Reeder Custom Guns - these varying rim thicknesses are driving us batty

The gun is a standard 44 magnum but the rim thicknesses vary from .051 to .068 on 5 different brands of brass. So now comes the problem of setting the headspace with that much variance. I told my guys to pick the brass with the thickest rim and set the headspace to that. I will have to tell the owner to only use that particular brand of brass. If we set the headspace with the brand that is the thinnest then we get rubbing on the recoil shield if he uses any other brand. I sure wish the ammo and brass makers would get their acts together and stick with the SAAMI specs of .055.

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I use starline only

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a while back for all our Falcon cartridges and about one in 5 won't go in the RCBS shell holder. Drives me crazy.

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conversation with Doug and a few others for 300 GNR brass in revolvers. I sorted my donor 30-30 brass by Fed & Rem first. The rest I bagged as general purpose.

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first Africa hunt. They are a high dollar gun and are extremely picky about ammo. Hers will only work with Federal Premium ammo. With Federal Premium 300 mag ammo you can literally lift the bolt and work the action with your little finger but anything else and you have to beat the bolt open. Thru the years it seems that Federal is the only company that I know of that has stayed within SAAMI specs on their ammo. When they come up with a new cartridge they are horrible about promoting it and it usually dies on the vine due to no promoting. But their standard ammo, and especially the Federal Premium is some of the best there is.

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with the "belted" case for a smaller OD to clear the pawl gear on his FA 83. Initially he figured cutting down belted mags was within the realm for lots of advanced loaders. But NO. Every lot of belted cases had different belt thickness. In reality those belts on our American cases are just for show, they universally headspace off the shoulder. I guess they let the belt dimensions wander.

Bob had a batch of special cases made to his specifications for the round. It is a good round and fills the bill for it's specified role. I think I read Bowen did the same thing with the .458 Win. but I do not remember any notes of varied belt thickness.

There is no such thing as a free lunch.

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for back up on dangerous game. That is why the 416 Rigby is so popular over there. No belt. On many of the belted magnum cases the belts are taller or wider than on others and cause jams and hang ups, so most of the PHs that I know of won't use a belted magnum for back up.

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for our 41 GNR as they seemed to be the most dependable as far as sticking to factory specs.

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so I chucked the Contender barrel in the lathe and very, very carefully made the rim recess just deep enough to fit my thicker brass. The shoulder headspace fixes the rest on secondary firings, you don't headspace on the rims anyway.

If the rim recess is not thick enough to fit you can;t close the action at all. It sure won't lock up. But to err on the side of slop it does wonderfully. I've bitched about Freedom Arms revolvers for years with those swiss watch tolerances. A guy like me has no business (tolerance- a pun) with them.

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these varying rim thicknesses are driving us batty

Hornady Brass don't work for my .41 GNR

Colleen picked up a big batch of 30-30 brass for me

Isn’t Federal within spec? Think I recall this

Yep...only fed brass in my 300

I gave Colleen a Colt Sauer in 300 Win Mag for her

Bob Baker was doing the .500 Wyoming

most of the PHs in Africa will not use a belted magnum rifle

I couldnt use the starline had to go Remington

in years past I always recommended the Remington brass

THIS IS A MAJOR PROBLEM WITH THE .22 HORNET ALSO

I had a problem with the .30-30 in .256 Falcon