Crushing .223 Cases

Well, your numbers make no sense - 2.235, and 2.20?

Get a new caliper that you trust. Usable ones are cheap. Good ones aren't that expensive.

Yeah, it’s some really hard cryptography to figure out. OP inadvertently moved decimal place. Bullets measure 0.2235. Hornady expander ball measures 0.220. 3 thou or neck tension seems right.

How are the cases cleaned? Are you lubing the case necks?

I crushed a couple of 300 BO cases once, but I was attempting to seat and crimp in one operation. Separating seat from crimp resolved the problem. On that note, is your seating die adjusted properly?

I picture of the crushed cases might be worth a thousand words.

Hawk in WY said:

Fixed it. The bullet is .2235. Mitoyu calipers work for most things.


Bingo!

I removed the micrometer seating stem, and the case still came up hard in the same place. It was the seating die that was crushing the case, not the seating stem.

The die had to be backed out almost its full length on my Forster press. The die was last used on a Hornady Lock-n-Load. I screwed the seating die down to make contact with the shell plate. That doesn't work.

Thank you.

Returning to regularly scheduled programming.

Click to expand...

Seating dies should not be screwed down to touch the shell holder.




Here's the easy button with seater setup:
Remove the seating stem or back it all the way out.
Loosen lock ring and rotate it towards the bottom.
Place a sized piece of brass in the shell holder.
(If the press is a Co-Ax, then you'll need to have the die already in place.
Raise the ram and turn the die down ward until it makes contact with the brass. (This is where case crimping begins)
Back the die out about 1/2 turn and set the lock ring.

If you want crimping, you'll need to make fine adjustments downward until you get it correct.


If you have some ammunition that is very close to having the correct OAL, then take one and run it into the die. Turn the stem downward until it makes very light contact with your cartridge. Back it out 1/4 turn. Make final adjustments when you begin seating bullets.



Doing all of this allows you to get your seating die very close to final position without destroying your brass or seating a bullet too deep.


Again, I will point out that a seating die should never make contact with the shell holder. Doing so has the crimping ring waaaay too low and it will crush brass.

Part of the issue is the small .378 cases (223 but especially 300bo) with hornady dies in a coax is that the positioning of the die in the press makes damn near impossible to get full… actuation?
With my blackout and hornady standard universal seater, I’ve got about 3/4 of a threads engagement in the lock ring and can only run the press handle halfway down before it bottoms the seater out on the case mouth. No full strokes or it’s crush time.