# .223 probs



## teed (Sep 6, 2010)

so i just bought a new howa m-1500 ranchland security rifle in a .223, and i have had a set of lyman dies for it that i got on sale a while ago, i have had the dies for the better part of a year now but this is the first time i have atempted to use them, and i cant for the life of me get the brass sized right so it will even fit in the gun, what am i doing wrong? i have very little experience with reloading small rifle rounds, i mainly reload for 30-06 and 9mm pistole, all my other dies are RCBS, am i just being a complete bone head here or could there be another factor that im overlooking?? im about at wits end here.......... please help!!


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## xdeano (Jan 14, 2005)

describe the issue.

it is not going into the chamber, getting stuck in the chamber, not being able to lower the bolt, bolt is sticky while extracting...etc.

That will help diagnose the issue.

Deano


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## teed (Sep 6, 2010)

well the shells will go into the chamber but seem to tight, some the bolt will lower but with more than normal force and others the bolt will not even lower and they all are sticking in the chamber


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## Plainsman (Jul 30, 2003)

Do you have your sizing die set far enough down? Does your press have a light camb-over at the bottom of the stroke? Did you trim before or after sizing? If you trim before you need to trim .0010 inch more.


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## southdakbearfan (Oct 11, 2004)

sounds like you need to turn the sizer 1/4 to 1/2 turn lower. They are not getting fully resized. Either that, or you have a tight chamber and will have to buy some small base resizing dies.


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## teed (Sep 6, 2010)

hey all thank you so much for the quick replys and the help, um im pretty sure i have my sizer set low enough, how would i go about checking if my chamber is to tight???


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## teed (Sep 6, 2010)

so i found the problem, they lyman dies i have just wernt able to size the neck proberly, i went out and got a neck resizing die and they fit perfectly now!!! kinda leaves a bad taste in a guys mouth about lyman products, do any of you guys use lyman products and do they work well for you or just so so?


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## Csquared (Sep 5, 2006)

Wait a minute, Teed. Before you write Lyman off try something for me. Necks aren't tapered, so if it went in far enough for the bolt to cam tightly I seriously doubt it was the neck. I believe the advice given was accurate, and the case simply wasn't going into the die deeply enough. I don't know what kind of neck die you got but I would bet you bumped the shoulder back just a touch. It's easy to prove me wrong. Accurately measure the neck/shoulder junction (from the case head) on a fired case _after_ run thru your full length die in question, and compare that to the one you neck sized with the new die that chambered easily. It doesn't take much to make a big difference.


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## southdakbearfan (Oct 11, 2004)

Csquared said:


> Wait a minute, Teed. Before you write Lyman off try something for me. Necks aren't tapered, so if it went in far enough for the bolt to cam tightly I seriously doubt it was the neck. I believe the advice given was accurate, and the case simply wasn't going into the die deeply enough. I don't know what kind of neck die you got but I would bet you bumped the shoulder back just a touch. It's easy to prove me wrong. Accurately measure the neck/shoulder junction (from the case head) on a fired case _after_ run thru your full length die in question, and compare that to the one you neck sized with the new die that chambered easily. It doesn't take much to make a big difference.


I have to totally agree with this. A neck sizing die should not fix this issue, as the neck sizing die should only be resizing the neck. You will probably find after one or several firing you may have issues with chambering, especially if you have multiple rifles in 223.


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## teed (Sep 6, 2010)

i actualy just bought a new set of dies, it was a 3 die set from redding, sorry i should have been more clear on that, i had talked with a few different people around here and the general concensous was the neck wasnt getting sized right, i did try to bump the die down another tinny little bit with the lymans and now i have a stuck case in the die that my press pulled the base right off. i probably wont get a chance to try any reloads till maybe this weekend depending how muzzel loading goes but i measured the hell out of the shells pressed with the reding dies and every thing seems to check out right.


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## Csquared (Sep 5, 2006)

> but i measured the hell out of the shells pressed with the reding dies and every thing seems to check out right.


I don't think you're following us, Teed. There is no such thing as "right" in this case. What you are trying to determine by measuring is when the shoulder is bumped...the actual measurement is of no relevance, only how it relates to the fired case. THAT is how you properly adjust a sizing die. You screw it into the press ONLY as far as it takes to _slightly_ push the shoulder back. I know the instructions say to touch the shell holder, and that works most of the time, but often times, I would even say MOST of the time that results in pushing the shoulder back further than necessary. And some times it still isn't deep enough, and the bottom of the die body has to be ground off to allow the case to go deeper into the die. I'm going to go out on a limb and guess that the Lyman die was simply reamed deeper than the new Redding die, but as the bearfan just mentioned, I do not believe it is a neck issue.If it was the neck the bolt would stop abruptly well before the bolt handle was in position to close...unless it's a neck (case)_ length_ issue, but you didn't trim the case to make it fit so that is also not the issue. And on a side note, the stuck case should be indicactive of a case lube issue, as you can readily run .24 brass into a .22 die, for example, with no sticking issue.

I don't know if we're helping or not, but this is just one more example of how important a quality set of bullet comparators is so this measurement can easily and accurately be determined.


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