SmallCaliberCentral

Made a post some time ago about a problem I have been having with an SPS in 17 fireball. The problem once once I fired brass I had one H@$L of a time getting cases to chamber. I messed around with my sizing dies for days in an attempt to remedy the problem and came up with a solution that did not completely solve the problem but made it much better. Last night when sizing more fireball brass it occured to me that the shell holder appears to be messed up!?! There were times when I had a very hard time getting a case into the shell holder and really thought nothing of it, so, just for laughs, I swapped out the problem one with a different one and what do you know.......cases that fit to perfection! So now the task in front of me is to pull the decap unit out of the die and resize about 300 cases that don't fit right. I thought the gun had a serious problem of some sort and all along it was the cheapest part of everyone's reloading equiptment.....go figure!

I am just curious if any one else had experienced this type of problem before?

Yep with a 300WSM ...........I couldn't bump the shoulder with the rcbs FL die. Had to use a piece of .014 brass shim stock between the case and the shell holder to get the shoulder bump and get the case to chamber in the rifle a Winchester model 70. The 300 WSM is a very pressure/load sensestive cartridge.................I personaly prefer a 300 win mag or 300 wby mag over the 300 wsm.
Later and have a Happy Easter.
Ray P

Thanks ray! I see I am not alone then. I am so glad I figured this out. I was on the verge of junking the gun.....now I have the grissly task of resizing 400+ 17 RFB cases!?! I am thinking the gun might shoot a little better now that there is no pressure being put on the action needlessly. Happy bunny day!

A guy at work says he is having similar problems with a 25wssm. So should I recomend he buy a new shell holder? But I thought also that he may have a neck die improperly marked as a FL die. I will let him know.

It had me stumped for 15 long months! For a $5 bill.....what have you got to loose? The die swap would not cause this type of issue I wouldn't think anyway. Give it a shot and let me know if it works out.

Fireball, I had the same problem years ago with a RCBS sizer. I simply removed a small amount from the bottom of the sizer until it did what it was supposed to do. They had chambered the die too deep. Taking material off the top of the shell holder did nothing toward solving the problem. The die was for a 220 swift.

Interesting for sure but at this poiint I have things working so I am just going with this. Any further issue....might give that a try. Thank you for the tip!