I have a reloading die question

Bill Wynne

Bill Wynne

Active member
I am reloading some ammo for a friend of mine. It is a very nice 270 AI with a 40º shoulder on it. His grandfather made this rifle 45 or 50 years ago and it is important to him.

He has some custom RCBS dies that are made for full length resizing and they are just too tight. Even though I have have lubricated the cases well, I have stuck two cases in his die and pulled the bottom off of them.

All we need to do is to neck size these cases as the rifle has a very good commercial Mauser action.

I have thought of using a 270 Weatherby die or a 270 Winchester RCBS neck sizing die but I am not sure either would work.

If I were him, I would change the barrel and chamber it for a factory round since he is not yet a hand loader but right now he won't consider it.

Any suggestions on dies?

Concho Bill
 
Thanks Bob,

I had some old RCBS lube. It may have been a bit lite but I put it on every case. I only sized the neck about half way.

Concho Bill
 
RCBS can probably still be of service

I suggest you send them a couple of loaded rounds and a couple of fired cases, and let them make you another die for this rifle. And a chamber casting would be great. Call RCBS and inquire -- they're good folks.

Bill Wynne said:
I am reloading some ammo for a friend of mine. It is a very nice 270 AI with a 40º shoulder on it. His grandfather made this rifle 45 or 50 years ago and it is important to him.

He has some custom RCBS dies that are made for full length resizing and they are just too tight. Even though I have have lubricated the cases well, I have stuck two cases in his die and pulled the bottom off of them.

All we need to do is to neck size these cases as the rifle has a very good commercial Mauser action.

I have thought of using a 270 Weatherby die or a 270 Winchester RCBS neck sizing die but I am not sure either would work.

If I were him, I would change the barrel and chamber it for a factory round since he is not yet a hand loader but right now he won't consider it.

Any suggestions on dies?

Concho Bill
Click to expand...
 
I would suggest sending them the die and some fired cases. That you can
neck size these cases with that die makes me wonder. Is it possible that
some cases had already started to separate is very likely. If so,I would
cast a close look at the remainder. Many Ackley Imp chambers have
been made without setting back the barrel, which can start case head
separations the first time cases are fired.
 
Bill Wynne said:
I am reloading some ammo for a friend of mine. It is a very nice 270 AI with a 40º shoulder on it. His grandfather made this rifle 45 or 50 years ago and it is important to him.

He has some custom RCBS dies that are made for full length resizing and they are just too tight. Even though I have have lubricated the cases well, I have stuck two cases in his die and pulled the bottom off of them.

All we need to do is to neck size these cases as the rifle has a very good commercial Mauser action.

I have thought of using a 270 Weatherby die or a 270 Winchester RCBS neck sizing die but I am not sure either would work.

If I were him, I would change the barrel and chamber it for a factory round since he is not yet a hand loader but right now he won't consider it.

Any suggestions on dies?

Concho Bill
Click to expand...

Well here's what I would do....

Stick the die in the drillpress by chucking onto the decapping stem. You might need a hunk of allthread.

GET'cherself some Clover valve lapping compound, a case driver, a couple small slotted dowels, some WD-40 and a way to drive the tooling.... I use a Dremel style tool with a Sinclair shellholder to drive the case and the slotted dowel.

I also lay the drillpress down......

Now use these items to polish out the existing die. Clover compound on a fired case will hog metal like ya' read about, keep 'er stroking in and out or you'll spin a groove good shape.

Use successive grits of black carborundum paper oiled with WD-40 to fine 'er up......

You can bring a single die up to dimension in not too long. I've done plenty of competition grade dies this way and they'll make concentric ammo.

And it IS a hunting rifle.

justathought

al
 
piggybacking with Bill in ohio

i believe he was headed in the right direction.
do a chamber cast of the rifle and the die! measure the dimensions carefully. if they differ, possibly eliminate a variable.
was this the die the origional owner used? if it was al in wa was on key. the die probably accumulated some surface galling that needs to be polished out.
40 to 50 years ago there was no sammi standards for the AI line of cartridges. im not too sure there is any today, just a more standard way of producing the chamber.
best of luck, Fred

PS i had an old 308 die that started shaving brass out of the case neck. i wrote about the problem and mailed the die to RCBS. they sent me a new die and stated the expander ball on the depriming rod was worn out. they mailed a whole new die to replace the worn unit. as Bill in ohio stated they are swell people to do business with.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
I have a reoading die question

If all you're looking for is neck sizing, get a Lee collet die. The standard 270 Win collet die is relieved in the shoulder area and will quickly and more importantly, accurately resize the neck on your 270 Ackley Imp. I use the standard caliber Lee collet dies a lot for neck sizing Ackley cartridges. Cheap, easy and very accurate resizing of the necks. If you want more neck tension for a hunting rifle, all you have to do is dress down the decapping stem with emory cloth as it acts as the mandrel the collet squeezes the neck against. I usually find a .001" reduction in diameter of the stem works well for most hunting rifles.

