Thread: New to reloading and have some questions

Hey guys,

Just started to learn to reload. Thought it was a good idea since I have nothing to do for awhile.

I’m shooting a tikka 7mm rem mag, I’ve been successfully shooting 139gr sst through her and have been keeping the brass to eventually reuse one day.

I brought the hornady classic kit and set it up today. Everything is going smoothly apart from I’m abit confused as why my nosler 7mm rem mag bullets wont fit my resized cartridge? I also found that the resizing die had trouble fitting through the neck of the cartridge? Could anyone help a newbie out here?

Cheers

are you using the right dies are you neck sizing or full length sizing when you try and seat a bullet what happens does it crush the case or something are the dies set up properly lots of questions sorry

Hey Stefan.
Sounds like you have not deburred(or not enough) the cases on the inside?
What kind of deburring tool are you using? (If possible, try and get a VLD type deburring tool).

Decapping pin having trouble fitting through case neck: this would normally be happening because of to little or no lubricant on the inside of the cases necks or the sizing die has not been set up correctly.

Thanks for the reply, yeah I’m using the right dies (had to double check that one)

Ahhh what’s the difference between neck sizing?and full length sizing?

Haven’t seated a bullet yet, was keen to get some info first

Cheers

Just using a hand held deburring tool. Should I deburr even if I haven’t trimmed the case?

Yeah I gave the cases more lub and that worked a treat, cheers

Originally Posted by Stefanhope

Just using a hand held deburring tool. Should I deburr even if I haven’t trimmed the case?

Yeah I gave the cases more lub and that worked a treat, cheers

Morning,

I roll my cases on the lube pad then pick them up neck down and turn them couple times on the pad to get the neck. Are they honady dies? I dont no if its the right order but it works for me . I full length size then primer pocket clean wire bruss clean inside of shell then shamfer and debur im only once fored on the new brass so havent trimmed cases yet. I always always shamfer and debur then i clean it all with clean rag to remove any lube befor i move on.

Its also a good idea to resize the brass and run it threw your rifle i check every case for a smooth bolt no binding. I then make a pile of smooth and another pile of brass thats giving resistance. I then if any (out of 50 last time their were 6) relube and size again and they all came up fantastic .

What do you mean when you say the noslers wont fit the resized brass?

Greetings Stephanhope,
Good to see someone new entering hand loading. I had a quick look at the Hornady kit on line and you seem to have most things that you need. You will need something to trim cases and sooner rather than later if you are full length resizing. If you are only loading for one cartridge currently the Lee hand trimmer is a good option as it is designed to trim to the correct length without measuring. You should probably measure the length of your resized cases before loading them to ensure they are not over length. This can happen with belted cases even on the first firing. The max length will be in your handbook. Neck sizing as the name suggests just sizes the neck of the case while full length sizing sizes the whole case. You need a special die for neck sizing which you may not have. For now you may wish to stick with full length sizing. There is a lot to learn about handloading with different things for specific cartridges and it would be ideal for you to get some one to one instruction from an experienced and older (hopefully more cautious) hand loader. This would have helped me greatly when I started out hand loading close to 50 years back. This may have to wait for a bit. In the mean time read that handbook carefully and frequently and ask any questions you may have. I for one will try to answer to the best of my knowledge.
Regards and All the Best Grandpamac.

in the buy sell section on here.....I will go and rebump it up for you....is some older reloading manuals for sale.....the older ones have a really really good how to and why.... you should read this right through at least twice to get it into head how everything fits together and works...
I lube by putting SMALL amount of vasoline on fingers and twirling case body between them...leaves a very thin film on body of case...the neck of case is dipped in powdered graphite,with some steel shot in it to help move it around, then put through dies.....this works well for me.
boat tail projectiles are MUCH easeir to seat into cases than flat base WHEN STARTING OUT because the taper helps you to get them into case easier....

Definitely check case length after resizing as suggested, one brand of case I use needs trimming after its first firing (308 factory ammo).

@Stefanhope An idea for you to put away and possibly investigate later: A Lyman M Die.

What it does is gently flare the case mouth a little to make seating flat based bullets easier.

It doesn't take away the need for trimming, deburring or lubing, but does make the process easier and smoother.

If you're confident enough to seat a projectile at this point, here's another suggestion:

Make a dummy round. Put an unprimed, sized case in your rifle and check that the bolt closes smoothly.

Use an unprimed case without any powder in it, and seat a projectile in it, wind the seating die progressively down till you have bumped the projectile down to the proper depth.

Then take it off the press and check that the projectile is seated without any weird looking bulges at the base or side of the neck. Hold it next to a factory round if you still have one left, to compare it to.(You're comparing the look of the brass at this point, not the respective lengths of the two rounds.)

You'll have to sacrifice a case and projectile to do this with, but I have found that it's well worth it to learn.

Originally Posted by Stefanhope

Hey guys,

Just started to learn to reload. Thought it was a good idea since I have nothing to do for awhile.

I’m shooting a tikka 7mm rem mag, I’ve been successfully shooting 139gr sst through her and have been keeping the brass to eventually reuse one day.

I brought the hornady classic kit and set it up today. Everything is going smoothly apart from I’m abit confused as why my nosler 7mm rem mag bullets wont fit my resized cartridge? I also found that the resizing die had trouble fitting through the neck of the cartridge? Could anyone help a newbie out here?

Cheers

Are you having trouble with cases going into the die or coming out of the die? If it's going in, it won't be the decapping/sizing mandrel giving resistance, it'll be too little lube on the neck or body coupled with new dies having no residual lube in them.
If you say your projectiles don't fit, but haven't tried seating them with your seating die, they shouldn't fit by hand. If they do fit by hand after sizing you have a big problem- no neck tension.

max....if he has a factory round left over.......use that to set up die in first place...eg put die in press loosely,place loaded round on base and drop handle right down so round is in uppermost position,now slowly screw die in watching the press handle...when she starts to twitch like a mouses nose when the cheese is nearby the projectile has touched the seater stem. now make up that dummy round and you will find its pretty darn near the same......well the ring of seating die on oglive will be at same place on both rounds,so if similar shape will be similar length.....big fat round noses wont seat the same as a skinny splitzer of course.....

I've found I only have to debur if I've trimmed the cases doesn't sound like hes trimming them

Originally Posted by Micky Duck

max....if he has a factory round left over.......use that to set up die in first place...eg put die in press loosely,place loaded round on base and drop handle right down so round is in uppermost position,now slowly screw die in watching the press handle...when she starts to twitch like a mouses nose when the cheese is nearby the projectile has touched the seater stem. now make up that dummy round and you will find its pretty darn near the same......well the ring of seating die on oglive will be at same place on both rounds,so if similar shape will be similar length.....big fat round noses wont seat the same as a skinny splitzer of course.....

Agree it ought to get it close, but unless it 's the same projectile in both cases, there may be the need to make small adjustments.

For example I'd have to tweak my seating die if I was changing from 120gn Nosler's to 139 gn Hornady SST's., as there's a weight and ogive profile difference.

I would suggest some time on youtube watching and learning the process