Noob Question: go-nogo gauge

[carbine-13]

All,
I am new to reloading and I'd appreciate your help. Right before I seat the bullet and crimp the case, the empty case slips easily into my Wilson Casel Length Headspace gauge. After I seat the bullet and crimp the case using my RCBS die, the finished cartridge no longer slips easily into the headspace gauge. It will slip in with a gentle push. Is that OK? I can't figure out why I'm getting a little resistance with a loaded cartridge.

Thanks so much,
Carbine-13

[Noah_Zark]

The bullet is likely expanding the case diameter a bit, and too much roll crimp will create a bulge that may be difficult to gauge or chamber. Did you try chambering the reloads in the firearm?

Noah

[frankski]

What caliber and bullet are you loading?

Besides what Noah said, it's possible the bullet is not seated deep enough.

[cephas]

Is the case being crushed a tad when seating and crimping? I've never had it happen with straight wall cases but have done it, uh I mean heard about it, with bottleneck cases.

[carbine-13]

Thanks for getting back to me. I'm loading 150 gr Hornady Interlock .308" bullets in .30-06 HXP (once-fired CMP) cases. I followed the instructions that came with the die set, and the bullet is seated to just below the top of the cannelure

Building on Noah's suggestion, I compared three cartridges: a Greek surplus, CMP factory round; one of my reloads that fit the headspace gauge perfectly; and my suspect reload (the one that fit the gauge when pushed gently). All three chambered just fine in my Garand. The factory reload and good reload slipped out of the chamber when I tipped the rifle up and the suspect load would slip out after I smacked the rifle handguard with the meaty part of my palm.

I'll back off on the crimp just a little bit to see whether that eliminates the problem. Is my suspect round OK to shoot?

Thanks again!

[frankski]

Take one of your finished rounds, mark the area around the neck at the crimp, and drop it into the case gauge. See if the marker ink is rubbed off.

That will show if you are deforming the case when crimping.

There is a chance of out of battery firing if a cartridge isn't fully chambered. You can avoid that by fixing the source of the fit problem first.

[Yellowfin]

Greek brass very often needs neck turning. I load it for precision stuff and turn it down to .0126 neck thickness, which is much needed as often spots are .0145 or more which if loaded would give it very, very little clearance if any at all.

[psweigle]

If you don't trim the brass to the same length, you can buckle the case slightly. Measure the brass after you size, in your case gauge, and see if it is within acceptable cartridge length.

[carbine-13]

Thanks so much for all your help. I did some further investigation and here's what I've learned.

The reloads that were sticking in the go/no-go gauge were sticking at the shoulder and not at the crimp.
A lot of my "new" CMP HXP cartridges didn't fit all the way in my go/no-go gauge. (Yikes!)
For the reloads that didn't fit the gauge completely, I pulled the bullets and resized the cases, checking the fit of the empty case in my gauge afterwards. It will be interesting to see whether these fit the gauge after reloading.

I've successfully reloaded shot shells for a couple of years, but metallic reloading is a different kettle of fish for sure! Again, thank you for all your help.

[cephas]

As usual there is some good input here. I believe most of us are thinking along the same lines.
If they are gauging well after resize I'd look at the next step the case is manipulated. If you're not belling the case mouth that would be seating/crimping.
Are you seating and crimping at the same time? If so I'd back the die out so no crimp is applied and seat a bullet for desired OAL. Check fit, if no go then we can concentrate on the seating operation.
If that's ok then I'd take a look at the crimping stage. As pointed out even case length is a major factor when using one die to seat/crimp.
When loading plinkers that are within max length, but not all even, I crimp with a Lee factory crimp die. The crimp it produces does not depend on all case lengths being exact.
Good luck, report back, always looking to learn something.