LC Brass F/L sizing

[joedirt14]

Anyone else have trouble full length sizing LC brass?
I'm using a Lee single stage press with Lee dies.

This stuff is very tough to ram up into the press and just as tough to get back out. (ripped a rim off)
I FL sized it once before and it was tough, I assumed it was normal from being shot out of a loose chambered machine gun or something before. However i have since shot it from my R700 so figured it would be maybe a little easier to size (just bumping the shoulder) this time, but NOP !!

I'm using the Lee lube and the Lyman spray lube, the Lee lube seemed to work better but still very tight.

My federal brass will run up into the die with minimal effort.

Any ideas?

it seems to be tightest around the base just above the rim.

 

[FLIGHT762]

I use a Redding S/B Body Die for LC machine gun fired brass. Works great. Goes through pretty smooth, I then run them through a regular die to size the neck to get proper neck tension.

For lube, I use Imperial wax or Mobil 1 synthetic oil.

 

[HCICVOGT]

Try Imperial Sizing wax midwayusa has it for a r around the $10 mark. A little goes a long way. I recently started using graphite for inside the neck but I'm not sure if I like it completely yet or not.

 

[MarinePMI]

Try Imperial Sizing wax midwayusa has it for a r around the $10 mark. A little goes a long way. I recently started using graphite for inside the neck but I'm not sure if I like it completely yet or not.

This^^^ With LC brass that is bloated, Imperial makes all the difference in the world.

 

[FishDr]

Should be back to normal after the first trip through your chamber. Still a bit tougher than federal or Win brass, but only really tough that first trip through after large chamber fired. Good lube is a must - I stopped using the Lee lube for this reason.

 

[larryh128]

Anyone else have trouble full length sizing LC brass?
I'm using a Lee single stage press with Lee dies.

This stuff is very tough to ram up into the press and just as tough to get back out. (ripped a rim off)
I FL sized it once before and it was tough, I assumed it was normal from being shot out of a loose chambered machine gun or something before. However i have since shot it from my R700 so figured it would be maybe a little easier to size (just bumping the shoulder) this time, but NOP !!

I'm using the Lee lube and the Lyman spray lube, the Lee lube seemed to work better but still very tight.

My federal brass will run up into the die with minimal effort.

Any ideas?

it seems to be tightest around the base just above the rim.

It needs to be annealed before sizing. I ran into the same thing with some 308 machine gun brass. Annealed it and cured the issue.

 

[Old Salt]

Personally I wouldn't waste my time with it, I have a few thousand rounds of LC that was taken from the M60 range. I deprimed it, cleaned it, sized it with Forster Full Length die and trimmed to length. Loaded it with 41.5 grains of Varget a 175 gr. Sierra Match King and fired it from my 308 Remington 700 one time, and then reloaded after the same prep. At the next firing the brass separated near the base and when I looked really close at the brass that had been shot only two times most of it showed signs of the beginning of cracking in the same place. Reloading takes a pretty good amount of time and I want to get more than one shot from brass that I work that hard on. Just my 2 cents worth

 

[supercorndogs]

Personally I wouldn't waste my time with it, I have a few thousand rounds of LC that was taken from the M60 range. I deprimed it, cleaned it, sized it with Forster Full Length die and trimmed to length. Loaded it with 41.5 grains of Varget a 175 gr. Sierra Match King and fired it from my 308 Remington 700 one time, and then reloaded after the same prep. At the next firing the brass separated near the base and when I looked really close at the brass that had been shot only two times most of it showed signs of the beginning of cracking in the same place. Reloading takes a pretty good amount of time and I want to get more than one shot from brass that I work that hard on. Just my 2 cents worthView attachment 7096809View attachment 7096809

How far did you bump the shoulder?

 

[918v]

Too far

 

[Old Salt]

Die is set according to Forster instructions, I don't change my sizing die setup for different guns, bolt or semi auto and I've never seen this happen with any other brass. I have Lapua brass that's been loaded 10 times (for bolt gun) with no problems in the same die, same setting. Sometimes stuff just get's stretched too far to be reliably usable. Back when brass was in short supply some folks were selling reprocessed machine gun brass, I'm not using that stuff in my guns as long as commercial brass is available. I have given some of this brass to a friend and it did the same thing, so maybe "It wasn't set back too far" and just a case of bad brass

 

[sinister]

I agree with annealing and trying a small-base die. If it was originally fired from a machinegun (M60 or 240) you won't get as many reloads out of it as you would if originally fired from a tight-chambered rifle.

Anyone else have trouble full length sizing LC brass?
I'm using ... Lee dies.

