size every time. se if a full length sized case still does it... it sounds like to me the first shot fire formed to the chamber, then you neck sized and reloaded them and the brass was then nice and fire formed... but what may be happening is the pressure of that round is "fire forming the brass even more to where it is tight in the chamber - where as just full length sizing would fix this issue because it has a small space for the brass to form and not get overly tight in the chamber... just my first guess. hard to really tell with out seeing these things in person and looking at it.

second guess is the neck sizing bushing may be too big? where the neck is expanding and getting too tight in the chamber?

I havent run into that problem yet neck sizing only, so thats just my two guesses. worth ruling out...

 

[backcountryguide]

The more I dig into it I do think a good full length size would cure this.

 

[NICETRY]

For my Savage .338 FCP I full length size and bump the shoulder each time I reload. I use the redding die that does not neck size for re-sizing and I use the bushing neck sizing die. I also trim to length each time also.

 

[High Binder]

Same gun and problem here. You need a head-space gauge first off and ditch the Bergers, they suck in this rifle. Do a search and you'll see people have a very hard time trying to get the seating depth figured out. If you want to stick with the Bergers I have about 900 of them that I am looking to get rid of.

Head-space gauge will will solve the problem you're about to have:

This is Cerosafe being used to pull out broken Lapua brass (I had to do this twice...)