308 mil brass sizing

[tac328]

purchased a lot of milsurp once fired brass from tjconeveras. Running the brass through a redding 308 FL sizing die previously using a RCBS small base die, the brass is tumbled and lubed with lyman quik lube. The problem here is sizing is very difficult, alot of stuck cases pulling off the rim, the cases will stick occasionally on the upswing but mostly on the downswing. Can anyone help me out here? The redding die is brand new and the RCBS has seen a ~ 500rnds. I'm concerned that the tough sizing is going to take a toll on my 550b, I can already see play developing in the arm. Can anyone help me out here?

[BullyDog]

When I had my 550 I had the same problem with about a 1000 308 machine gun brass.

I thought I would never get through them. No matter how much lube I tried they would stick or break off the bottom of the case.

The only thing I found that worked was vegetable oil, just rub it on the outside of the cases. A rag works great if you just roll them on it.

[justmike]

Sometimes too much lube causes a problem. On really hard sizing jobs I break out the imperial sizing wax and that really helps.

[redmanfixit]

Sometimes chambers run oversized, good chance the brass fire formed up. You could measure it to see if you're curious. The best sizing lube I ever saw has been recommended by the "old guys" for a long time. That would be lanolin. a VERY good lube to prevent case sticking. Lee and Dillon both have a spray lanolin that works wonderfully. Remember to check the overall length of the brass after you size, it's likely going to flow quite a bit.

[RiggerJJ]

Use lanolin based lube, and lots of it...

LC (if that is.what you have) 308 brass is HARD STUFF to size!

jj

Edited October 24, 2012 by RiggerJJ

[tac328]

Thanks for the tips. I thought i might have been doing something wrong.

[392heminut]

A friend of mine got around 1100 rnds of military .308 brass for me from the local base. I have no idea what it was fired in but I'm assuming it was machine gun brass. It is all WCC headstamp and they all had the same small dent in the case. I sized then on my RL550 using a Lee FL sizer die and Dillon spray lube. They were hard sizing compared to sizing .223, but I didn't have any problems with stuck cases.

[roostershooter]

Here's the deal ...

First ... use some Imperial Sizing Die wax

Next ....

The 7.62 MILSURP brass is quite a bit thicker both in the web, and through out the brass than your average commercial .308.

I have found that rocking it back and forth improves my odds for a successful sizing. You can only press so much brass into a small area before it buckles.

Now, to clarify ... When I say 'rock back and forth' I don't mean literally. Put the brass through 1/4 of the way, and back out, then 1/2 then back out ... so on and so forth until the entire case is sized.

With once fired 7.62 you aren't only resizing the neck, but forcing the 'extra brass' to reform at the case mouth. This ALWAYS lengthens the case length on the first resizing, and will have to be trimmed. The M240 machine guns are so overly headspaced that you are, in essence, reforming the case from the shoulder up on your first loading!

Hope that helps.

[gunther]

When I use lube like Hornady one shot I usually get a stuck case especially when it's .mil brass.

Never had a stuck case when I started using imperial sizing die wax!!!

[JimmyZip]

Here's the deal ...

First ... use some Imperial Sizing Die wax

Next ....

The 7.62 MILSURP brass is quite a bit thicker both in the web, and through out the brass than your average commercial .308.

I have found that rocking it back and forth improves my odds for a successful sizing. You can only press so much brass into a small area before it buckles.

Now, to clarify ... When I say 'rock back and forth' I don't mean literally. Put the brass through 1/4 of the way, and back out, then 1/2 then back out ... so on and so forth until the entire case is sized.

With once fired 7.62 you aren't only resizing the neck, but forcing the 'extra brass' to reform at the case mouth. This ALWAYS lengthens the case length on the first resizing, and will have to be trimmed. The M240 machine guns are so overly headspaced that you are, in essence, reforming the case from the shoulder up on your first loading!

Hope that helps.

I now know what I have seen done before. This is a very simple and yet effective way to get the job done with fire-formed brass. Take a little at a time. I used to watch my dad reload in my great-grandfathers shop when I was very young, and I remember him doing this process to brass at resizing. It was rifle brass, and he would have me lube them while he was resizing. I remember him doing it in steps like that because if he didn't he said they would get stuck. They used to use quite a bit of surplus range brass from Camp Pendelton, and 29 Palms.

[RePete]

The brass is more than likely fired from an MG. These guns have an oversized chamber for easy extraction and no regard for reloading.

I use the Lee lube and run through an RCBS FL die and then relube for resizing in a RCBS SB die.

I also lube inside the case neck for the expander ball.

A suggestion on the initial sizing is the run the brass in the die part way, rotate the brass 180 degrees, and proceed as normal.

[slowsure]

tac328

i'm new to 308 myself, but not new to reloading rifle. I have recently processed ~2500 308 cases on my 550 and ran into one of the problems you are having "cases getting stuck on the upstroke" . I had problems with cases not wanting to let the sizing "ball" be pulled back through the case on the "upstroke" as you call it. I tried to fix it by using case neck lube (actually a powder) brushed into the neck of the case before being placed in the press. This helped a little bit but about every 10th or 15th case would be really stuck and I would have to really force the handle and then "POP" the case would finally come out of the die.

What I did to fix this problem was to take the Dillon carbide sizer "ball" (on the decapping stem) and turn it around to where the longer taper angle was facing the top of the die and the shorter angle to the bottom of the die.

Bang, My problems of a sticky die are solved. Hope this helps.