Issue with reloads chambering

[Shinedog]

]I recently reloaded some 450 ammo. Some the bolt closes smooth and some are hard to chamber. I’m not new to loading. All cases measure correct length. I checked in my ammo checker and some stick up above and some fall down flush with the top. I’m using hornady dies. I resized some fired brass and some do not fit all the way flush in the ammo checker and some fall all the way down. Case length is at 1.692
Anyone having issues with hornady dies not sizing all the way down?

[Texas Sheepdawg]

I have that happen too. It’s the tell tale sign that your brass has reached the end of life. There’s an area of the brass down towards the base of the case that the dies don’t “resize”. They just don’t drop down far enough. That base is typically called the case “head”. As you fire and reload, that case head starts to expand. Especially if you’re running your loads hotter than normal. I’ve been looking for a die that will fully resize down into that part of the case head but still haven’t found one.
Unfortunately, I have a little cardboard box labeled “fatties” and I just put my fatties in the box until I can find a solution. I’m not willing to throw them to the recycling jug just yet. You might look it up in your reloading manual about case head failures and it might help shed a little light on the phenomenon.

[Shinedog]

Thanks. Unfortunately these were once fired hornady brass and I’m not really loading hot. I figured they were too fat at the head area because that’s the part that sticks out of my ammo checker. You would think that a once fired factory load would be able to be sized down.

[Hoot]

I have corrected those by chucking an appropriate shellholder in my hobby lathe and facing it down as far as I felt comfortable going. That allows the sizing die to go down over the swollen area a little further. To keep it from getting mixed with my on-modded dies I keep it in my Hornady 450b dies set case when not in use. Seriously compromised cases cant be helped however.

They do make a 284 Winchester small base die but that one die costs as much as my entire Hornady 450b die set originally cost. Link

Hoot

[Al in Mi]

Could try a different brand of sizer, see if that helps.

[Shinedog]

Yes I actually thought about having the top edge of my shell holder ground down on a surface grinder. I talked to a guy at hornady in customer service and he said send the die in with some of my brass and he will either repair it or send me a new one. Also I’m getting a set of rcbs dies in the mean time.

[Shinedog]

Update, issue has been resolved. I got a brand new set of rcbs dies and a #3 rcbs shell holder and then sized the brass that I had previously ran through my Hornady dies and they are perfect.

[Al in Mi]

if you get a chance, measure the diameter at the case mouth on a case sized by each die.

just curious how much of a difference there is.

[2500 HD]

A friend of mine just experienced this. Both his and my Hornady sizing die did not chamber his ammo on once fired brass. Factory new hornady brass would chamber. He bought a Lee resizing die and it sizes to the same size as new factory brass. With the Lee die every round chambered. See what the RCBS dies do but he fixed his issue with an inexpensive Lee die

[Shinedog]

if you get a chance, measure the diameter at the case mouth on a case sized by each die.

just curious how much of a difference there is.

I can check when I get home but I’m pretty sure it was at the base of the brass that was the issue. I’ll measure both.