308 Issues

My son and I have matching 308's - both Husky 1600 Lightweight's, manufactured a year apart. Both shoot extremely well for 56 yr old lightweight rifles. The load we are using is 44gn's 2206H behind 165gn SMK. In my rifle its doing 2682fps, and in my son's its doing 2753fps - 71 fps faster. Both will group under an inch if we do our job, his will group 3 different loads in less than 1.3moa all to the same point of impact. So no problems with rifles, loads or speed. But on his rifle the bolt is firm to close, sometimes quite firm. No pressure signs or anything different after firing, still groups, still extracts easy. I am using an old sett of CH dies, set to bottom out on the shell holder, and that allows the reloads to chamber easily in my rifle, but tight in his. The shell holder has no identification on it. What I suspect is that his chamber is 1-2thou shorter than mine, and because I have already bottomed out the sizing die on the shell holder there is no more room to allow me to size the cases to chamber easily in his rifle - am I on the right track? And if this is the case, rather than buy a new shell holder, is it ok to spin it up and take 1-2000 off the top of the shell holder so I can size the cases just that much shorter?
Cheers, Husky

You could take it to a G/S and see if he can ream out the lands as that might be the issue? if he loads a round and then unloads with our firing is there any marks on the projectile?

Sounds more like the chamber than the lands. Try another die?

No marks, used the permanent marker and checked, projectile is seated about 1.5mm [dont know what that is in thou] off the land for both rifles.

Does a factory round chamber easily?


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Originally Posted by Gibo

Sounds more like the chamber than the lands. Try another die?

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It reads like he is full length sizing? I originally had that in my post but edited it out once I reread his.

The dies have been loading for several different 308's for probably 30+ years with no problems. The only change being I'm using my shell holder rather than my mates, who gave me the dies about 10 years ago. And other than the tight/firm bolt they work excellent in my son's rifle. I've been shooting mine for 4-5 years with no issues, and he has been away on his OE for a while, so has only started using his this year.

Try another shell holder, $10 so no issue for cost

Yeh, sounds like you have sussed it. Interesting how similar rifles can be different.
To resolve, some just grind a bit off the bottom of the die. I prefer to dick with the shellholder. They are cheap to play with.
What I would do in you case is leave the existing shellholder as it is - it is perfect with your rifle.
Buy another and skim it to suite your son's. You may also find that a new shellholder doesn't have the same issue.
Although shellholders are meant to be made to a standard I have found a lot of variability between brands. The distance to measure is from the shellholder shoulder that sits flat on top of the press ram to the "floor" of the shellholder.

Factory rounds chamber easily, and the dies are at rock bottom, the press handle just goes over centre to full length size them. Had to go that far for them to fit mine.

Cheers guys, quick response on a wet and shitty morning

What sort of press are you using? My press has a rotating head for multiple calibres and has a little flex in it (although you can’t see or feel it). When setting up a FL die I wind it down to touch the shell holder, and then another half turn. If I don’t do this the cases are tight in the chamber like your son’s.

My press is an RCBS O frame type so no flex. Most of my dies are set up so I mostly neck size rather than full length, but for my 308 I had to go back to what I was taught many many years ago - to set up as Tahr has said, down to the shell holder and then a bit more. But just had a thought, was wondering how to get another shell holder in quick time, and I remembered I use a Hornady case trimmer and it came with a shell holder, so have been out to the reloading bench, found it, and checked with my calipers. The original shell holder that I've been using for years is noticeably different in heights etc, except the height from the floor of the holder to the top of the holder. And with my very basic calipers the original holder is 3.3mm from the floor of the holder to the top. The Hornady one is 3.1mm, so theoretically that means I've got .2 mm more that I can wind the die down before it bottoms out on the shell holder, and hopefully set the shoulders back just that little bit extra to solve our problem. Will try that out later when my son comes around, amazing what you can achieve when you put it out there, would've taken me weeks to get my act together.

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Originally Posted by Husky1600

Factory rounds chamber easily, and the dies are at rock bottom, the press handle just goes over centre to full length size them. Had to go that far for them to fit mine.

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@Husky1600

Here's the clue

The press handle goes over centre.

Try what Tahr has suggested to either confirm or eleminate press flex before you do anything else.

Cheers
Pete

Sounds like you have it sorted already with the other holder but if you were to grind anything I would take a bit off of the bottom of the die.

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Originally Posted by zimmer

The distance to measure is from the shellholder shoulder that sits flat on top of the press ram to the "floor" of the shellholder.

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Interesting. I thought it would have been the distance from the top surface of the shell holder to the bottom of the slot for the brass for the minimum/SAAMI standard when the die hits the shell holder. The rest is adjusted from the die position in the top of the press to match the stroke/back off for your chamber.

Small base sizer may help. Bumped into a gent who reloads a lot for himself and friends and mentioned having to over cam/ bottom out etc for 308's only. No idea why