New barrel fired brass and resizing.

[camping1601]

So I had my 7mm STW rebarrled and I have some once fired brass that is tight and it's obvious it's a headspace issue by the feel of the bolt. Question is with it headspacing off the belt is there and thing that can be done to use this brass. I can get the bolt closed on the brass but you can clearly feel the lugs just don't want to clear and close.

 

[Pickettpuncher]

If you’re resizing a belted cartridge you should let the shoulder do the head spacing instead of the belt. It’ll help prolong your brass life as much as possible. What you may have to do is bump it back a little more cause it sounds like the new barrel is a hair shorter than the rifle it was fired in.

 

[camping1601]

I think I jumped the gun a little thinking it was headspaced off the belt. I FL size a case and they chamber fine.

All's well that ends well. Thanks!

 

[wind gypsy]

Belted magnum chambers typically fit sloppy on the shoulder because they can headspace off the belt and thus there may be more potential for dimension to shoulder variance from chamber to chamber. From what i've seen it's pretty typical for the shoulder to expand forward 0.014 - 0.017" from virgin case dimensions. When FL sizing the case you do not want to push it all the way back to virgin shoulder dimension if you care about case life. Just bump the shoulder back 2 or 3 thou to have sufficient clearance to feed reliably.