Hunting Washington Forum

Equipment & Gear => Guns and Ammo => Topic started by: steelyonfly on January 15, 2011, 03:15:04 PM

Title: Short Case Problem
Post by: steelyonfly on January 15, 2011, 03:15:04 PM: So far, I have always trimmed my cases to the standard "Trim to Length." I just pulled 20 338WM cases that were fired before and cleaned in a tumbler. I only necked sized the cases this time before preparing to trim. The trim to length is 2.490" for a 338WM. I found 10 of the cases, before trimming, to be between 2.484" to 2.488". Two more were 2.489" which I'll still reload.

All of the cases were: fire formed to my chamber, full length resized in the previous loading, fired in my rifle and not someone elses, and they are all Win cases I purchased new. None of these particular cases have been loaded more than three times. I've noticed this shortening of my cases in other calibers I reload even when they were only neck sized in a prior loading.

I would say that about 10-20% of the cases I have are under the trim to length after firing. This time was 50%.

Is it unusual to have cases shorten so much and so often? Is there something to check in my rifle or in my reloading method?
Title: Re: Short Case Problem
Post by: wsmnut on January 15, 2011, 03:29:57 PM: I have seen this a few times too. Take a look at your lubrication process. Might be that the necks aren't lubed enough and when the resizer ball goes down, it's shoving the neck down a few thousandths into the shoulder. Also check the die set up again. I had a lock ring creep on me once that really messed up my program, and a bunch of brass!
Normally brass grows in length after firing.

Good Luck!

wsmnut
Title: Re: Short Case Problem
Post by: steelyonfly on January 15, 2011, 04:13:09 PM: wsmnut,

I just checked into what you suggested. It sounded like you could be right because Lee Collet die instructions suggest screwing in the die 2 full turns after touching the shell holder if you use a press that toggles over. I think my RCBS Rock Chucker does this.

The only thing I find is that many of my cases are short before any resizing has been done. The neck resizing step tends to lengthen the case by .001" to .002" - using my Lee Collet Neck Sizing die set as above. Full length resizing lengthens cases by .003" - .004" - using my Redding Full Length Sizing die and set per Redding's instructions.

I think that I'm going to mark a few of my cases with their exact length, shoot them and then check the case lengths to see how they've changed. I think this is about all I can do.

Any other ideas? Anyone?
Title: Re: Short Case Problem
Post by: steelyonfly on January 15, 2011, 04:14:33 PM: Jkeen,

I noticed this on some of the brand new cases, as well, but all of mine have been fire formed now.
Title: Re: Short Case Problem
Post by: demontang on January 15, 2011, 05:24:27 PM: I've noticed my brass only grows when I size the brass. Neck sizing doesn't seem to stretch the case at all and firing them shouldn't stretch them much unless you are at Max loads.
Title: Re: Short Case Problem
Post by: wadu1 on January 17, 2011, 04:45:41 AM: I have noticed that Winchester (New) cases run on the short side. Remington Nickel does not strech as much and I get more reloads out of them.