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Old March 31, 2014, 01:34 PM   #1
Blindstitch
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Privi Partizan brass wont fit

Last week I ordered some privi partizan brass for 6.5 Jap from Huntington Die Specialties and when priming them I learned that about 25% wouldn't fit in the shell holder. I ended up using a 30-30 shell holder to load the ones that wouldn't work.

I'm using Lee shell holders and have two for 6.5 and they both act the same.

I emailed Huntington and the reply I got back was:
These will fit an RCBS shell holder just fine. Ask Lee to fix his shell holders.

Has anyone else had experience with this. Norma brass fits these shell holders just fine.
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Old March 31, 2014, 02:02 PM   #2
nemesiss45
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lol, good respnonse.


I don't know about the Jap, but I have a 6.5x55 swede. Most of my brass will fit a 30-06/308 shell holder, but my norma brass will not. I researched it a little, and it seems that some manufacturers (most maybe?) use the slightly smaller 3006 head... I assume so it is cheaper to produce because they can use the same stock as 3006, 308, etc..
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Old March 31, 2014, 03:32 PM   #3
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I have a similar problem with .303 British Prvi Partizan in both RCBS & Dillon shellholders. They seem to be a tad generous with rim diameter. Everything else fits in the holders just fine so its the brass's problem, not the shellholders.
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Old March 31, 2014, 05:42 PM   #4
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Done some business with Huntington some time ago. Had a darn nice conversation with its rep when on the phone. Think he was son or something of the founder of Huntingtons.

Anyway, as I recall, Huntington has a lot of RCBS products, not a place for Lee Reloading products.

Have same problem with my 6.5x55 Swede brass. If Remington or Winchester 6.5x55 brass, my #2 Lee shell holder works. If brass is European made, Norma or Prvi Partizan for example, I use the #3 Lee shell holder. European made is closer to original specs. Suspect the same thing exists for your 6.5 Jap brass.
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Old March 31, 2014, 06:33 PM   #5
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When I'm reloading 6.5x55 the #3 Lee shell holder is used, even Winchester won't fit in the #2 Lee shell holder I have.

If the #3 works for the 6.5 Jap, by all means continue to use it in your press. Bottleneck brass will "self center" in the die quite a bit.

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Old March 31, 2014, 08:58 PM   #6
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Problem solved kind of. Since I had nothing to lose I took a dremel tool and the smallest diamond bit I have and carved out a little more room. Now the once I had to force in slip in and the once that didn't fit at all will go in but bind a little. Now only about 3% give me problems.

If I had a spare piece of brass and some lapping compound I bet I could solve it for the rest of them.
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Old April 1, 2014, 06:12 AM   #7
grisbald
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I had the same problem with Privi Partizan .308 brass and the shell holder that came with my Lee .308 die set. They just would not fit. It's #2 shell holder. So then I tried my #2 shell holder that is with my 7mm-08 die set and it worked fine. Beats me why there is a difference, they should be the same.
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Old April 1, 2014, 09:27 AM   #8
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grisbold, one reason the shell holders aren't the same is the tolerances they all are made to. Some reloading company's tolerances are less than others so there's virtually no difference across several items with the same size number on them.

If your cases aren't made to SAAMI specs and have thicker rim thickness, there's a greater risk they may not easily fit all shell holders of the same number.
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Old April 1, 2014, 11:29 AM   #9
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Europe doesn't use SAAMI for one they instead use CIP and they can have very different limits for the same cartridge.

Much of European ammunition is loaded to the full potential of the cartridge, hence the reason all my 7.92x57JS hunting ammunition was European made (before I started reloading), something about a 198 gr Sp at 2600 fps brought a smile to my lips during moose season.

Norma and Lapua 6.5x55 didn't like the Lee shell holder, I used RCBS and I think the other was .303 British.

Just think, new shell holder could lead to new dies for another caliber, which in turn could lead to a new toy to fire said cartridge.
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Old April 1, 2014, 11:37 AM   #10
Brian Pfleuger
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I've got some old .25-06 brass that was reformed to 6mm Rem. Head stamped "Super Speed" or something like that, I'll have to check again. It won't fit in a Lee shellholder that all other brass I have of the size fits in just fine. I did the same thing, dremeled the shell holder until it fit. In my case, the problem was the angle of the extractor groove rather than the width.
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Old April 11, 2014, 03:48 AM   #11
Blindstitch
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I emailed Lee about it and got this response:

If you have a tight or undersized Shell Holder, you have two options. If you have a small hand grinder, you can try and modify the Shell Holder to fit, removing any interference. Or you can return the Shell Holder to us with a sample case and we can modify the Shell Holder for you.

We make our Shell Holders -.000/+.002. Case manufacturers make the cases +.000/-.008.



I modified all of mine with a dremel but it's nice to know that they would do the work for me if needed.
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Old April 11, 2014, 10:23 AM   #12
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FWIW, I believe Huntington's is owned by the son of the founder of RCBS. I suppose they would be a bit fond of RCBS products.
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Old April 11, 2014, 11:12 AM   #13
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In my estimation it's a non-problem. As long as the brass works in the gun and you have a shell holder that works, just load 'em up.
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Old April 11, 2014, 11:37 AM   #14
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Shell holder makers try to make each holder number work with as many different cartridges as possible, just to limit their inventory and tooling. They haven't all arrived at the same combination of sizes to cover all cartridges, and many will have been assigned by looking at cartridge drawings rather than actually trying them. As a result, a shell holder numbers from one maker can just happen to fit better than other maker's, depending on what other cartridges the maker wanted that number to cover.

For 6.5 Japanese, the recommended holders are:

#5 — Lyman
#15 - RCBS
#10 - Lee
#34 - Hornady
#4 — Redding
#65 - C-H

There is a chart for this and other cartridges, here.
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Old April 13, 2014, 11:08 AM   #15
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For reloaders, a precision measuring tool/tools is pretty important. If I were having this "problem", I'd measure the diameter of the case rim, measure the thickness of the case rim, measure the "extraction groove", and compare with SAAMI specs. and a case that fits the shell holder...
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Old April 13, 2014, 08:07 PM   #16
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Old April 14, 2014, 08:36 PM   #17
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Measuring the rim of the brass the diameter shown in the Hornady book is .466. Most measures at that but a few come in at .467. That shouldn't be a big deal.

But as for the rim thickness Hornady shows .050 and the privi actually measure .045-.056.

Of course I have also found other sources that suggest different numbers.

Guess this is why it wasn't hard to modify the 30-06 shell holder for the lee case length gauge to fit 6.5. 30-06 rim is .473 diameter, .049 rim thickness.
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Old April 16, 2014, 09:28 AM   #18
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I think maybe you've run into an American v. European understanding of the cartridge. In QuickLOAD, whose drawings are based on European specs, for the most part, the rim is shown as 0.476 maximum diameter and 0.059 maximum thickness. So, if there is no agreement on the actual dimensions to use, it's pretty hard to make the shell holder to fit, much less to manufacture consistent brass.

It may be that the thing to do is email the various shell holder makers, since the Prvi is going to be made to the European understanding of the dimensions, and say you've got a case with the rim dimensions I just gave, and ask what shell holder they recommend?
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Old April 16, 2014, 12:57 PM   #19
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Unclenick,
That's a good idea.
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