dtech
New member
I have looked through this thread, and perhaps I am missing it, but I don't see where you posted what the neck diameter was on your new brass with a bullet seated.
As 204 AR posted that his extracted cases measured .290"-.291" at the neck, those cases were extracted from a chamber with a neck diameter of .287". As I said earlier, the diameter of the neck of a case extracted from a WSSM AR chamber is not relevant. Each bullet/powder combination, each stick of brass, depending on how work-hardened it is, and even shot-to-shot variances in pressure are all going to give you a different spent-case neck diameter.
There are several things I would like to know:
1) What is the neck-diameter of the case with a seated bullet?
2) What brand of brass are you using?
3) What method are you using to determine that you are setting the shoulder back?
As I have said before: The WSSM fired from an AR is nothing short of magic, but you can't treat it like you do a .223. There are virtually countless things that can give you problems where you won't notice them while loading for a .223.
What is somewhat odd is that it seems that having a fair amount of hand-loading experience and mechanical ability just doesn't seem to be make the user immune to loading issues, in fact, to the contrary. It seems, including in my own case many years ago, I though I knew better and chased my tail around for some time. The customers with little experience that closely follow advise seem to do quite well.
Bear mentioned small-base dies. I have never found them to be needed. However, I have seen dies crack and give folks fits. The cracked sizing die will sometimes allow a sized case to fit, while leaving others that will stick in the chamber. For a while, Redding was having quite a bit of failures, and actually contacted me regarding chamber dimensions. They were taking measurements of extracted brass and though the chamber I was producing was over-sized. When I gave them the chamber dimensions, they moved on and found that it was an issue in heat-treating. In all my years, I have never seen a cracked sizing die.... Other than several WSSM's.
As 204 AR posted that his extracted cases measured .290"-.291" at the neck, those cases were extracted from a chamber with a neck diameter of .287". As I said earlier, the diameter of the neck of a case extracted from a WSSM AR chamber is not relevant. Each bullet/powder combination, each stick of brass, depending on how work-hardened it is, and even shot-to-shot variances in pressure are all going to give you a different spent-case neck diameter.
There are several things I would like to know:
1) What is the neck-diameter of the case with a seated bullet?
2) What brand of brass are you using?
3) What method are you using to determine that you are setting the shoulder back?
As I have said before: The WSSM fired from an AR is nothing short of magic, but you can't treat it like you do a .223. There are virtually countless things that can give you problems where you won't notice them while loading for a .223.
What is somewhat odd is that it seems that having a fair amount of hand-loading experience and mechanical ability just doesn't seem to be make the user immune to loading issues, in fact, to the contrary. It seems, including in my own case many years ago, I though I knew better and chased my tail around for some time. The customers with little experience that closely follow advise seem to do quite well.
Bear mentioned small-base dies. I have never found them to be needed. However, I have seen dies crack and give folks fits. The cracked sizing die will sometimes allow a sized case to fit, while leaving others that will stick in the chamber. For a while, Redding was having quite a bit of failures, and actually contacted me regarding chamber dimensions. They were taking measurements of extracted brass and though the chamber I was producing was over-sized. When I gave them the chamber dimensions, they moved on and found that it was an issue in heat-treating. In all my years, I have never seen a cracked sizing die.... Other than several WSSM's.