Shiloh Rifle Forums

Have RCBS case forming dies, 45-70 to 40-65, and lyman full length sizer die. Cases will not chamber, almost, but rim does enter chamber. What type sizer die is needed to size a case to enter the Shiloh chamber?

dryfly
What kind of cases are you useing? I tryed the same thing with Winchester brass and the guys at Buffalo Arms told me that the Winchester cases will not work for the Shilo chamber. They sugested Remington cases instead. I just went with the Starline brass. Good luck Howard

Hey Dryfly, give me a call at 406-932-4266, I don't think it's a big deal. Buffalo Arms is full of it about the winchester brass, we use it and so do a lot of other people I know. One thing that they all forget to look at is the die manufacturers. I have not changed my chamber reamers for 12 years, but it sure is funny how you can grab 10 boxes of dies and 1 out of the 10 won't allow you to chamber the round, huh, Shiloh must have tight chambers.
Look and see if your die is one with the 1/4" radius at the bottom. I have at times had to trim the die shorter for people to get the bottom down to the correct size. We form our brass with the standard sizeing die that comes in the die set. Hope this helps, Thanks, Kirk

Thank you Kirk. Applied the grinder to the sizer die, all is again right with the world of BP Sharps. Winchester brass is working fine. In process of fire forming cases. Won't need the sizer on them, after that.

Good deal, didn't want you to have to go buy more dies.

Kirk thanks for setting me strate on that. I will give it another try Howard

I agree with Kirk about the dies. I have an older set of RCBS .40-65 dies and they will not size most brass down enough to chamber in my Shiloh just like you experienced. However the Remington brass is .001" or .002" smaller at the base than other .45-70 brass. So with my dies the resized Remington .45-70 brass is the only ones that will work in my Shiloh. Buffalo Arms may have had the same experience. Parley

Dryfly,

I had a similar experience with my Pedersoli rolling block (a very good rifle for the money, but my Shiloh is on order). I bought formed .40-65 Winchester brass from Buffalo Arms (nice people to do business with) and resized them again in my Lyman dies. I didn’t check the chambering until they were already loaded and they wouldn’t chamber. The breech wouldn’t quite close, but fortunately it was only a handful of cartridges. I panicked and then did a little research on the old shooters.com site. The suggestions I found were to grind off the base of the sizing die or set the case on top of the shell holder. The latter requires you to remove the decapping assembly and tap the case out of the die with a wooden dowel. I opted for the shell holder method and it worked fine. Even though it’s a bit time consuming, you will only have to do this once.

I also split half of the Winchester cases with a friend who owns an identical rolling block. We sized his cases in his Lee dies and they worked fine in his rifle. The “top of the shell holder” method was not required. Was it the rifle or the dies? I suspect the dies. The next batch of brass I bought was Starline .40-65 and they chambered just fine.

BTW, my Lyman dies have worked fine ever since.

May Your Lantern Burn Bright,
Paul