Stuck brass.

[gregorylucas]

Hi everyone. I recently have gotten into reloading and I have read several books as well as stuff on this great site and others in regard to the hobby.

I've run into a little bit of a hiccup, here's what I have done so far:

Bought 1000 rounds of once fired lake city brass.
Lubed casings and decapped/resized using my Lee single stage.
Trimed casings to length and chanfered the edges.

So after this as an exercise I placed an empty casing into my ar15 and let the bolt close. When I tryed to pull the bolt back the casing would not engaged from the barrel and I had to tap the bolt carrier group to get the casing to release. Werid thing is I tryed other casings and it seems like this affects about 1/2 of the casings that I try this with eject normally.

I doubt this is my gun since I have shot everything from Wolf to Hornandy out of this rifle with very few problems.

Whatca' think ladys and gents?

-Greg

[J-cat]

U sized them incorrectly.

[gregorylucas]

U sized them incorrectly.

Meaning I didn't set my die correctly? I raised the ram up all the way, screwed the die down until it contacted the shell holder, pushed the ram back up and then screwed the die in another 1/3 of a turn per the instructions. Then started resizing/decapping, can you be more specific?

Thanks,
Greg

[NRAhighpowershooter]

the brass might have been fired out of a SAW.. you might need a smal base die....

[J-cat]

Meaning I didn't set my die correctly? I raised the ram up all the way, screwed the die down until it contacted the shell holder, pushed the ram back up and then screwed the die in another 1/3 of a turn per the instructions. Then started resizing/decapping, can you be more specific?

Thanks,
Greg

If the brass was machinegun fired, you will need a small base die. MG fired brass expands more than non-MG fired brass because MG chambers are bigger, so when you size the case, the brass springs back more.

Standard dies size brass so it comes out about .001" or .002" smaller than a standard chamber. Standard dies account for springback, but not the amount of springback you ger from MG fired brass.

Small base dies size the case another .001" or .002" and will take case of the additional springback, so your cases will fit your standard chamber.

The other thing is yout die setting. Don't screw the die to touch the shell holder then another 1/3 turn. You may induce excessive headspace that way and your casehead will let go when you fire the round. You want to set up the die so it gives you no more than .005" headspace. You do this by trial and error. Screw the die down to touch the shell holder, then back it off half a turn. Size a case and try to close the bolt. If it doesn't fit, screw the die in a bit more and try again. You may need to screw it 1/3 past the point it touches the shell holder, but not in always.

The easiest way to go about it is to buy a Redding competition shellholder set. They come in five heights in .002" increments. You start with the tallest shell holder, screw the die to touch it, try a case, and proceed to the next smallest increment until the bolt closes. For semi-autos, you give yourself another .002" for good margin and you are GTG.

This way your brass will last a long time and you won't have to worry about casehead failure.

[30Cal]

Meaning I didn't set my die correctly? I raised the ram up all the way, screwed the die down until it contacted the shell holder, pushed the ram back up and then screwed the die in another 1/3 of a turn per the instructions. Then started resizing/decapping, can you be more specific?

Thanks,
Greg

Get a case gage or comparator and use it to set the die. It's a lot easier to get it right when you can measure what you're doing. They're cheap.

[gregorylucas]

Thanks for the good advice folks it gives me a good idea of what is going on.

-Greg

[Bug Splat]

Just to rule out everything, you are using a full length sizing die right and not just the neck sizer?

Full length sizing die on right:


Neck sizing die:

[gregorylucas]

Just to rule out everything, you are using a full length sizing die right and not just the neck sizer?

Full length sizing die on right:


Neck sizing die:

Yes I am using the FL die on the right of the picture, thanks.

-Greg

[Bug Splat]

Yes I am using the FL die on the right of the picture, thanks.

-Greg

I thought so but figured I should ask. Its happened before

[gregorylucas]

I thought so but figured I should ask. Its happened before

No problem, my comment wasn't meant sarcastically. I'm a technically minded person and people make some pretty silly mistakes. It's like when I've made computer service calls in the past that people don't have the damn power cord plugged in.

-Greg

[ArticleTheFourth]

Get a case gage or comparator and use it to set the die. It's a lot easier to get it right when you can measure what you're doing. They're cheap.

Try one of these case gages in .223. It works for me.

http://www.dillonprecision.com/#/content/p/9/pid/25547/catid/3/Dillon_Rifle_Case_Gages

[gregorylucas]

Update: Well I sent in my Lee die for service with a few of the casings in question. In the meantime I went out and bought a set of RCBS dies for 223 and 308 because the people I know recommend them very highly.

So I started resizing the 308's that I have and I did about 300 in an hour using Hornady's One Shot Lube. These casings chambered in my FAL after trimming no problem.

Onto the original problem however and I started resizing 223's. After trimming the casings chambered no problem in my DPMS upper.

I got the Lee 223 dies back from the factory but after this I don't think I am going to be using them again, since it seems to me to be a die problem.

-Greg

[SKSer]

weird, I use LEE .223 dies with no problems, maybe you just got a bad apple.

[gregorylucas]

weird, I use LEE .223 dies with no problems, maybe you just got a bad apple.

Yeah I know since the 308 Lee die I was using worked fine for my FAL.

Greg