Not small cal. but I really need Help!!!!

[Nelson]

Ok, I have ask around every wher and can't get awnsers. I plan on using a TC Contender pistol this year for whitail and every thing including groups was going fine with the following componets.
New winchester 30-30 brass
Nosler 125gr. BT
groups fine but then the problem started when I went to reload the brass, brass was very hard to resize so I started checking measurements and this is what I found.
case necks on sized brass .326
case necks with expander removed from die .321
case necks with bullet seated .328
case necks after firing .342

so do I have a problem or what??????

Nelson

[boman]

You don't have any more of a problem than anyone else shooting modern hunting rifles---ie most reloading dies will size the cartridge quite a bit under the chamber dimension especially in the neck area. there all kind of reasons but usually boils down to being sure the cartridge will function in any rifle---same goes for store bought ammo. Remember a lot of these cartridges have been around for a long time(the inventor of the 30-30 never heard of sammi--same for the 30-06) and a lot of rifles have been chambered for them with all kinds of reamers.

Short of buying a bushing neck die--use your FL to partially size the neck(about 1/2). this will leave all but that part of the neck on the fired cartridge just under actual chamber dimension and usually helps accuracy on any factory rifle.

[Nelson]

also if it matters it is a custom Virgin Valley Custom Guns (VVCG) barrel (shilen blank), I tried the size half of the neck and then when I went to seat the bullet the RCBS bullet seater sized down about another 1/4 of the neck (not to same size as the Sizing die did but a pretty good amount!!!????? The brass is really hard to size and it is recomended for the TC Contender to just bump the shoulder (keeps it from not locking up fully, hammer will not cock if it is not locked).

Nelson

[foxhunter]

problem, maybe not if the TC continues to group well. the problem as I see it,if it is a problem is the chamber neck seems to be to large. if the chamber is concentric it may make no difference at all.
case necks with bullet seated .328, in a perfect world the chamber neck would be .330-.331 not 342 with .002-.003 expansion, at .342 the case neck is going to get worked a lot.
accuracy may not suffer since the case headspaces off the rim, not the shoulder. if the chamber is cut true to the bore the bullet may lined up with the center of the bore, accuracy problems happen when the nose of the bullet is pitched off center of the bore and starts it's journey down the bore tipped.
use a good case lube might help with the hard resizing.

[Fish Dog]

I had the same problem with my 25-06, I was using RCBS dies and It took everything I had to resize I even put a longer handle on the press. I don't remember the exact measurements but the resized cases were just a little smaller than spec. After 3 reloads I was splitting about 20% of the necks.

I bought a set of redding dies and problem solved.

fdg

[MarinePMI]

I'll second the bad dies comment. The last two sets of RCBS dies I have purchased have been absolute crap. Hence for hunting rifles I now use Lee Dies almost exclusively and Redding for anything...special.

[Alex]

.... to get a Lee Collet die for neck sizing, and a Redding body die to bump the shoulder back a touch.

Bump the shoulder back first. You should only bump it back enough to let the action close easily. Then run it through the Collet die.

The nice thing about the collet die is that it doesn't over size the case necks and they will last a pretty long time.

Alex

[brettTC]

Hi Nelson
I had a 30-30 barrel and the chamber was huge but it shoot really well, better than the barrel I bought to replace it. So don't sell until you KNOW the new barrel is better!!!!!
It sounds like you need to get a Lee Collet Dies set. They only size part of the neck, you will see little ridges running the lenght of the case neck. There really is no need to bump the shoulder back every time you reload unless you can't chamber the round or the action miss fires. There is a lot of really crappy brass out there for 30-30, so if you are no happy with winchester 30-30 brass you can form it out of .375 win brass. .375 Win brass is much thicker and stronger than regular 30-30 brass.
I all that fails you can send it off for a rechamber. SSK's .309 JDJ very popuar and they are supposed to be very fast.

[303Guy]

I am unfamiliar with loading for a tip up action. Will a fired case go back into the TC chamber?

[Greyfox1947]

It seems you have a number of choices here. First, you may want to consider just what you want to accomplish and second, how much do you want to spend.

The cheapest solution for whitetails is probably to just buy factory loads and don't bother with reloads. Of course, the fact that you are here and asking questions probably rules that out.

I'd suggest you go to bellmtcs.com and read averything about loading for a break open action. You may have done this already based on what you say about bumping the shoulder. Second consideration is how close would you like your loads to fit and how do you want to go about it.

If it were mine, I'd probably get some cerrosafe and do a chamber cast just to see what king of neck you are dealing with. Next I'd either get a Redding Type "S" body die or send your die to JLC and have it converted to a body die. Then you'll need to decide just how much you want to size the neck and choose a bushing accordingly. The JLC deal is cheaper as I think I paid $40 for the conversion and return shipping (may have been $50). The bushings are about $10 ea and you might find some used. Long term the collet die alone is not a good solution as the case will need to be full sized on every firing.

My guess is that you have a neck somewhere near .343 or so. By using the .375 Win brass or maybe .307 Win brass you can probably do a little neck turning and get close to a fitted neck, but then in the woods & a hunting situation, you might not want to go there.

So, back to the beginning. Cheapest, quickest, easiest fix is factory loads for deer and look at the other choices for punching paper.

Does that give you enough to think about?

Rick