bottom of shoulder not resized right

Ok, resized some 243 rounds, primed, charged, and seated bullets. Well the bottom of the shoulder is not seating right in my rifle. I have a 243 single shot h&r handi rifle. I can see physically where the bottom of the shoulder is rubbing and these rounds will not allow the barrel to close and click shut.

Does my resizer, which is a full length resizer, need an adjustment?

Yes. It needs to be screwed in the press farther.

If you want to get it perfect, order a Hornady Headspace gauge kit, and measure fired brass, with the proper insert. Screw the die in an eighth turn, size fired brass, measure with the gauge. Play with it until you get the brass shoulder pushed back .002" to .003" shorter than what it was after having been fired in the rifle. a.k.a. fired shoulder length.

Were these cases fired in your rifle?

Some were and some werent...thats probably why some seemed to have been resized correctly and some not.

This should be MANDATORY for any new reloader.

Matt, do you have a reloading manual?

You can get by for now without a headspace gauge (I use a Willis dial indicator instead) just by doing what was suggested - on the ones that don't fit, screw in the sizing die PAST where it makes contact with the shoulder, say one turn. Run everything through the die then and they should all chamber.

The problem is, you've already loaded these cases. You'll need to buy a bullet puller and remove the bullets and powder before resizing.

not really...I have a collaboration of printed material that covers tons of information...startup - loading data - etc.

From several different sources to see the differences. I have a manual that came with my Lee Anniversary Press Kit, but its kind of a small manual.

I need one! I know I know!

I only had 6 cases loaded and was able to pull the bullets with a pair of pliers that I guarded the grooves with paper and worked the bullets out. I just threw away the cases because they had primers and didnt want to resize with live primers in there or try and pop live primers out...but did salvage the bullets with hardly any marks at all and the powder from them.

Can I just keep resizing down until the shoulder is right....measuring with calipers?

Follow the set up instructions in the die box.

-Insert shell holder
-raise ram all the way
-screw in die body till it touches shell holder
-lower ram
-screw in die body another a little more and set lock ring.

This should get you to a full length resize that should chamber in any gun of the same caliber within spec.

What would you measure with the calipers? If you want to take your time, you can just keep turning past the contact point 1/8 turn at a time until the case will chamber.

^^^ This. But on the step when you screw the die in "a little more", screw it in atleast 1 full turn deeper, and this will solve your problem. The biggest rookie mistake when sizing brass, is locking the die down with the ram raised all the way to the top. The press has some flex in it when it is under pressure during sizing. So when the die touches at the shell holder at the top, by the time you put a case in it and size it, the shell holder will no longer make contact with the die, and you do not get a full length sizing. It's about .004-.008" less, which is just enough to cause a chambering problem.

this is what I did initially.

this is exactly what is happening.

Hey here soon I will be answering these questions for other rooks...thanks