Anyone have any issues with hard bolt closing with Nosler brass? I have an issue with the 7mm STW with new brass being out of specs within the headspace on the belt. I reloaded 30 new brass and full sized them, only 4 chambered normally, 11 of them was pretty snug and a little tight, 10 others was very hard to close the bolt and 5 of them was not able to close the bolt at all. Came home and pulled the bullets out because I was afraid to fire the ammo with the ones that was very hard to close the bolt. I asked a local gunsmith and he also was working on a customer's gun, a 7mm STW also, and low and behold he has the same issue I have. He measured the headspace, from the belt to the bottom of the cases and it was 15 thousandths over specifications. And those brass has not been fired and its the reason why its hard to close the bolt or not able to close at all. I spoke to Nosler and the rep was a bit rude and swears that they have the finest engineers and that its nothing wrong with the brass and was reluctant to help solve the issue. I have been reloading for 25 years and I am not stupid and I know for sure the issue is with the new brass. I tried to use a body die, neck die and full size die from RCBS and Redding, the issue still stands and Nosler won't help worth a damn. I have used the same dies with Remington and Winchester brass and it chambers just fine for the last 5 years, never had one new brass chamber hard or not able to close the bolt except for Nosler which I bought brass for the 7STW for the first time. I have bought thousands of bullets from Nosler and how funny that they won't help to try to solve the issue. Maybe I won't ever buy from this shitty company again because of their reluctance to try to solve issues. I tried Nosler brass in my 7 mm Rem. Mag for the first time, and out of 20 new brass, only one was very hard to close the bolt. Not bad with 7mm Mag, but my issue still persist with the 7mm STW, so I sent my rifle to my gunsmith out of state and he will check to see what is going on, but I am sure the problem is not my dies or my gun. I sent the dies and the brass along with my gun to him.

Does any one else have any issues with the new brass from Nosler?

no

I had one 223 case that had a damaged/torn mouth. Only problem other than that is that I don't get the case life with Nosler that I do with Norma/Lapua.

I'm using Nosler and Norma .257 Weatherby brass to neck up to my 6.5 Weatherby. My builder uses Nosler brass for all their rifles> I have had no issues, only If don't bump shoulders back just enough to close bolt easily.

since you are sure its not your dies or gun, you have done the right thing sending it back to the gunsmith.

I wouldn't bag Nosler just yet, although I can definitely see your point about rude employees. I don't have time for that either.

Good luck, looking forward to your findings

I use Nosler brass in my STW. I haven't had any issues. I'm sure it's a different lot, though. I've had mine for awhile.

What kind of dies/press are you using? I'd suspect that you didn't set your resizing die properly.

OP's quote

but I am sure the problem is not my dies or my gun

I'm sure he's right

If he is saying that the belted region of the case is out of spec then the dies don't resize that area. It should be simple if that is the case, look of the correct max spec and measure. If its over call up nosler tell them what is out of spec and offer to send them a problem case with explanation of your issue. My guess is if you are correct you will have a new box o brass shortly with an apologetic letter.

I'd try another 1/4 turn on the resizing die and make sure the press cams over before I got nosler involved

Rumor has it that Nosler's brass is made by Norma.

I use it in 7STW and 280 Rem, never had an issue with it.
It doesn't last as long as Lapua brass, the primer pockets get loose after 4-5 reloads.

Where specifically does the brass make contact in the chamber? I have seen belted magnum brass make contact in 2 places. Sometimes it will make contact about 1/16" to 1/8" above the belt in the case wall. Some gunsmiths use a tighter match chamber and this area is tight at the case web area. I'd find it odd if the brass is not chambering due to the belt being too tall. .015" is 3 times over max head space, and that doesn't make sense. My bet is the case web area is too large on the virgin brass and is making contact there. Take a Sharpe and color up a case and chamber it a few times and see where it is rubbing. This will tell you where your problem is.

According to a Varmint magazine that was doing a comparison of brass from the major players. Federal makes the Nosler brass. I tend to believe that, due to the relatively short life I've observed with the Nosler brass, whereas Norma and Lapua seem to have long use lives.

Per the article, Federal weight sorts, hand selects, and fully preps the brass intended to be packaged for Nosler. It is good stuff. I just seem to wear it out faster than expected - neck splits and loose primer pockets.

I used the Redding full length Type S bushing die, when that did not work, I used the Competition sizing die, then the body die, then nothing worked, so I screwed the dies down more to size all the way to the belt, and still did not work. So tried the Remington and Winchester brass with all my dies, perfect with those two brass makers except Nosler brass. I did all I can do to make it work, but gave up. The gun is still at the gunsmith and I asked him to order a new .30 caliber Krieger barrel to convert it to .300 Win Mag or a 300 RUM. 7 STW is losing popularity with lack of good brass and other reason is that Nosler is the only good brass available but did not work well for my gun. I would not waste my time looking for good brass for the 7 STW when there is a great variety of brass for the .300 Win Mag. And also there are three times more varieties of bullets for the .30 caliber than they make for the .284
If you were to look at a list on Sierra, Berger, Nosler, or any bullet maker's websites, you can see a list of bullet / calibers and you will see the difference between the number of choices they have for the .30 caliber over the .284

I used Redding dies, full length and Competition, RCBS full sizer and plus a body die to try to fix the 7 STW Nosler brass issue. I have been hand loading for 30 years and I am sure I set them properly. So there is nothing wrong with my dies or my gun because Remington and Winchester new and fired brass works just perfect.

I screwed them all the way to the belt also.

Chad, It's good to talk to a person who has expertise in this area. Yes, I suspected it was the belts, and I wanted to make sure, so I got 4 Nosler brass that was hard to close the bolt with and I got a Sharpie and painted the forward areas of the belts on all 4 brass and chambered them and it was very hard to close the bolt, and upon taking them out, voila,,,I saw very shiny spots ONLY on one side of the forward parts of the belt on all 4 of them. The shiny spot was only on one side, and it was not shiny all the way around the case. So it looks like the belt is out of round or thicker on one side of the belt. So I get 10 fired brass, and 10 new brass from Remington and Winchester and ran them through each die and chambered each sized brass with all 3 different dies and the gun chambers just perfect. My local gunsmith says he is also having the same Nosler brass issue with his customer's 7 STW that he built for him and he checked the length of the belt to the end of the case and sizes vary from 5 to 15 thousands. The 15 thousands are the brass that I could not even close the bolt. I have already sent my 7 STW to my gunsmith that built my rifle in New Mexico and I have asked him to order a new barrel and it will be .30 caliber. There is more brass and bullet selections with .30 caliber than the .284 Both gunsmiths also mentioned the same opinions about the Nosler brass and "defected" was the reason. Could be a defected lot, but who knows and I won't care anymore because I have gone .30 caliber now. 7 STW is currently losing popularity because of crappy brass. Lapua is my choice of brass and Norma / Nosler comes in 2nd choice for my other rifles.

Not bashing Nosler, but pisses me off when a jackass rep from Nosler tells me " We have the finest and the best engineers in the world who make our brass, the problem is not our brass and the problem is your gun". I explained everything I found and what my gunsmiths told me and he would not hear any of it. It makes me want to take my dirty socks off and stuff it in his mouth and give him a good boot in the butt. He never made any effort to try to solve the issue by sending me a different lot of 10 or so pieces of brass to check in my rifle or send me a shipping label to send the bad batch off to them for them to check it. I have had tremendously better customer service elsewhere.

Ok, so the brass was the issue, and the belt was taller on one side?

Yes it was.