Please Help Case Sizing

[Fjold]

Another thing to check is if it's the bullet seating die that is out of adjustment not the sizing die.

What happens is that the seating die is screwed down to far and the case mouth hits the top of the seating die before the bullet is all the way seated. This forces the case mouth and neck of the case back and causes a buckling of the case right behind the shoulder. This is usually to small to see but it gets jammed in the chamber right where the chamber is smallest and it keeps the case from seating in that last tenth of an inch.

Back the seating plug out of your die and back the die itself out a couple of complete revolutions. Put an empty case in the shell holder and raise the ram all the way to the top. Lightly screw the die in by hand and you will feel it touch the case mouth. Now, back the die out 1/2 of a turn and lock it down. That will give you about .035 to .040 of clearance to allow for any slightly longer cases. Now adjust the seating stem down to set your OAL length of your loaded ammo.

[jandmtv]

Another thing to check is if it's the bullet seating die that is out of adjustment not the sizing die.

What happens is that the seating die is screwed down to far and the case mouth hits the top of the seating die before the bullet is all the way seated. This forces the case mouth and neck of the case back and causes a buckling of the case right behind the shoulder. This is usually to small to see but it gets jammed in the chamber right where the chamber is smallest and it keeps the case from seating in that last tenth of an inch.

Back the seating plug out of your die and back the die itself out a couple of complete revolutions. Put an empty case in the shell holder and raise the ram all the way to the top. Lightly screw the die in by hand and you will feel it touch the case mouth. Now, back the die out 1/2 of a turn and lock it down. That will give you about .035 to .040 of clearance to allow for any slightly longer cases. Now adjust the seating stem down to set your AOL length of your loaded ammo.

thanks, but thats exactly how my seating die is adjusted. i think it was the redding die, it just wasn't sizing the bottom of the case enough.

[ocabj]

Bottoming out the die (with a standard full length sizing die) will solve a base/web sizing issue, but at the sacrifice of bumping the shoulder back too far.

Small base dies allow you to size the base of the body while maintaining shoulder setback.

[jandmtv]

thats how my redding die was adjusted, i had the ram all the way up, i screwed the die until it touched the shell holder, then i lowered the ram and i screwed down the die another 1/4 turn and locked it in. and thats how i have my dillon die adjusted on the xl650.

[grywlfbg]

W/ the Dillon carbide dies and a case gauge you'll be good to go.

I even use the case gauge to sort brass. I pick up random brass at the range so I first tumble it, then case gauge and inspect for splits. If it doesn't drop into the case gauge then I recycle them. Only the ones who pass the gauge (ok if they're long as I'll trim) get lubed, sized, deprimed, trimmed, and swaged (one pass through my 650 with the powder funnel removed and I pull the case out before the seating die). Then another pass through the 650 to actually load the case.

Then when I'm putting the rounds into boxes I drop them into the case gauge like Randall said to check for high primers and any other anomalies.

[jandmtv]

W/ the Dillon carbide dies and a case gauge you'll be good to go.

I even use the case gauge to sort brass. I pick up random brass at the range so I first tumble it, then case gauge and inspect for splits. If it doesn't drop into the case gauge then I recycle them. Only the ones who pass the gauge (ok if they're long as I'll trim) get lubed, sized, deprimed, trimmed, and swaged (one pass through my 650 with the powder funnel removed and I pull the case out before the seating die). Then another pass through the 650 to actually load the case.

Then when I'm putting the rounds into boxes I drop them into the case gauge like Randall said to check for high primers and any other anomalies.

are you talkin about pistol caliber? because my problem is with .223

[grywlfbg]

are you talkin about pistol caliber? because my problem is with .223

Rifle. All I load is .223 rt now. Going to start .308 soon. 9mm is still cheap enough I haven't invested in the conversion kit though I have started collecting 9mm brass.

[4D5auto]

To answer someones earlier question, If you have a Small Base sizing die, it should be stamped on the die "SB" if not, it isn't a small base sizing die! I have learned form long time experience of this situation, I will not use nothing but a SB sizer on my rifle brass from now on. Unfortanetly, it took me to many years of these problems, before I figured it out!

I am glad to see this thread come about, because rarely is this subject touched on. For as important as this is, it's surprises me it hasn't been discussed more often.

As for another question someone had, you most certainly can use and are available, case gauges for pistol brass. Tho- I've never used them for pistol and personally have never had a cause or reason to use them, I don't have a need for them. Rifle on the other hand, is a whole different story and should always be used. Pistol brass just doesn't stretch like rifle brass does and I've never had issues with pistol brass. Die set up on rifle is critical IMO for consistent loading to avoid exactly this problem. So, if your brass is sticking in the chamber, not extracting/ ejecting, problems chambering, take a close look at your brass, that's where your problem lies!

[ar15barrels]

To answer someones earlier question, If you have a Small Base sizing die, it should be stamped on the die "SB" if not, it isn't a small base sizing die!

Most die manufacturer's have started making their dies tighter in the base since at least the mid 90's.
It's getting less common to find dies that are NOT small base than dies that ARE small base.

[4D5auto]

My old dies are from the 80's, recently I bought Small Base to replace them, I would imagine they would still be marked as such.