.223/5.56 reloading issues

[GeoffLinder]

Maybe your expander ball is worn on your resizing die and that is causing it to take extra pressure to seat the bullet.

I seriously doubt that. I have several .223 size dies with 50k rounds on each one and the expander plugs are the same diameter as when they started new. It would take many millions of operations for soft brass to cause any wear whatsoever on the much harder material of the expander ball.

[waho]

When was the last time you cleaned the die?

[scfrogmansc]

Sweet guys thanks for the help... this issue is driving me nuts... it is the expander plugs... out of spec just measured it .220. i used my friends die and my same seating die its working great. Just called RCBS getting a new expender plugs shipping out for free today! gotta love RBCS customer service... and thanks you all again for helping me figure out the issue... I truly appropriated it

[JD586]

I seriously doubt that. I have several .223 size dies with 50k rounds on each one and the expander plugs are the same diameter as when they started new. It would take many millions of operations for soft brass to cause any wear whatsoever on the much harder material of the expander ball.

Check this out, I think its more the grit from tumbling media grit/carbon etc that wears the ball than the brass.

They all start out at .220-.221 and end up at .215-.217 after about 200 peices of brass.

http://thefiringline.com/forums/showthread.php?t=351030

[GeoffLinder]

I have not seen anything like this myself or heard so from anyone else I know who also loads fairly large volumes of .223 to feed our AR's. Commerecial reloaders go millions of operations before changing out dies from wear, but then again Carbide dies are the norm in bulk processing.

The dies I use are 20 year old RCBS and Dillon dies (bought them in 89-90). The RCBS is standard steel type, the Dillon is a Carbide die. The RCBS has done tens of thousands and the Dillon die has done towards 100k. Last time I checked them, they calipered out to .220. Didn't check them new as I was a trusting soul for my first few years of reloading so I can't say they were any larger when new. An expander plug always wants to be about 2 thousandths under bullet diameter (.223) so this says ideal expander size is .221 and yet most specs for this say .220 is what they should be new, go figure

Me'thinks this wear may be a bit more about not lubing inside the case mouths "properly" than it is about grit grinding wear from carbon or media. It is well known that metal wear is reduced to very low levels by proper lubrication.

I lube case necks by pushing them on and off of a lubricated case neck brush mounted next to the press. But then again I didn't do this for quite a few years when I was new to reloading so again, go figure?

[SixPointEight]

Sweet guys thanks for the help... this issue is driving me nuts... it is the expander plugs... out of spec just measured it .220. i used my friends die and my same seating die its working great. Just called RCBS getting a new expender plugs shipping out for free today! gotta love RBCS customer service... and thanks you all again for helping me figure out the issue... I truly appropriated it

.220 is out of spec? Measure the new one. I'm not so sure the expander is actually out of spec. That's only about .004-.005" neck tension. That's a lot to a bench rester, but that's about normal for joe average dies. But hey...if RCBS said it's out of spec, right on. If you get the new one and it's .220-.221", don't be surprised.

[JD586]

I was surprised .220 was a problem too, I could see .215 being an issue.

[kurac]

Are the bullets you are using made by Hornady, I get a lighter ring when I use Hornady bullets with my RCBS match seating die, Nosler and Sierra 69gr bullets do not have that problem. I think the Hornady bullets are more hollow up front plus the shape must be different.