7 mm Rem mag brass loose in Wilson brass holder

magothy1 · Sep 6, 2015

I was working up some 1x Rem brass this afternoon, bought on gunbroker. I ran it thru a Lee resizing die, then went to trim to length. Some of it was small enough diameter at the base that the shell holder wouldn't grip it well enough to trim. I've been thru this with unfired .45-70 brass, and made a shim or collar, so to speak, out of thin plastic strip about 3/4" wide, cut just long enough to go around the brass and lap a little. If I wrapped it at the base of the brass, and carefully slid the shell holder down over, the fit was tight enough so the cutter head could trim to length.

I'm guessing these will be pretty loose in the chamber when fired the first time, so I'll keep them separate. Anyone got a better solution for this ?

Also, anyone got a rig for setting up a battery drill to turn the cutting head ?

Thanks,

Steve

rick smith · Sep 7, 2015

Is the Wilson die for fired or unfired brass? How did you set the Lee die to size the brassJ just enough to fit your chamber or per their printed instructions?
Think Sinclair may carry an adapter to use on your drill. Rick.

magothy1 · Sep 7, 2015

I believe the Wilson is for fired brass, it's worked well for many sessions on several different brands of brass. It worked well on all the other 1x fired brass I've bought. I think I've been using it almost two years now. I'm thinking I got some fired in a rifle with a very tight chamber. I'll just have to shoot it in mine, then things will be right.

Thanks for the Sinclair tip, I'll take a look. I guess I need to build some sort of frame or mount so everything lines up. I'd really like a rig a setup with a foot controlled switch, might be able to set it up with an old 110v drill and a sewing machine switch.

rick smith · Sep 8, 2015

If you sized it before you trimmed that might be the problem.Rick.

Darkhorse · Sep 8, 2015

I would check every one of those once fired pieces of brass for case expansion before I sized or shot a single one. When I first started out with the 7 mag. 30 years ago, I got some once fired brass from a friend. Just looking at them I could see a bright shiney ring just ahead of the belt. I put the case head of one in a vise and easily broke it in two with my hand. I gave them back.
There has been considerable difference in factory chambering dimensions with the 7 mag resulting in the belt recess being too deep. This allows the belt to go too deep and can cause considerable stretching of the case.
For these reasons I have never fired a case in my 7 mag. that wasn't shot in my gun to start with.

magothy1 · Sep 9, 2015

Hm, thanks for the last two posts, I'll look at the brass more carefully. I supposed I've been lucky so far.

I did encounter some used Win brass for my .25-06's that split wide open. It felt really soft going thru the resizing die, I should have known better than to load it. After the second one split I tossed the rest.

Darkhorse · Sep 9, 2015

Don't rely on outside appearance. Learn to use the paper clip method to check inside the case.
Bend the end of a paper clip 45 degrees and sharpen the end. Now insert the sharpened end inside your case till it bottoms out. Now slowly drag the clip towards the case mouth. You can feel where the case has stretched if it has. Discard any that you detect incipient case head separation.
When I first started doing this I actually cut several cases in half to see if what I was feeling was indeed case stretch.

longrangehunter · Sep 10, 2015

Good advice there DH.

magothy1 · Sep 16, 2015

Hm, I'll sure do that, thanks for the advice.

It was curious, the smaller diameter cases shot very well with one of the two loads I tried. I kept them in the ammo box, so I know which is which when I try the paper clip. I'm guessing it will feel like the sharpened point is dragging inside the case ?

Darkhorse · Sep 16, 2015

It can feel like that sometimes. Most of the time you can actually feel the ring where the thinner brass is. The tip of the clip will slide into a round bottom depression and you can feel it. Any time one is a little questionable compare the feel to a known good case.
Typically this ring will be just above the web or the belt. When you feel a suspicious spot put your thumb against the pin so you can see just where this spot is by measuring against the case.