Manufacturer's Instructions

C

ColColt

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sometimes it doesn't pay to adhere to what the manufacturer of firearms related products suggest. Case in point. RCBS, along with most of the others, recommend setting your seating die so the bottom of the die contacts the shell holder at the top of the ram's stroke and then turn another 1/4 turn. Do that and I can just about guarantee an incipient case head separation between 3-5 reloads. This is the result of adjusting per RCBS's instructions. On the fourth reload and subsequent firing, this is what happened. Their method sets the shoulder back too far too many reloads down the road you have a problem.



There are times that adjusting dies or working with the recommendations of a scope manufacturer, you can't rely on their instructions to the letter to achieve your best objectives always.
 
ColColt said:
sometimes it doesn't pay to adhere to what the manufacturer of firearms related products suggest. Case in point. RCBS, along with most of the others, recommend setting your seating die so the bottom of the die contacts the shell holder at the top of the ram's stroke and then turn another 1/4 turn. Do that and I can just about guarantee an incipient case head separation between 3-5 reloads. This is the result of adjusting per RCBS's instructions. On the fourth reload and subsequent firing, this is what happened. Their method sets the shoulder back too far too many reloads down the road you have a problem.



There are times that adjusting dies or working with the recommendations of a scope manufacturer, you can't rely on their instructions to the letter to achieve your best objectives always.
Click to expand...

Never ever had a case head separation problem with this seating die and a lot of us here use one: http://www.lewilson.com/stainlesssteelmicrobulletseater.html

Have you discussed this matter with RCBS? What are they telling you? :)
 
He is not talking about the seating die! His problem is with the RESIZING DIE! Mysuggestion would be to purchase a shoulder bump gauge from Hornady and set the die to bump the shoulder and resize the case. He is overworking the brass, thus he is getting case head separation. Seating the bullet does not cause this failure!
 
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Since that happened I knew I could back off the die until the shoulder was bumped back only .001-.002" but I originally went by what was recommended. They all suggest setting up your size die that way be it RCBS, Lee or Lyman. It may work for some rifles but I've had two it did not work with. It just works the brass too much and unnecessarily. I inadvertently mentioned "seating die" when I meant size die.

Now, I mostly use either the Redding FL Bushing dies or Lee Collet Die with a Redding Body Die. I check how much the shoulder is being bumped back with the Hornady Head Space Gage before and after sizing.
 
ColColt,
Thanks for the clarification. I knew that you were talking about sizing operation not seating as evidenced by the pic of the failure. Anyone that shoots regularly or competes would have recognized the difference immediately. Your comments about manufactures instructions is spot on as well your recognition of the correct method of setting your bump to the correct specs. Have a great day.
 
It pays to read over your post before hitting the submit button sometimes! That photo was a 270 case from a pre-64 Model 70. I thought, since I had just bought it not long before, that perhaps there were some head space problems and had that checked and all was good. I knew it had to be the die setting. I had to chunk the 20 cases I had that were all reloaded together the same way...lessons learned.
 
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