... from being shot out of a loose chambered machine gun or something before. However i have since shot it from my R700 so figured it would be maybe a little easier to size (just bumping the shoulder) this time, but NOP !!

My federal brass will run up into the die with minimal effort.

it seems to be tightest around the base just above the rim.

 

[918v]

Die is set according to Forster instructions, I don't change my sizing die setup for different guns, bolt or semi auto and I've never seen this happen with any other brass. I have Lapua brass that's been loaded 10 times (for bolt gun) with no problems in the same die, same setting. Sometimes stuff just get's stretched too far to be reliably usable. Back when brass was in short supply some folks were selling reprocessed machine gun brass, I'm not using that stuff in my guns as long as commercial brass is available. I have given some of this brass to a friend and it did the same thing, so maybe "It wasn't set back too far" and just a case of bad brass

You have the wrong attitude toward learning how this shit works.

 

[Old Salt]

My attitude sir is fine and I do know how this stuff works, I do thank you for your opinion and profane wise cracks, have a nice day sir;

 

[Precision Underground]

Sounds like not enough lube. Put it heavy on the case and not on the shoulder.

 

[918v]

My attitude sir is fine and I do know how this stuff works

No you don’t. Because if you did, your brass would have stayed intact.

 

[Old Salt]

This will be my last back and forth with you (918v), now pay attention; I have been loading precision ammo since the early 1980's and competed in High Power Rifle matches for decades and never had a mishap. Brass from this lot or batch was reloaded by other people also and it did the same thing in their guns, it was fired from a machine gun with probably a very loose chamber and it is not fit for reloading. Get over it Einstein, some brass is just not fit to re-use, the attached pic is of new once fired LC 556 brass picked up at the local range last week. It was new ammo fired from a customer's AR 15. I guess that Lake City pushed the shoulder back too far on that lot of ammo, right! LC brass is not Lapua or anything else commercially available. LC brass is designed to be fired and left on the ground and not re-used. That said; I have used thousands of rounds of fired LC 556 brass with no problems in AR 15's. I still will not use LC 308 in any of my guns because of problems due to over stretching. You sir make snarky comments about my original post about brass splitting and you have no idea of how the brass was prepped or any other details of the matter. No, you just keep the wise cracks coming and guess what, you still know nothing about this matter. I won't be responding to anymore of your nonsense so don't go away mad, just go away! You are also the big reason that I will never and have never fired anyone else's reloads, I value my guns too much for risking them on someone else's hand loads

 

[elfster1234]

Watch this live stream I literally just did last week on this very topic. I’ll be going live today also 6-23-19 Sunday at 11am central

 

[918v]

This will be my last back and forth with you (918v), now pay attention; I have been loading precision ammo since the early 1980's and competed in High Power Rifle matches for decades and never had a mishap. Brass from this lot or batch was reloaded by other people also and it did the same thing in their guns, it was fired from a machine gun with probably a very loose chamber and it is not fit for reloading. Get over it Einstein, some brass is just not fit to re-use, the attached pic is of new once fired LC 556 brass picked up at the local range last week. It was new ammo fired from a customer's AR 15. I guess that Lake City pushed the shoulder back too far on that lot of ammo, right! LC brass is not Lapua or anything else commercially available. LC brass is designed to be fired and left on the ground and not re-used. That said; I have used thousands of rounds of fired LC 556 brass with no problems in AR 15's. I still will not use LC 308 in any of my guns because of problems due to over stretching. You sir make snarky comments about my original post about brass splitting and you have no idea of how the brass was prepped or any other details of the matter. No, you just keep the wise cracks coming and guess what, you still know nothing about this matter. I won't be responding to anymore of your nonsense so don't go away mad, just go away! You are also the big reason that I will never and have never fired anyone else's reloads, I value my guns too much for risking them on someone else's hand loads

The problem with pepole like you is they have tons of experience with “if I do A then B will happen” but when B does not happen then they bitch about this or that and pollute the conversation with nonsense.

And others read the nonsense and base their decisions on mutual ignorance and we stop evolving as a species.

You FL sized some machine gun brass and it failed. You don’t know how much you sized the brass, only that you adjusted the dies per the instructions and this has worked for you in the past, therefore the brass must be crap.

But that is in all likelihood the wrong conclusion. For one thing, you did not measure the shoulder length of the fired brass. You just went ahead and sized it. You did not measure the shoulder length of the sized brass. You don’t know how much you sized it. You did not measure the shoulder length of your fired brass. You don’t know how long your chamber is.

You need to know these things. They are important. Had you known these things you would have adjusted your dies differently from the instructions and your cases would not have failed.