Something really stupid

[gojones]

Yesterday I resized around 250 military and commercial 30-06 brass. I have been using Forster dies for rifle calibers for some time now. Previously I had disassembled the dies to clean. During this process I did not screw the expander ball back down to it lowest position. This would position it just slightly below the case neck but in the case shoulder in the die. I had it positioned in an upper position so that it barely entered the case neck when resizing. As you can guess, my case necks where too tight. They were not expanded. I quickly guessed what had happened and re positioned the expander ball by screwing it to its most downward position. The Forster expander ball is not tapered like the RCBS or Hornady. It would not fit in the case neck so when I went to re-resize the cases, the first one crushed, ruined. I had to use my old reliable RCBS die and rub some lube inside each case neck in order to expand the necks to the appropriate size. Its these little things that just gum up what should have been a very simple process. Go figure!!

 

[jmorris]

It’s a good thing to check a case when setting up so you can have a reasonable expectation.

Same thing when setting up a CNC machine or painting something always need a “test” part to know what your going to get.

 

[Ole Joe Clark]

Buy some powdered graphite and use a Q tip to place a little in each case neck before sizing. It will lube the inside of the case neck and you can tap the case on the reloading table to remove any excess graphite.

Have a blessed day,

Leon

 

[243winxb]

Forster dies for rifle calibers

Good to point out the difference in fl dies. Seen other posts with adjustment problems.

 

[FROGO207]

Post #2 Amen to that! When I first started reloading on my own I made up 250 rounds of 243 ammo with an overcharge that would have caused a LOT of problems. Fortunately as I was transferring the load information to the box I said to myself "that looks wrong" and referred to the load data in a manual. I had put in a compressed charge/ overcharge by about 4 grains. Pulled them all and redid it with "book data" not my memory as a tool. Never used my memory again. My notes are what I use most. Always double check your data at a minimum to stay safe.

 

[BSA1]

I recently made my stupid mistake TWICE!

I have recently started reloading .223 using mixed brass. Some of the brass has crimped primers and for some reason I am having a terrible time removing the crimp and end up crushing some them. Another problem I am having is not enough case lube.

I got a case stuck and hopelessly butchered the case head trying to remove it so I sent the die to LEE for them to remove it. Got the die back and resized a batch of brass and. yep, I did it again. Only this time I researched how to remove a stuck case on youtube and popped the case out myself using a hammer.

Think I have learned to use more case lube...

I dunno. I'm a slow learner sometimes.

 

[gojones]

Buy some powdered graphite and use a Q tip to place a little in each case neck before sizing. It will lube the inside of the case neck and you can tap the case on the reloading table to remove any excess graphite.

Have a blessed day,

Leon

I have some just for that purpose. I was going to anneal these case so I just burnt the lube in the necks off. Very good point though.

 

[gojones]

I recently made my stupid mistake TWICE!

I have recently started reloading .223 using mixed brass. Some of the brass has crimped primers and for some reason I am having a terrible time removing the crimp and end up crushing some them. Another problem I am having is not enough case lube.

I got a case stuck and hopelessly butchered the case head trying to remove it so I sent the die to LEE for them to remove it. Got the die back and resized a batch of brass and. yep, I did it again. Only this time I researched how to remove a stuck case on youtube and popped the case out myself using a hammer.

Think I have learned to use more case lube...

I dunno. I'm a slow learner sometimes.

Yep I'm in that slow learners group also. I actually have had to drill and tap a case base to insert a screw to remove more than one stuck case. The RCBS stuck case remover did the job.

 

[ArchAngelCD]

At least the design of the Lee die makes removing a stuck case fairly straightforward. (if we bother to read the instructions lol)

 

[Slamfire]

Who has not had to resize brass, let them be the first to throw a sizing die! Or something like that.

You will bust a spindle in a Forster/Bonaza die faster than any other die. I stopped decapping military brass with my Forster sizing dies because military brass often has off center firing pin holes, and that would bend and break a Forster spindle. And, if the spindle is too far down, and bumps the case head, that will break any spindle, if you try hard enough.

 

[Demi-human]

Meh, not bad. I just made two twenty five round ladder tests with two different powders.
All are seated to the thousandth, the charges weighed on a Gempro to the two hundredth grain. All full length sized two thousandths. All marked for positive ID.

Except this is an AR, full-length means all the way to the shellholder.

None of them would chamber. I now have fifty cases to hammer apart, save powder for, re-size(correctly), re-charge and reseat.

All for nothing, because they won't be annealed again like my usual practice.


...just when I think I've got it figured out...