.303 Epps dies

[Treeman]

Any feedback on the rifle?

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Well I have it back, its ugly in my eyes, and rather heavy, but yea will have to shoot it first.

[Tripodmvr]

Pictures please.

[Treeman]

20240706_205107 by David Frank Allen, on Flickr
20240706_205134 by David Frank Allen, on Flickr

Fire formed 30 cases today, got lucky with the scope set up - fitted scope and could hit a 5 lt paint drum at a 100 m straight off the go.
Right now, I am shooting lead, 120 to 200 gr bullets in 308 and 303, anything that goes done barrel and fireforms the cases.

[Ds J]

Not necessarily ugly, rather a practical working rifle.

[Tripodmvr]

Have you received the dies?

[Treeman]

Yes the dies arrived Wed last week while packing for a hunt. I still had to buy the fresh stuff for the hunt and luckily the pick up point was same building - they appear new, unused.

I just got home from the range a moment ago, just finished fireforming a further 70 odd cases. Guys had a chuckle at my collection, pistol bullets, .303,.308,mono's, lead and cup and core bullets - 90 gr up to 210 gr, all loaded with a S355, S365 mix from spilt cases and last few grains left in a tin. Those knock overs and other spills that happen, well I used about 15 years of collected old propellant.
I have, actually had a beer mug of bullets that weighed wrong or were from unknown make source that I pulled for the cases, deceased estate reloads and left overs from load development that never worked out, all went int fireforming about 120 Epps cases for me.
40 gr of the 355/365 in every case and the bullet seated by eye.

About 20 cases that had 180 gr PMP look like bullets formed with rounded shoulders and 20 pistol 90 gr bullet cases are only 80 % formed.

Its now much barrel cleaning time, the cases are in the tumbler....................

[Treeman]

So! This is where I am at. Got some Epps dies, fireformed some cases. All that story stuff about using a neck sizing die to just size the neck?
 Well that's just it a bout stories.

Bought a .303 neck sizing die and it can not get over the Epps newly formed shoulder, so it can not even reach the neck to size it.
Next, that thing like you do on other cases where you partial neck size the case, no can do, the Epps die starts case forming long before it gets to the neck of the case.

Now - what now? I have heard talk of using a standard .308 die to neck size the Epps case. Question now is whether it sizes to .308 neck needs or does that get determined by the expander ball.
I assume you use a .308 die with the expander ball swapped out ?

[Tripodmvr]

Adjust the die to partially size the neck. The formed shoulder should not be pushed back as that is what will center the case in the chamber. Even if the sides are slightly pushed inwards the shoulder should ensure concentricity.

[janfred]

Problem with pushing the sides inwards, is that the displaced brass has to go somewhere. That equates to the shoulders moving forward. Also a reason why cases grow.

Measure the reference dimension before sizing and after a partial sizing operation to see what I mean.

[Treeman]

Adjust the die to partially size the neck. The formed shoulder should not be pushed back as that is what will center the case in the chamber. Even if the sides are slightly pushed inwards the shoulder should ensure concentricity.

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You are then basically un-Epp'sing it each neck sizing.

[janfred]

All full-length sizing dies start pushing the sides in before it starts on the neck. At least, all the ones I have used in the past. The less the body taper, the earlier in the cycle it has to start to give a proper full size.

Why not sacrificing one case and then measure the shoulder diameter before and after to see how much it actually pushes the sides in.

[Treeman]

I made a spacer which holds the case further down, now I can collet size the neck.

               ME velly velly clever   

[Treeman]

After many trips to the range I was at wits end with loads that did not work, I concluded that there was a problem which was not to do with the loads.
I cleaned, measured and dyed the metals, made tell tale points in the stock and found nothing. I then decided to sand and scrape the inside of the stock and look for shiny spots and contact history after a few shots. While scraping the recoil area, I found it - a crack in the recoil block, a crack right through the stock. I then followed logic and went to the rest of the stress point - the stock is almost split length wise.

Now what? Where does a man find a P14 stock that does not cost more than his last vacation.
 Perhaps it is repairable ?

[oafpatroll]

Now what? Where does a man find a P14 stock that does not cost more than his last vacation.
 Perhaps it is repairable ?

I've successfully repaired stocks a lot worse than that sounds. A thorough deep clean with acetone and an epoxy glue up reinforced with M5 or 6 threaded rod inserted at 90% to the crack will leave you with something stronger than you started with. If you dye the epoxy to the colour of the darkest part of the grain it can sometimes be almost completely invisible.