If you're sure you have your die set up right, and running them all the way
in for a definate full length re-size, and they still won't chamber...
Then there's nothing else I can think of you can do.
These things happen sometimes in re loading.
30-30 brass in readily available, so don't sweat it.
Toss them and use what works.

 

If you're sure you have your die set up right, and running them all the way
in for a definate full length re-size, and they still won't chamber...
Then there's nothing else I can think of you can do.
These things happen sometimes in re loading.
30-30 brass in readily available, so don't sweat it.
Toss them and use what works.

Humm not so plentiful Sir.... Full length size, AND ck LOA

 

If they are trimmed to proper length, start tweaking the die down to set the shoulder back. Two different rifles, two different chamber dimensions. Your reloaded Federals were shot in your rifle which probable has a little tighter chamber than the gun the range brass you collected was fired in. That 1/8th inch travel on the lever probable only represents a couple thousands on the shoulder.

With a set of calipers you can measure from the base of the brass to the start of the neck and most likely see the difference.

 

As navajo said. The only other thing I can think of is COL. That last little bit of chambering, I think, would have to be either the case is the wrong size or the whole thing is too long and running into the rifling.

Tim

 

smoke the case and try again.
or wipe it with a marker and let the marker dry then try to chamber the round.
that will usually show you what's rubbing. [mainly for cases that don't get the neck set back]

but you have some cases in hand that do chamber, so pull measurements from the 2cases starting right above the rim and work your way down the case.
measure across and up the case to the shoulder, the neck junction, and the case mouth.
don't forget to measure the rim width and thickness both of them can prohibit chambering.

once you find out why they ain't chambering then you can track down whether it's the brass, the gun, or the die set.

 

How did you crimp, with the die or with a separate FCD?
if you over crimp with a die, sometimes you can bell the shoulder a fraction which wont let a round chamber completely.

How tight of a crimp did you apply?
a heavy, heavy crimp on certain bullets like plated bullets without a cannelure can bell the bullet a bit and potentially have chambering issues.

What is your overall assembled length?
could you be a bit long and the bullet making contact with the lands?

Have you chambered a properly sized empty case by itself to check fit and cycling?

Could there be something in the chamber not letting the rounds fully seat to correct depth?

 

As others have said, COL or case diamensions. Likely case diamensions as the Federals did fine. The 30-30 headspaces off the rim. However if the Henry has a tighter chamber, read shoulder, rounds fired from other rifles which have more liberal diamensions may not chamber unless more fully resized to push that shoulder back at least as far as the Henry requires.

 

Thanks for all the reply's! As instructed, I moved the ram with shell holder all the way up, then spun the RCBS FL sizing die down to touch it. Backed the ram off and spun the die another 1/8 turn down. Resized both the Remington/Winchester and the once fired Federal cases together in this batch. Also, all cases (Federal and the others) on the first go-round had bullets seated to the same OAL where I had a light crimp at the cannelure on the Sierra 150 gr. FP's. The cases were also all trimmed to the same length using a Lee case trimming tool. When I went to the range last week, every Federal loaded case chambered and fired. Not one of the Rem. or Winchester rounds would chamber all the way.

Last night I also tried with the die spun 1/4 turn down. Pulled apart one of the rounds that wouldn't chamber last weekend to see if I could resize the empty case a bit more. When I put an empty case in the shell holder and move it up to resize, the shell goes all the way in the die with the shell holder touching the bottom of the die. Can't move the die down any more as it's already touching the shell holder. I have Sinclair headspace comparitors for my .223 rounds I reload, but not (yet) for the 30-30, so I don't know where the shoulder is being set back to.

I did buy an additional 50 cases over the weekend and will reload those this week. After sizing the new cases last night, they do chamber in the rifle (where my one pulled apart Winchester empty case still won't chamber). If I just need to toss the range pick-up cases, that's ok too.

 

Could have bumped the shoulder too much creating bulge you cannot easily see if factory ammo chambered there is something with one of your die setups that is causing problem. A case gauge is one place to start

 

I had the same problem with 270’s a while back turned out to be seating die too far down put bulge in case that caused them not to chamber

 

Did you pick up the used brass all in one place, like it might have come from the same rifle? I would measure the resized brass at a point just above the rim, the part that doesn't get re sized in the die, and see if that may be where the interference is.

 

The used Remington and Winchester cases were picked up on two separate occasions, with one group fired from a Winchester 94 (that the gentleman let me try) over the summer and the other fired through a older looking Marlin 336 of unknown vintage a month or so ago.

If I put a bulge in the case as suggested, I assume it would be below the shoulder (not in the shoulder or neck)? I can measure to see with my calipers.

