Machine gun brass

[74c5]

At least double bump when resizing and check for chambering from time to time.

[milotrain]

my gauge is made with the same reamer that my chamber is made with so if it fits the gauge it fits the chamber.

[bsumoba]

my gauge is made with the same reamer that my chamber is made with so if it fits the gauge it fits the chamber.

I just bought some mil brass and I'm resizing them on a lee singles stage. I also have a case gauge that is reamed exactly to my barrel.

The question I have is...

When pressing them, I'm getting some that remain 0.001-0.002" proud from top. They slide in and out of the case gauge just fine, but it looks like they're not getting resized correctly. I use a dillon-esk lube (lanolin and 90% ipa) and it works very well during resizing. I heard that the rcbs small base 308 dies do a better job at resizing to min saami specs and fit better in semi-auto rifles. Any validity to this?

Will the 0.001-0.002" make a difference you think?

[milotrain]

How much bump back are you resizing to presently? I had a method that would get my brass to always slide into a Lymann gauge (much tighter than my chamber) but I had to use a Dillon die, then a Forster. I stopped doing that because it was time consuming and didn't make a difference. At this point almost all my brass has gone through my gun at least once and it seems like I don't have a problem with the last .002" (which like you I did initially).

I can't really give you any advice as I didn't take great notes when I did have the problem you describe, but I also never got a face full of gas so maybe it's fine. It is certainly true that some small base dies will do a better job of really full length sizing the case than the Dillon die with it's funnel mouth.

When I first got my gauge it was hard to insure I was measuring the case correctly because it was either flush or proud, and if flush then how flush? So I milled a slot in the base of the gauge, this way my calipers always measure the location of the case head, regardless of the gauge's base relationship. So now I just drop a fired case into the gauge, note the measurement on the calipers, then resize until I get around .002" bump. Also make sure you've deprimed that fired case first, the primer will give you false readings.

This is also why I've gone completely to one headstamp for all my .223 brass. I don't want to dick about with oversizing or changing the die around all the time, so now I exclusively shoot LC10 & LC09. I have a slow growing stock pile of other headstamps that once they reach a reasonable quantity I'll size them as a group and keep them around for practice.

[bsumoba]

How much bump back are you resizing to presently? I had a method that would get my brass to always slide into a Lymann gauge (much tighter than my chamber) but I had to use a Dillon die, then a Forster. I stopped doing that because it was time consuming and didn't make a difference. At this point almost all my brass has gone through my gun at least once and it seems like I don't have a problem with the last .002" (which like you I did initially).

I can't really give you any advice as I didn't take great notes when I did have the problem you describe, but I also never got a face full of gas so maybe it's fine. It is certainly true that some small base dies will do a better job of really full length sizing the case than the Dillon die with it's funnel mouth.

When I first got my gauge it was hard to insure I was measuring the case correctly because it was either flush or proud, and if flush then how flush? So I milled a slot in the base of the gauge, this way my calipers always measure the location of the case head, regardless of the gauge's base relationship. So now I just drop a fired case into the gauge, note the measurement on the calipers, then resize until I get around .002" bump. Also make sure you've deprimed that fired case first, the primer will give you false readings.

This is also why I've gone completely to one headstamp for all my .223 brass. I don't want to dick about with oversizing or changing the die around all the time, so now I exclusively shoot LC10 & LC09. I have a slow growing stock pile of other headstamps that once they reach a reasonable quantity I'll size them as a group and keep them around for practice.

very interesting!!!!! thanks for the feedback. actually, i just figured out that out of the bulk of military brass, i too, started to see trends with certain headstamps. Here were my results:

Case Gauge: JP .308
Die: Lee .308
Press: Lee Single Stage
Lube: Homemade Dillon Case Lube (lanolin/ipa)

• I chucked ALL brass that had etches on the shoulder. I didn't even bother with these.
• I sifted and sorted through the common headstamps I had and had about a dozen common ones.
• I then went through the same process of resizing all brass the same way with the same setup.
• LC 10, LC 09, WCC 06, WC 11, FC 09, LC 03 all seemed to dislike the Lee die and case gauge (JP version).
• The following all worked well in the Lee Die and headspaced well in the case gauge: LC 08, LC 86, LC 65, WRA 63, WRA 68, TAA 08, LC05, SBS 07, WCC 12, FC 09, PSO 07, PMJ 06, WAA 63, LC 74, RA 64, SB 01

For all the ones that did not work, I jsut ordered a RCBS small base die to see if this will resize those. I have quite a bit of LC 10 and LC 09 in the batch so I am hoping this will do the trick.

Another thing to note, the "Dillon" case lube worked SPECTACULARLY! 12 oz of 90% IPA to 1 oz of Lanolin.

The One Shot did not work so well

I had to ream ALL the brass and had only about 1 or 2 out of the 1000 pcs of brass I bought that had 308 headstamps. I threw away so far, about 20-30 brass that either were the headstamp that typically worked and for the life me, cannot get it to resize properly, or it was machine gun brass or it had those fluted marks on the shoulder.

Hope this helps anyone else.