Quote:
Originally Posted by
gandog56 
| Did you ever trim them to length? Bottleneck cases will get longer the more they are shot. |
nope (with the pre-primed brass), and that could be the problem. It's just not worth getting a new trimmer, non-Lee style, that can be used with primed cases for the few pieces of brass. I made the assumption (bad mistake) that the cases would have been trimmed and resized before priming.
Likewise the new die, Sam. Probably a good idea, but funds are tight and all brass that I've resized unprimed with the Lee die chamber nicely. In fact the new barrel was headspaced based on rounds I supplied to the gunsmith done this way.
My lesson learned (one of many) is just not used primed brass! I got a batch of mixed headstamp primed brass on another brass trading sight. I'll just deprime, now that I know I can do that safely, and start fresh next time, or more likely will just buy new unprimed brass. I have enough now to last me a while anyway.
caliber is 7x57.
my normal process with unprimed brass is:
1) lube, deprime (if it has a spent primer) and full length resize
2) lock the brass in the Lee 3-jaw chuck shell holder in an electric drill mounted in a vice, spin and
2a) use the Lee case length gauge and trimmer to trim to length
2b) chamfer and debur the neck, as lightly as possible
2c) clean inside of neck with a brush and a Q-tip to get any lube out
2d) use fine steel wool to polish and make sure neck mouth is burr free
3) inspect the brass, clean primer pocket
4) hand prime
5) load with powder
6) seat bullet
7) inspect
8) try to cycle thru rifle
9) put in box of 20 marked with caliber, load, bullet, and date.
I got some color code labels at Staples and use a different color label for each caliber. I also use the same color label on the reloading die box to keep everything straight.
and, yes, I do a batch at each step, not one at a time.
but wait, still another problem. I tried using a factory crimp die and seem to be doing it wrong because it split the neck of a few cases. At least I think that's the culpret. I think I need to find someone locally who knows how to adjust those dies and have them show me how. Reading the instructions apparently is insufficient, at least for me.