Resizing .308 brass.....

[Lambchop]

Should I be breaking a sweat? I was putting almost all of my weight on the handle of the press and the brass was moving extreemly slow. I spent a couple of minutes, 1 or 2, on a sinlge piece and it still is not sized all the way. If it matters the press is a RCBS single stage and the dies are Lee, I adjusted the dies like the instructions said and used case lube. What gives?

[Sheldon]

Was it surplus military brass?? That stuff has most likely been shot thru machineguns and can be quite stretched and require more effort to resize and a shorter life.

[eckerph]

This may sound stupid but is youre press bolted down good to something sturdy? My brother called me complaining the other day because he had the same problem resizing 7.5 swiss brass, i guess he bolted it to an inch thick piece of MDF type material and was using his body weight to push on the handle and broke the board he had it bolted on . I assumed he wasnt getting any leverage so told him to bolt it down to something heavy/sturdy and apperantly tha was the problem.

[dw1784]

I have the same prob with brass from FAL's. The last 3/8" is the hardest; plus I had to screw the collet holding the decapper real tight so the pin won't come off on the downward stroke.
Like eckerph suggests, mount the press to something sturdier and try the RCBS lube. The Lee lube paste is not very good for full sizing brass from semi-auto's.

[Josh]

make sure the brass is properly lubed, the only time ive ever had a problem as you described where i needed all my weight was resizing .50bmg brass thats been run through a MG and even then its either due to not enough lube or the dies needed to be cleaned.

[Lambchop]

Thanks guys!

[ocabj]

What are you using for lube? If you aren't using Imperial Sizing Wax, try it. It's applied with the fingers and is water soluble. One tin runs for $5 and it lasts forever. I've resized at least 10,000 times with one tin and still have half the tin left.

When you apply lube, lube the body, the neck inside/outside, and that's it. No neck on the shoulder. You'd be amazed how badly you can dent the shoulder during resizing with just the smallest amount of lube on the shoulder.

[Californio]

If its Military that was belt feed, RCBS, makes a Small Base Die set to get them back to SAAMI dims.

[NRAhighpowershooter]

If its Military that was belt feed, RCBS, makes a Small Base Die set to get them back to SAAMI dims.

On brass that is over-sized, there is no way in heck you will get them in a SB die.. you'd be better off using a regular FL die THEN use a SB die... but with the descriprion in the origional post, it sounds like the brass is once fired military brass.... as for the MDF board.. I also have my reloading bench topped with 1" MDF board (VERRY heavy and VERRRY dense stuff) but I wil admit I have the 2 bolts for the press running through 2 2x4's under neath the MDF board. I use the Hornady One-Shot lube for all my re-sizing needs...

[Californio]

Here is the link

http://www.midwayusa.com/eproductpage.exe/showproduct?saleitemid=681255

The reviews tell it all.

I made the assumption he was not loading for a bolt rifle.