I also just realized that the turning the die until it hits the shell holder then another 1/8 turn is not relevant as my Lee Classic Cast is not a "cam over" press. It has stops in the linkage to prevent that. So I guess I would just adjust the die to touch the shell holder?

 

"So I guess I would just adjust the die to touch the shell holder?"

This is the part throwing me..setting the die farther down than just touching the shell holder.
I don't seat the die til it touches the holder, then turn down MORE, Ive always seated the die down til it touches the shell holder, then back UP just enough to see a fraction of daylight, maybe .002" and Ive had no problems after that little adjustment.
That stopped me from bulging the shoulder in cases.. learned that trick doing 7.62x51 in 308 dies..

anyhow, you do have an interesting mystery on your hands, cant wait to see what the culprit is in the end..
:five:

 

Flatsneck, what you're saying does make sense. The turning an extra 1/8 turn in the RCBS instructions assumes a press has some slop, hence the "cam over" to remove the slop. My Lee doesn't have that. Maybe what I should do is prep and load these new cases, and then with the fired cases adjust the die to touch the shell holder, then back it off 1 turn. Cases may not chamber. The gradually turn it down until an empty case does chamber?

Also, if I did bulge the pick-up cases, is there any way at this point to remove the bulge, or do I just toss them? New 30-30 cases are surprisingly cheap ($19 for 50), so it wouldn't be a big deal.

 

Did you check the primer? I had some loads where the primer wasn’t seated all the way. Stuck out just enough to keep the lever from closing. Good thing I didn’t force it closed, could have gone off without the bolt closed.

 

This is an obvious problem to solve. The OP's rifle has a tighter chamber than the rifles that fired his scrounged up brass. His dies did not size the case down enough to fit in his Henry rifle. For decades I have heard people say the shoulder is not set back far enough. In my experience in handloading for nearly a 100 different rifles, it's normally the body or the head of the case that is not sized down enough to chamber in a different rifle.

The OP can do whatever he wants, but if it were me, I would just resize the brass that came out of the Henry and be done with the problem.

 

measure the cases.
you'll see what the problem is.
this is super common, might as well figure it out now.

the reason you tough the shell holder then turn the die down more is because your gonna shove brass in there.
the brass doesn't want to re-size and will make that extra turn down seem like you need more when you see the gap between the die and shell holder with a case in there.
it's also not uncommon to have to take some metal off the top of a shell holder to make things FIT YOUR GUN... not bob's gun YOUR'S.

 

T

his is an obvious problem to solve. The OP's rifle has a tighter chamber than the rifles that fired his scrounged up brass. His dies did not size the case down enough to fit in his Henry rifle. For decades I have heard people say the shoulder is not set back far enough. In my experience in handloading for nearly a 100 different rifles, it's normally the body or the head of the case that is not sized down enough to chamber in a different rifle.

I'm curious about this. Wouldn't a particular die size all cases down to the same size regardless of what rifle they were fired in. I can understand two different dies maybe creating two slightly different sized cases but not one die. Also why didn't the die he is using bulge the federal cases he reloaded? I still go with a shoulder to far forward and not a bulged case...but whatever the problem is I'm interested to learn.

 

T

I'm curious about this. Wouldn't a particular die size all cases down to the same size regardless of what rifle they were fired in. I can understand two different dies maybe creating two slightly different sized cases but not one die. Also why didn't the die he is using bulge the federal cases he reloaded? I still go with a shoulder to far forward and not a bulged case...but whatever the problem is I'm interested to learn.

The problem is that his dies and probably mine everyone here won't resize the case enough to fit his chamber. I learned long ago to avoid these issues especially with lever actions by using the same brass with the rifle that fired the brass. I cannot see altering dies or anything else to salvage some scrounged up 30-30 brass. Heck, 30-30 ammo is half the price loaded per round than what I pay for some virgin brass for other rounds.

 

Well, due to some slight springing of the sized case, depending upon state of anneal, it is possible for a case shot in a large chamber and sized in a die on the upper end of the tolerance range to not fit a chamber on the smaller end of the tolerance range.

As here, possibly. Much also depends upon how much the press springs and whether the combination of all these factors allows sizing to be sufficient to allow chambering.

When cranked down as far as possible a friend’s old RCBS 270 dies used in a Lee Classic cast turret press will not quite size enough. One possible fix is to take a little off the bottom of the die, keeping in mind this metal removal affects its proper future adjustment when used in other situations and presses.

Just mindlessly doing the “crank ‘er down to touch plus a bit” instructions found with some dies will not do. Thinking and particularly measuring shoulder movement when sizing is a better policy when adjusting dies.

Die adjustment that sizes cases previously fired in your gun adequately likely will not be enough sizing when cases are obtained that were fired in a bigger chamber. It is fair to ask me about sizing surplus 7.62 brass for my 308 after I just made the previous statement.

