doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion Classic & Custom Single Barreled Sporting Rifles @ doublegunshop.com Reloading problem

I have neck sized cartridges for bolt action rifles and low pressure single shot rifles but had chambering issues with double rifles and those singleshot rifles firing high pressure loads.

earlyriser the OP is reloading for a Ruger M77 Mk II in 6 m/m Remington. That's a bolt action, so he shouldn't have any problems with chambering neck sized shells that had already been fire formed to his chamber.

The chambering issues you had in your double rifles and single shots most likely stems from the fact that they don't have the camming force a bolt action rifle does when chambering a round.

In situations like that, sometimes you can get some of the benefits of neck sizing by adjusting full length sizing dies to just short of kissing the shoulder, so there is no shoulder set-back, and are only partially sizing the case body. It's commonly advised to always full length resize cases for dangerous game hunting, because you don't want any chambering issues when a big grizzly bear is rushing to feed on you.

851c,
While it is easy to confuse the two, Keith's "fix" is likely correct with one small exception (from me). Neck sizing is performed with a die that is dimensioned to only size the neck area and not the body. Partial sizing is often confused with neck sizing, indeed many of us often speak of partial sizing as if it is neck sizing. I habitually partially size most of my handloads, especially those in rimmed or belted cases. This is performed with full length sizing dies, adjusted so as to fully resize the neck only and not set the shoulder back. In this process the shoulder's diameter is slightly reduced, while not measurably setting it back. The purpose of this is to prevent or significantly reduce case loss by head separation through stretching (note: improperly adjusting many neck sizing dies can also result in setting the neck back). In opposition to the advice to always full length resize cases for dangerous game hunting, test chambering all cartridges intended for hunting dangerous game (whether factory, handloaded in new cases, or handloaded in fired cases) will avoid chambering issues.
It might benefit the discussion to describe how partial sizing is accomplished. One method is to smoke (or mark with felt tip pen) the neck and shoulder of a case that was fired in the rifle and slowly adjust the die downward until the neck is fully sized and the shoulder is just "kissed" (smoke barely touched).The smoke on the body/shoulder will usually be removed, indicating a reduction of diameter, there.
If this is confusing, I apologize in advance.
Mike

In some instances if I have a die set with larger body, but same size neck I use that die to neck size. It does the job great without contacting the body of the case. But I also do as mentioned and back my die off one full turn to size the neck, and it doesn't touch the body usually. I've smoked cases to check this, and one turn works for most cases to only neck size.

Mike is right, and I should have mentioned that you can partial neck size or even partial size body and neck with a full length sizing die. But a neck sizing die is just that.

I've been reloading my 6 m/m Rem. using the same old C&H .244 Remington Neck sizing dies my dad used. Most here know they are one and the same case, and only the factory rifling twist was different. I never owned a 6 m/m full length sizing die, and never needed one. I've reloaded my brass to the point where I started to see necks cracking, and discarded it, but it still never needed the body sized. If I ever bought some used brass that had been fired in a different rifle, it's entirely possible it wouldn't chamber well in my rifle after neck sizing only.

The one complete head separation I had with a .22-250 that blinded me for roughly half an hour happened after I reloaded some very used brass that had been fired in a different rifle which had less headspace. I was in my 20's and had bought a .22-250 on a VZ 24 Mauser action. A friend gave me his old .22-250 brass and a set of dies. I had set up the sizing dies to just kiss the shoulder of that old brass, but didn't know it was still short for the chamber of my new gun. It showed bad primer flattening on the first two shots which alarmed me... but not enough to quit and find out why. I decided to fire one more, and all hell broke loose, and it felt like Mike Tyson punched me in both eyes. In an instant, I was totally blind.

I learned in a big hurry that correct sizing and properly setting up dies is super critical. Neither me or the rifle suffered permanent damage, but if you'd seen the brass and burned powder particles embedded around my eyes, you'd know I was extremely lucky. The shock of the blast must have shut down my optic nerves. I also later learned that Paul Mauser had redesigned the 98 Mauser bolt shroud to deflect gasses around a shooters eyes in the event of a rupture. He did good!