fuhrmann,
Modern brass will also give problems, mainly rimmed and belted cases. Often the chambers are reamed too long, since the headspace is usually measured from the front of the rim or belt. When the shoulder in the chamber is too far forward, the headspace can still be correct. This sets up a condition where the shoulder is set back at every sizing and then blown forward at the next firing. This will cause head separations. The same thing can happen if the sizing die/shell holder combination causes the neck to be set back. Older rimmed cartridges such as 303 British, 30-30, etc are known for short case life. Even more modern wildcats such as 357 Herrett require precise fitting of fired cases to the chamber. I set dies for even rimless cartridges to "kiss" the shoulder, even though they don't give as many problems. I think in the old days, there wasn't as much handloading, especially in Europe( as always you will find exceptions). Many of those that did handload, such as 8.15x46R shooters,did so in in-resized cases, which fit the chamber. The loading tools we are accustomed to are a relatively modern thing.
Mike
Last edited by Der Ami; 01/19/17 04:16 PM.