The high dollar custom dies from Redding and RCBS are still working against the inherent inaccuracies of squeezing the neck down more than needed and then pulling it back over an expander ball. The expander ball is not your friend. It is the major source of neck runout in a loaded round.
 
Bill,

A production FL die may be more compatible with your friends brass and chamber than the custom die he has. A 270 AI isn't that common but 280 AI is.
If you have or can borrow 280AI full length die you might be able to get the body and shoulder dimensions that you want and then follow up with the Lee die for neck as riflemiester suggested. If you have access to a bushing type 280 AI FL die then 0.299" bushing will get the whole thing done with one stroke.

Good luck on your mission..

Greg
 
Report back

Thanks for the good suggestions. I am sure they may all work.

I tried a Lee collet die for neck sizing, yesterday, and I think that something was missing with it. Anyway, it did not work. I am taking it back.

I called RCBS to order a neck sizing die if they thought it would work. I started out as caller # 9 and in about 20 minutes I was # 1 and had an opportunity to discuss my problem with their answering machine.

Today I tried the suggestion and instructions up to a point put forth by Alinwa. Bingo! The thing works fine, or I am pretty sure it will when I change out the bent primmer rod (but that is another story). Seriously, the inside of the die is super smooth and shiny. Shells just jump out of the die so for. And we thought Al was all hat and no cows.:) Al really knows what he is doing. Thanks Al.

The funny thing about all of this is the guy has no idea what he got me into.

Thanks to all,

Concho Bill
 
Before any more money went into this project, I would do some inside neck lubing in the same die. If this one step gets you where you want to go, then you sure haven't spent any money to get your friend where he needs to go.
 
Thanks Al,

This is a bunch of guys who have a total of a whole lot of reloading experience.

Thanks to all,

Concho Bill
 
It is the first couple of million we get a little hazy about, but after that it gets better.:D
 
Bill Wynne said:
Thanks for the good suggestions. I am sure they may all work.

I tried a Lee collet die for neck sizing, yesterday, and I think that something was missing with it. Anyway, it did not work. I am taking it back.

I called RCBS to order a neck sizing die if they thought it would work. I started out as caller # 9 and in about 20 minutes I was # 1 and had an opportunity to discuss my problem with their answering machine.

Today I tried the suggestion and instructions up to a point put forth by Alinwa. Bingo! The thing works fine, or I am pretty sure it will when I change out the bent primmer rod (but that is another story). Seriously, the inside of the die is super smooth and shiny. Shells just jump out of the die so for. And we thought Al was all hat and no cows.:) Al really knows what he is doing. Thanks Al.

The funny thing about all of this is the guy has no idea what he got me into.

Thanks to all,

Concho Bill
Click to expand...

Thanks,

I guess :D

al
 
Redding and RCBS.....

Riflemeister said:
If all you're looking for is neck sizing, get a Lee collet die. The standard 270 Win collet die is relieved in the shoulder area and will quickly and more importantly, accurately resize the neck on your 270 Ackley Imp. I use the standard caliber Lee collet dies a lot for neck sizing Ackley cartridges. Cheap, easy and very accurate resizing of the necks. If you want more neck tension for a hunting rifle, all you have to do is dress down the decapping stem with emory cloth as it acts as the mandrel the collet squeezes the neck against. I usually find a .001" reduction in diameter of the stem works well for most hunting rifles.

The high dollar custom dies from Redding and RCBS are still working against the inherent inaccuracies of squeezing the neck down more than needed and then pulling it back over an expander ball. The expander ball is not your friend. It is the major source of neck runout in a loaded round.
Click to expand...

Redding & RCBS both make neck sizing that do not have an expander ball, just a straight de-capper rod/pin with no expander.
Just got through using my .223 Competition Redding ND for this purpose ;)
(P.S. - I like Redding nuch more than RCBS...just my preference)
 
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