Reloading

55bird · March 27, 2010, 21:08

I have been reloading for 10 years.This month I'd like to report a couple problems I'd like to share that I have run into in the last couple years.I use a Dillon 550B.after reloading 500 7.62X51 my resizing die backed off a little and lead to a case head separation.No problem.Use drop gauges!Now during 5.56X45 I noticed the decapping pin missing and found it in a cartridge with a supermagnet.Broke off in mixed foreign cases probaly due to poorly aligned flash holes in the cartridges.Potential big problems!Pay Acute Attention!

richbug · March 29, 2010, 06:51

Quote:

Originally posted by 55bird
after reloading 500 7.62X51 my resizing die backed off a little and lead to a case head separation.

How exactly does a die backing out cause a case head separation?

I can see rounds that don't chamber, but no way for a CHS.

7.62srbest · March 29, 2010, 11:29

Usually (I've read, never had one myself) case head separations come after multiple reloadings of a piece of brass. They are due to the case expanding to fill the chamber and then being resized back to a smaller size (based on the die and the way it is set up in the press - not only smaller in OD but shorter from the top of the shoulder to the base/rim) the combination of the two makes the neck "grow" in length because the case walls get thinner as the brass "flows" forward during the expanding/resizing stages.

Most folks recommend minimal resizing (the amount is based on individual rifles - some can use neck sizing only while others need small base dies). Lighter loads are easier on your brass. Many folks recommend only using the brass, 3, 4, 5, X number of times before selling it for scrap (at today's brass/scrap prices). Some folks recommend using a correctly bent paper clip to reach down inside and feel for the thing spot - usually located about the size of a .45 acp case up from the base on a .308 or 30.06 case (from ones I've picked up at the range or seen other folks have while at the range).

On the subject of the .223 brass problem I've seen similar with some of the foreign brass. The flash hole is so small in diameter that the primer punch would not even go through the hole to push the old primer out. I know it wasn't an alignment issue as I first thought so, too, before unscrewing the primer punch /neck expander out of the top of the die and trying to "tap" it down through the hole to remove the primer. I finally figured out the pin just wouldn't go through and I used a berdan primer removal tool (claw and lever type tool I bought few years ago before I realized I couldn't even find new berdan primers to use to reload all that pretty South African brass I was accumulating) and saw the flash hole was just too darn small.

March 27, 2010, 21:08	#1
55bird Registered FALaholic #: 799 Join Date: Aug 2000 Location: Tampa,Fl,U.S.A. Posts: 1,041	Reloading I have been reloading for 10 years.This month I'd like to report a couple problems I'd like to share that I have run into in the last couple years.I use a Dillon 550B.after reloading 500 7.62X51 my resizing die backed off a little and lead to a case head separation.No problem.Use drop gauges!Now during 5.56X45 I noticed the decapping pin missing and found it in a cartridge with a supermagnet.Broke off in mixed foreign cases probaly due to poorly aligned flash holes in the cartridges.Potential big problems!Pay Acute Attention! __________________ The very things my grade school teachers of the 1960's warned me about communism,my government is today:skull:

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March 29, 2010, 11:29	#3
7.62srbest Registered FALaholic #: 19762 Join Date: Apr 2006 Location: Chesterfield, VA Posts: 254	Usually (I've read, never had one myself) case head separations come after multiple reloadings of a piece of brass. They are due to the case expanding to fill the chamber and then being resized back to a smaller size (based on the die and the way it is set up in the press - not only smaller in OD but shorter from the top of the shoulder to the base/rim) the combination of the two makes the neck "grow" in length because the case walls get thinner as the brass "flows" forward during the expanding/resizing stages. Most folks recommend minimal resizing (the amount is based on individual rifles - some can use neck sizing only while others need small base dies). Lighter loads are easier on your brass. Many folks recommend only using the brass, 3, 4, 5, X number of times before selling it for scrap (at today's brass/scrap prices). Some folks recommend using a correctly bent paper clip to reach down inside and feel for the thing spot - usually located about the size of a .45 acp case up from the base on a .308 or 30.06 case (from ones I've picked up at the range or seen other folks have while at the range). On the subject of the .223 brass problem I've seen similar with some of the foreign brass. The flash hole is so small in diameter that the primer punch would not even go through the hole to push the old primer out. I know it wasn't an alignment issue as I first thought so, too, before unscrewing the primer punch /neck expander out of the top of the die and trying to "tap" it down through the hole to remove the primer. I finally figured out the pin just wouldn't go through and I used a berdan primer removal tool (claw and lever type tool I bought few years ago before I realized I couldn't even find new berdan primers to use to reload all that pretty South African brass I was accumulating) and saw the flash hole was just too darn small.