I kind of like to fix what is wrong, but what you suggested could work also. Instead of facing off the die, I would face a little off the top of the shell holder. I just milled a slot in a 45 Colt shell holder to make room for primers that scoot back in my "snake" gun. The shell holder was not that hard.
The difference in length from the shoulder to the rim will be difficult to measure. I think the headspace tolerance on the rim is .006 inches. If you can take off .003 to .004 inches at a time off the shell holder till it works might be better than making a mistake measuring something that is difficult.

I guess great minds think alike. My buddy who is a machinest/ gunsmith on his stuff said the same thing.

Not all dies are created equal, have a similar problem with two M70 Winchester 243 rifles.  Brass FL sized in an RCBS die will not let bolt close on one of the rifles.  A Hornady FL sizer however works for the tight chambered rifle.  Go figure. 
Since you bought new RCBS dies you might also contact RCBS and explain the problem, they have outstanding customer service.

butlersrangers wrote on Jan 7^th, 2017 at 2:42pm:


Earlier we were not 100% sure where the chamber was tight. If it had been on the body diameter, shaving the shell holder enough to force it further into the chamber would have excessively set back the shoulder each time a case was reloaded.
Since Redleg's chamber was cut shallow, one other thing to watch for will be case rim interference. When setting the headspace on my sporter, I measured the rim thickness on about 100 of my new Remington cases and found several that were only .001 inch smaller than the maximum allowed. If the shoulder was not reamed deep enough it is possible that the headspace (on the rim) is also tight. If the barrel end was faced off to fix this it may be a non issue and a resized shell holder will solve everything.
Oh and Parashooter probably deserves several spritzers for all the help he has given us over the years.

FredC wrote on Jan 9^th, 2017 at 3:08pm:


Amen to that!

+1 on the Lee dies. They are cheaper than my RCBS dies and make ammo every bit as good. Lee definitely stands behind their products and has terrific customer service. Just for the record, my 30-40 dies are Lee.
Check ebay for them. I bought mine new for less than 25 bucks.
Jon

Interesting thread.
Yelp, As Paul mentioned, I too agree that Lee are great folks to deal with!  I have a set of Lee dies for my Krag.  And as previously noted, RCBS has great customer service as well.  It might be worth a call to RCBS CS folks.  Setting the sizing die face back a few thousands would likely fix the issue. 

I had a similar problem with a 03-A4 clone where my new Hornady Custom Grade die just wouldn't set the shoulder back enough to allow for smooth bolt closing (read as tight chamber).  I called their CS people and discussed the problem.  They went thru several scenarios, including using only Hornady press and shell holder.  Now, I knew this just wasn't going to result in a solution.   CS was reluctant to reface the die.  Stating: they've had several done for customers that didn't solve the problem.  Huh, I thinking.
A few weeks later I talked with one of their guys at the NRA Convention in Louisville.  He was most helpful and provided return authorization to have the face setback 0.007".
Problem solved!
Vic