Type 38 pressure issue

[andiarisaka]

Good information guys. I noted the undersized Norma brass about 10 years ago, like many I thought my rifle had a headspace problem and started swaging .308 winchester down to fit. I wrote Norma about the problem and on their website it now shows ammo loaded with cases based on the .303 british casehead size. However, they must have millions of the woefully undersized cases to get rid of. I now make cases for my type 38 from either .308 or the easier way, the .303 british. One could neck up the undersized Norma brass to .30 cal, then resize in the 6.5 die, just enough to allow the bolt to close, to avoid seperation. Another way would be to lightly grease the cases before the first firing. Either way, headspace is moved to the shoulder rather than the .010" undersized rim. 30/40 Krag can also be used, but is harder to come by than .303. I'll bet a lot of type 38s have been junked by people thinking they had a headspace problem, when the problem was really undersized brass.