308 military brass

[Gunnn]

I'm having trouble sizing military brass I was gifted a 5 gallon bucket of mixed 308 brass mostly lake city but I can't get most of it threw my dies I've got rcbs small base ,Lyman full length dies ,and I ordered a set of lee collet dies that haven't gotten here yet thank you in advance for your help

 

[j-huskey]

I had that problem one time.

Cleaned the cases. Deprimed them with a universal depriming tool.
Lubed the hell out of them. Then...
Sized the case bases in a 3006 standard die, with no decapping rod installed.
Then a 3006 small base die, with no decapping rod installed.
then
The 308 die....

Was a huge pain in the ass, but, it worked out in the end.

 

[Phil McGrath]

Stop trying too stuff a fat bloated case in a S/B sizer, first size these cases in a F/L 30.06 with the depriming stem removed . When that's done size/deprime in your .308 die set. The idea is too work the case down gradually in smaller increments, don't forget too lube your cases.

 

[kentuckyMarksman]

I have had this problem as well. My solution:

1. Deprime cases with universal depriming die.

2. Lube cases and size in Full Length 308 die set with the depriming stem removed.

3. Use an expander mandrel to expand the neck back to proper size.

 

[NCHillbilly]

I, too have dealt with this before. That brass was likely fired out of an m60/ m240 with a nearly shot out chamber. The brass balloons so much when fired, that it makes it tough to resize. You can size it like the others have mentioned, but I would recommend segregating every case that is difficult to size, keep them all together, or somehow mark them because you'll likely not get many firings out of them. Most of the ones that I had that were like that showed signs of imminent case head separation after one firing, with some actually splitting on first firing. Keep them separate from the ones that size normally. You will probably get numerous loadings with those.