7.62x54R Hard to size?

[kelvin232]

Also, brass washed steel is a thing. Don't know if it's used by ppu... But it exists.

[rsrocket1]

If your chamber is really big, you can still full resize but you are really working the brass hard.

Take one of your fired cases and see how it chambers in the gun. If it goes in and comes out smoothly, take the dimensions. Then get one of the resized cases and compare the dimensions. If they are really different, you might want to just neck size the brass. You can do this for several reloads before they start getting difficult to chamber, then you'll need to bump the shoulder back. The simple way of doing this is to do a full resize. This way you can shoot a brass case through 10 or so reloads while fully resizing the case only 2-3 times and just neck sizing them the rest of the time. The down side is you'll need to either sort your empties when you run across a tight fitting piece of brass for full sizing the next time or just full length resize them all when they become tight in the chamber.

Neck sizing die for 7.62x54R
I originally bought 100 pieces of PPU brass along with a whack-a-mole Lee Loader which only neck sizes. I later bought a full Lee die set but it only comes with a full length sizer/decapper, a seating die and a crimp die so I adjust the full length sizer to go about 0.4" down the neck. I also have a 0.311" expander. The Lee dies size and expand the neck to 0.305" ID in case someone wanted to shoot .308 Mosin Nagants. That's way too small for 0.312-0.315" bullets and you have to expand the necks back out to load lead bullets using the Universal neck expander. That's why I only size the neck as little as possible.

Fortunately my 91/30 has a decent chamber and when I do full length resize, it's no worse than resizing .308 Winchester cases. I use Vaseline, Bag Balm or STP. Most any lube will work so long as you put a thin even layer all down the length of the brass.

[dadswickedammo]

Something is amiss. Only problem I have ever had is Winchester 7.62x54 case heads are tough to get in and out of the shell holder.
I have loaded 1000s and ppu is a softer or thinner brass.

[Howie44]

Just loaded these this morning using PPU brass, RCBS FL dies, and One Shot.
As usual, works like a charm.