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Update of the 46 saga,

I have settled on the shortened 9.3x62mm Neck die. The chamber in my rifle is very tight, right at spec minumum for body and neck (more on the later) and am seating bullets with a 35whelen seater.

I have been going through some used brass I traded for. It was loaded in the 80's with 3031 and 286norma. The bullets where near impossible to pull, ended up using fence pliers and the press. Seems that the loaded rounds where run back thru the sizer die. The bullet that was in the neck of the case where "squeezed" to .360" with the base and nose still being .365". I just figured the loader was a fool.............

In fireforming (while the chamber diameter is minimum, the headspace is LOoooong, about .020") anyway, after setting a false shoulder, shooting all these "squeezed" bullets with a 14gr Unique fireform load, I some cases to play with.My plan is to learn the techinque to load this rifle with this old brass, then work into the NEW brass.
So they are trimmed, cleaned, checked, etc....... load a dummy to start figuring a O.A.L.......With the 270 speer I cannot get the bolt to close and any seating length. Sized empty case is a bit stiff. After a bit of aggravation (been laid up with some old guy aliments, so plenty of shop time) it dawned on me the necks of the loaded cases might be too big. The chamber/neck measures .391" with the load cartridge measuring .396" to .400" ..........what the Heck......... Not having a currently working neck turning tool, I went thru the tool chest and found a less than sharp "3/8th" (it is really .380") ream. Some polishing and re-learning how to sharpen the ream was in order. I installed a LEE .375 expander ball in a LEE universal decapping die, opened the neck (again) on a few test cases, ran the ream thru, ran the case back thru the neck die, load bullet, chamber easily, load with 50grs CFE223 and a 270gr Speer, BOoommmm. Measure the fired case. Fired case neck is .391", .010" neck thickness, .386" sized loaded case neck diameter.

All of this helped me wallow away a week of anti-biotics for Prostatitis http://www.prostatitis.org/?gclid=CJ6Kt_-_mLUCFWaCQgodRCQAGA but has raised a few questions.
Is .010"neck thickness enough ??? Is .003" enough clearence ??? There is a tempting to ream the chamber neck to .420" or so and make/swage bullets to correspond with the .370" groove diameter. Being relatively lazy, I will probably just load as I am, if new brass has the similar thick necks I will ream/turn them and keep on going.

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To live life as it is handed to me from God

Edited by Caprivi (03/02/13 09:30 AM)

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