This experience is not at all uncommon.

 

And look at surplus or range pickup brass with a jaded eye. If you are not checking for thinning near the head before any reasonable use you are missing something important.

I still see the occasional Glocked brass in 40, by the way.

 

I still see the occasional Glocked brass in 40, by the way.

What does that mean?

 

Spring back of sized brass crossed my mind but I don't know how much if any that involves. I guess the reason I'm kind of hung up on the shoulder is I once ordered a batch of Lake city 7.62/308 brass and after sizing they would not chamber in my rifle. The reason turned out to be the shoulder had to be set back just a tad. After doing that they chambered just fine. After setting the shoulders back I simply re-adjusted the die for normal sizing and everything was fine. Very well not have anything to do with the OP's problem...

 

Glock's have a unsupported case at the base of the cartridge when chambered which created a bulge. Normal dies would not remove all the bulge which made them unsafe for hot loads...at least that is my understanding. Don't know if the problem has been corrected or not.

 

It has, but there are older Glock barrels still out there.

 

Since the loaded "pick up" brass didn't chamber, I pulled them all apart last night to reuse the powder and bullets. Just for grins, I took some of the now empty cases (empty of powder and bullets) and tried to chamber them, and of course, they still wouldn't. The lever would close all but the final 1/8". I think I'm done with those cases.

I then finished up reloading the 50 factory fresh cases (bought over the weekend). I tried chambering the first one that got powder and a bullet and it chambered just fine. I also tested about every 10th one and they all chambered fine. When I get these cases all fired, I think I will size them by adjusting the sizing die down to touch the shell holder, then back it off 1 full turn. I assume the fired cases won't chamber with a die 1 full turn out. I'll then turn it down an 1/8th of a turn at a time until the empty cases chamber, then tighten the lock ring.

As a complete aside, love the new Henry color case hardened 30-30 (H009cc)! A very smooth rifle that is well put together with nice lumber. Tube loading doesn't seem to be any better or worse (just different) than my two gate fed Marlins (1894C and 1895). All three are keepers!

 

Since the loaded "pick up" brass didn't chamber, I pulled them all apart last night to reuse the powder and bullets. Just for grins, I took some of the now empty cases (empty of powder and bullets) and tried to chamber them, and of course, they still wouldn't. The lever would close all but the final 1/8". I think I'm done with those cases.

I then finished up reloading the 50 factory fresh cases (bought over the weekend). I tried chambering the first one that got powder and a bullet and it chambered just fine. I also tested about every 10th one and they all chambered fine. When I get these cases all fired, I think I will size them by adjusting the sizing die down to touch the shell holder, then back it off 1 full turn. I assume the fired cases won't chamber with a die 1 full turn out. I'll then turn it down an 1/8th of a turn at a time until the empty cases chamber, then tighten the lock ring.

As a complete aside, love the new Henry color case hardened 30-30 (H009cc)! A very smooth rifle that is well put together with nice lumber. Tube loading doesn't seem to be any better or worse (just different) than my two gate fed Marlins (1894C and 1895). All three are keepers!

I've been reloading for a long time & reload for about 15 different cartridges. I've never seen a once-fired case that would not rechamber in he gun in which it was originally fired. I have a few neck-sizing only dies and some of those calibers will rechamber 3 or 4 times before requiring full length resizing.

I'm guessing you have a very unusual problem that hasn't been mentioned yet. It's strange to run a case through a resizing die and have that case not chamber in your gun or any gun. My guess is that you may have a poorly machined die that may not be touching the shoulder at all, which is why only brass fired in you gun will chamber. If your gun had a problem, it would probably show up when trying to chamber factory loads.

 

I would say you don't need to go a full turn up. Just run the die all the way to the shell holder lightly. then just back it off until you can just see daylight between the two.. 1/8-1/4 turn. then give it a try. Also, with the cases that wont chamber, run those thru first, if the shoulder was slightly bulged, that would take care of it right away. if not, there's other issues out there, at least it will narrow things down one way or another.

 

I had a problem like this with a 22-250 Ackley with RCBS dies, the base of the cartridge was not resized enough. Before I changed to Redding competition dies I would push the case a little further into the die by removing the shell holder and just use the ram. The case would have to be taped out of the die with a rod, without going over the top and going slowly you could rule out a overly expanded case base. As has been posted measure the cases those that will and those that will not chamber, and or mark the cases with a black felt tip. A fully resized case should chamber with out removing the black ink the answer has to be there it can't hide for ever.GH

 

Off the top of my head the shell holders should be .125 in. if the resized case now chambers as I believe it will you have 2 options grind down a shell holder or try a different full length sizing die.GH