Ok, so here is how things have been going with the rifle:
I FL resized the once fired Norma brass, paying attention to how I set up the RCBS resizer.
- I basically started with the once fired brass and ran it (lubed) through the FL die, with the die set up 1/4 turn backed off from the point in which it the die makes contact with a case with the ram down. I then took the resized and deprimed case and cycled it through the rifle, and felt resistance on lowering the bolt. (By comparison, fired but not resized brass cycled smoothly).
Confused, I then proceeded to lower the resizer die incrementally by 1/8 turn, each time testing to see whether I could cycle it smoothly. Finally, with the die screwed in 1/8 turn past the point of contact with the case, I could finally cycle the resized brass without resistance. So that is how I set my die.
**more on this later, since I still couldn’t explain why the brass would chamber before sizing, but would not do so after sizing*** was I doing the opposite of bumping the shoulder and actually pushing it forwards? How and why??
Once resized with the above technique, I loaded a batch of 10 brass with a moderate load and headed to the range.
I found some spent 9mm brass at the range and put it aside for later use. The loaded rounds fired without issue, and no obvious separations occurred. Primers looked fine, and accuracy was in the 1-1.5 MOA range (for what it is worth...).
Now home, I set aside 5 brass for measuring with the 9mm brass sitting on top.
Here are the brass descriptions and OAL measurement with 9mm brass inserted:
1. New (unfired) Norma 2.8165
2. 1x fired then FL resized Lapua (from the lot that had the incipient separations upon 2nd firing) 2.8125
3. 2x fired Lapua showing incipient separation. 2.8235
4. 1x fired, never resized, Norma. 2.8195
5. 1x fired blue box Federal. 2.8195
See picture below:
Obsessed1, from the forum was kind enough to help me interpret and compared to a 30.06 of his own.
———// to be continued //——-
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