.243 Win Reloading Question

[delta-419]

Bought some 1x fired mixed brass on the net. Made up about 300 rounds and decided maybe I needed to check the fit in my Sako. THEY DON'T FIT!
Reality is, I have to demil this stuff. I'm useing Lee dies, can I take out the decapper pin and resize the case without punching out the primer. Seems like I may have failed to resize the case all the way to the base, Dumb me. Any suggestions?

 

[sourdough44]

I've done similar stuff. Yes you could pull a few & remover the decapper & try to resize again. I recently bought a Hornady 'cam' type bullet puller, that attaches in a die hole. It seems a better way to pull bullets.

Do you have another 243? I did buy some once fired 22-250 brass from a guy, they resized fine. For the most part I buy new brass for relatively low count bigame rifles. It eliminates many problems with just a little more $$ spent. For handgun used is fine. That sure is a lot of rounds before testing? Let's not do that again.

 

[JMusic]

If your not getting rifling marks on the bullet you'll have to pull and trim. Check AOL befor you blame the case. Just an FYI.

 

[delta-419]

JMusic checked the AOL and its OK at 2.62". I think the problem is the last 1/16" at the base of the brass. The bolt will not lock down on this stuff. I also remember that when I was resizing that the die was sticking on closing at the botton of the downstroke. May not have had enough lube on the brass. Looks like I will have to do it over again. Yes I will not make this many rounds without checking them out in the rifle, ever again. Lesson learned! I am going to try and remove the deprimer pin from the die and resize the cases. That will at least save me one step in the process and save the primers. Thanks guys for listening to my rant.

 

[delta-419]

Seems I have a bad resizing die that leaves a slight ring above the case head. I reworked the cases and couldnot make them fit so I took a case that I knew was good and ran it thru the die. It failed to fit! BAD DIE! Live and learn.

 

[Senior Citizen]

Do your best not to buy mixed brass if you can. I prefer Remington, but that's just me. Seems to size an work better than Winchester. I prefer Federal over Winchester also.

I clean, size and trim every case before I load it. Even if I buy 1000 cases I trim every case to .003 shorter than "book". I find that the great majority of rounds that won't lock in my bolt guns are because the case is too long, not from being imporperly resized.

I have 6 243's in my gun cabinets and the chambers/throats on all of them are different. Luckily, I've stumbled on to 4 loads of various weights and charges that shoot well and have loaded them for many years. All 6 of my guns will shoot under an inch at 200 easily. 3 of them will shoot under an inch at 300 if the wind is calm and I haven't had too much coffee. ;-)

I also have a Hornady cam-lock puller and love it. Much easier on the bullet, leaves all the power in the case and not in the bottom or a kenetic puller you have to unscrew to get the three parts (case/bullet/powder) out of. Neat, WAY less noisy and much faster in my opinion.

Good luck,
SC

 

[armadillo]

You said the magic word - Sako.

I had the same problem with all 3 Sakos I have reloaded for. I almost always had a problem with brass shot in another rifle. But almost never had a problem if I started with new brass or shot factory ammo and keep it seperate for that rifle.

I made range brass work in a Sako 22-250 by using a "small base" resizing die. I never tried it with the other cartridges.

 

[delta-419]

Round II, I went and bought another set of dies and tried the cases in the new die, same result. I also measured the case length and all are within specs. I firmly believe that the fire formed Winchester cases do not fit a Sako. I even ran the cases thru the dies more than once and cleaned the rifle chamber just to cover that angle. I'm going to order some new cases and see what happens. I think the fire forming with new cases will offer a solution. Anyway thanks guys.

 

[sourdough44]

Yes, just get some new cases, just run them in the die enough to ensure the mouth is round. After that check trim length,chamfer/debur & you should be all set. Some may rip on Lee dies but they have been doing it long enough to know what they're doing.

I just was trying some reloads yesterday in a new Model 7 243 I picked up. A certain reload did not want to chamber with 80% of the rounds. They fit fine in my Model 70. I think this particular load has a COL to long for this Remington. I may as soon as today measure the chamber to see if that's the reason. My 95 grn partition reloads chambered fine, mostly the same types of brass.

I think some new brass will make most of your problems go away.

 

[erickg]

Might try a small base resizing die.