This has been an ongoing frustration in my reloading trials and tribulations. Tonight I was working with my brand new Hornady resizing die when I had the same problem occure that I have had with other dies before I either get a case stuck, or snap or bend the decapping pin or rod. Pushing the casing into the die goes relatively smooth, except when the shoulder passes through. When I bring the casing out, the casing ceases where the shoulder is about to exit the die.
I have lubed all my casings, using either the Dillon case lube, or resizing wax. I primarily use my RCBS sing stage press. I have used my Dilion 650 but I do not recall if I had this problem while running it in .308. I did have a problem of not getting a full resize when running on the 650, and why I use the single stage.
Tonight, I had bent the decapping ball point and snapped the pin on the rod. This I am atributing to a military crimpled casing. But, almost 80% of the casings I ran through tonight seemed to cease up just as the casing was about to clear the shoulder. I also have observed a black ring around the shoulder when the casing does come out (towards the end, I was beating on the handle with a mallet). This problem also has my pressing trying to pull up and out of the mount on the wooden work bench.
This problem has happened with Lee Dies, RCBS, Lyman (Lyman didn’t snapped, but it bent the decapping rod), and now the Hornady. I tried cleaning the Hornady when the problem got worse, but it didn’t seem to help.
All brass has been shot through my FN FAL, Ishapore .308, and my friends M1A through all 6 dies.
look at how the sizing die should be set up. It is important where the expander ball is located in relation to the shoulder and neck
I use imperial sizing wax. Lube the cases with the lube of your choice. Make sure you use lube on the inside of the neck. I use the powdered mica and get in with a brush like this
I got away from decapping/sizing dies that do both for this very reason, stuck cases. Happened more on my cheap lee press until i broke the press arm. Now i have a rock chucker and no stuck cases. I moved to a body die that bumps the shoulder back and sizes the shell wall. Then use a lee collet neck sizer that also decaps the primer. Body die needs lube, neck sizer does not.
Wow. Strange. I’ve never broken a die or decapping pin EVER… for ANY caliber. I’d be looking at that FAL chamber to start. And are you using a case gauge to see what you’re pre and post sizing are giving you?
Yes on the last question. They are all gauging fine after the resize (borrowed from my neighbor; have one on order). Again, this has happened with a M1A scout, Ishapore No2a Enfield and the FAL. FAL is relativily new from DSA.
I did not lube the inside of the casings this go around, but the times I have I have gotten this problem.
I only run Forster rifle dies any more and their dies have setup diagrams for where to place the expander ball on the stem. I believe its almost inline with the vents on the die body.
I use the same press, the RCBS single stage to resize and decap a number of rifle calibers (.223/556, .270 Win, 30-06, 30/30). I've only run into problems with broken decapping pins when resizing .223/556 cases with the unusual headstamp name "1K." Turns out the primer flash hole is too small in diameter for the decapping pin to slide through and the decapping pin would often break. I had to drill out the primer flash hole to a larger size which would then allow the decapping pin to slide through and decap the primer. I often decap swaged primers but have not had a problem with these damaging the decapping pins. I don't know if this would cause your shells to stick in the resizing die or not. You did not mention what brass you are using (all the same brand or a mixture of different brands) but wish you the best of luck.
best wishes- oldandslow
Use caution when increasing the size of the primer flash hole. If it’s any bigger than you would find on brass for standard U.S. ammunition, you can run into safety issues.
As far as damaging resizing dies, I have only had this happen when I did not use adequate lube on the outside of the case and inside the case neck.
How exactly do you lube your cases? What brand are the cases?
Brass fired from an FAL, Ishapore, and M1A Scout can have all kinds of issues considering they’re coming from two different autoloaders and a surplused Indian 7.62 rifle.
I bet. I’m big time into getting “feel” from the press. I run a little slower, but I can feel a burdan primed case, for example, and stop before I mash my decapping pin.
I’m with Mark here… and I’ve never broken a die (or even a de-capping pin) in 30+ years of reloading.
I have a Belgian FAL and never had any issues with brass as a result of shooting it and reloading. I am careful to set the gas block though so the case mouth and neck are not deformed when the rifle ejects the spent case.
If like me your first step is to decap you must use the lee universal decapping die. All it does is decap. no sizing at all. It is cheap, tough and pretty much fits any case you might want to reload.
I decap first because I use an ultrasonic cleaner. I want the primer pockets clean and I want the inside of that brass clean.
I still decapped first when I tumbled. I knew I was going to clean the tumbling media out of the primer pockets and flash hole but they need attention anyway
For sure before you start the sizing process you want clean brass.
+1 on the Lee universal decapper, pop the primers out then clean, you will be pleased with the results. If your 308 brass is Lapuas 308 Palma brass then the Lee die will not work for you (without some modification to your brass). The Palma brass has a flash hole diameter of .0590 (1.5mm) which is smaller than the flash hole on normal small primer brass (.0625). Most 308 take large primers anyways, so this is probably a moot point for you but I wanted to mention it just in case.
I don’t load on that press, just do brass prep. 223 runs at 1200 rph, 300blk conversion is 1000, and 9mm decap and swage runs around 1800. Shit happens fast at those speeds. Mostly just lee universal decap pins. I keep 20 on hand and when i save up 10 broken one’s lee replaces them. I’ve worn out 2 swage rods. Broken a ton of advance pawls since its the fuseable link in that machine.
I have a second 1050 that’s hand cranked i load on. Broken 2 decap pins on upside down brass not paying attention. Beyond that, that press has 40k rounds of 9mm, 10k rounds of 300blk and probably 10k of 223 with no issues. Blown some primers up because there is no feel on primer seating.
So i agree, press feel really keeps things from getting out of hand with the parts breakage issue.
** I was having issues like this before. That lower area that is getting stuck, I fixed by using Imperial Sizing Wax. I made sure that the lower half of the case was well covered with wax. I also made sure to lube the inside of the case mouth. This seemed to fix the problem.
My buddy was breaking decapping rods before too. It was the actual type of brass that had the flash holes drilled off center. ***This is only one variable.
I have not started to reload yet, but the two rifle calibers I am interested in are 5.56 and 7.62 NATO. Most of the brass in my pile is crimped Lake City so I wanted to better understand how to approach case prep.
I suppose I can set up a universal decapper on a single stage I have, clean it, trim and do whatever, and then run it through the Dillon 550 I have once I figure out how to set it up. (Or keep using the single stage).
Before I go too far off topic, how does a handled drill power swager compare to the Dillon Super Swager 600?
