[Jack Monteith]

Hi, Cub:
This sounds like the Lee-Enfield .303 bulge. The chamber is oversized and the cartridge is lying on the bottom, unless the extractor is pushing it elsewhere. The firing pin nails it in place long enough for the brass on top of the case to bulge up to the top of the chamber. The bottom side stays straight.

The .303 solution is mapping tape. It's 1/16th wide and a wrap just ahead of the rim adds .008". This centres the case in the chamber and you only have to do it once if you neck size. Once you get the length right, so the ends almost butt, you can do a box in a couple of minutes and it's a lot nearer than masking tape. It's an old British trick. I use Geotape, made in the USA, and a good stationary store should have it. The roll I bought cost $5 a while back and should do 450 .303 cases.

Somewhere I read that the original .45 Colt cases had a slight taper, and carbide dies overdo the base of the case. The author (Dave Scoville???) used a steel die with the proper taper for reloading for an old Colt, IIRC.

Bye
Jack

 

[Jack Monteith]

Hi, Cub:
If the chamber is concentric with the bore, but oversized, recutting it will just make things worse. If it's not concentric, it's unfixable. I'd try the mapping tape, then I'd neck size the cases down to about .01" below the base of the bullet. Case life likely will be shorter, but that's a shoot it and see situtation. Try fireforming a few new cases with a 1/8" wide strip of masking tape around the base. It might take 2 wraps to fill the chamber. Likely the bulge will be uniform all the way around.

If you throw those once fired crooked cases away, Mike will be there to catch them.

Bye
Jack

 

[Jack Monteith]

Hi, Gents:
An out of round chamber is curious. That isn't easy with a conventional reamer. Incidently, I get basically zero runout on my fired .35 Remington cases out of the old Marlin, but both my Remington 700s have about .002" runout.

Feeding taped cartridges isn't a problem in a Lee-Enfeld, but you might have to hand chamber them in your Winchester. Mr. Gates noted that seating the bullet long so it's snug in the throat centres the front end of the cartridge and aids in getting an even expansion.

Sizing the neck to just the base of the bullet is OK for revolver bullets, since recoil trys to pull the bullet. The slamming the bullet takes in a tubular magazine tends to seat a bullet deeper, so I'd like a little more resizing to put a ledge in the case to hold the base of the bullet.

If you work up a load with new brass, you can see the bulge move closer to the rim as you go from min. to max. It's real easy to see with a Lee-Enfield.

Bye
Jack

 

[Jack Monteith]

Hi. Loader:
IIRC, Ross Seyfried says the Blackhawk cylinder is limited to 30,000 psi in .45 Colt. The limit's 40,000 psi in .44 Magnum cylinders, but they're getting a mite thin time they're reamed out for the .45.

Lil' Gun loads in the .357 Magnum are a bit strange too.

Bye
Jack