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Can such brass be resized?

BAGunner

Private
Full Member
Minuteman
Sep 29, 2010
88
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50
SFBA, CA
The dents are something like these:
P1020148.JPG


The rim of the neck is "bumped" and it's 0.003" thicker than the actual neck.
neck_rim.jpg



I was using the .335 bushing, because .308 + 0.015*2 - 0.003 = 0.335. It's my first time to resize a brass so I don't know what kind of force I should apply. With around 25 lbs of force applied on the handle, It's really hard to get the final 1/2 inch in. I'm not sure I should really brutal-forcing the press but I did. The first one was ok with doubling the force. but the second brass was stuck in the brass with 1/2 inch still out. It took me literally 10 minutes to get it out. It's a bad experience I don't really want to repeat.

What's the best way to resize such brass?
1. thin the rim of the neck? How to thin it when it's not round?
2. make it a bit rounder using plier? then thin the rim?
3. get a 337 brushing? 339/341 bushing? and let the press do the work?

Thanks a lot.
 
Re: Can such brass be resized?

Your brass stuck because of lack of lube or the wrong application of it. Hornady
one shot is the most commonly abused lube out there and sticks the most cases.

It's not the neck causing the hard handle pull, it's the base or near the base in most
cases. (pun intended) . The neck mouth dents shown are not a concern.

Depending on your press and how large a chamber the brass was fired in, how
much the brass has work hardened and how much of a shoulder bump are
going
to determine how hard the press handle is to pull. But all this is second to sizing
lube doing it's job. Get some imperial sizing wax.

The rim of the neck needs to be deburred. Look up the tools for it. It has to be
the same as the rest of the neck in thickness of brass or thinner. You don't bump the neck, you bump the shoulder. If your dies hit the neck on the end
you would ruin the case. You trim the cases to length after resizing if they are
too long. Then deburr.
 
Re: Can such brass be resized?

Yep - sounds like improper lubrication. It's amazing what kinds of things you can get to "go in" with the correct application of lube.

Imperial is excellent, but a hassle to apply. Spray lube is much more convenient. To make some:

Buy a bottle of "100% pure liquid lanolin" from amazon.com, and mix it with 99% isopropyl alcohol at a ratio of 1:5 (lanolin/alcohol). Put it in a $1 spray bottle. Put your cases into a gallon ziplock. Spray, shake, spray, shake, let sit to allow alcohol evaporate off (do somewhere its gonna be ok to have alky fumes in the air). This is how I do my FLSing, and I have never stuck a case with it. I use imperial for special tasks - not mass FLSing.
 
Re: Can such brass be resized?

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: bigwheeler</div><div class="ubbcode-body">Your brass stuck because of lack of lube or <span style="font-weight: bold">the wrong application of it.</span> Hornady
one shot is the most commonly abused lube out there and sticks the most cases.

</div></div>

The bold is what happens most of the times when people use One Shot and get stuck cases. I have used One Shot to size literally tens of thousands of cases and never had a stuck case.

Defintely sounds like a lube issue if it's not going in and out smooth.
 
Re: Can such brass be resized?

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: bigwheeler</div><div class="ubbcode-body">
The rim of the neck needs to be deburred. Look up the tools for it. It has to be
the same as the rest of the neck in thickness of brass or thinner. You don't bump the neck, you bump the shoulder. If your dies hit the neck on the end
you would ruin the case. You trim the cases to length after resizing if they are
too long. Then deburr. </div></div>

Thank you. I will try to apply abundant and consistent lube next time.

One more question:
I was using the Redding Type S Bushing die with 335 bushing. Should I deburr the rim of the neck first? I'm concerned about the improper neck sizing due to the extra thickness.
 
Re: Can such brass be resized?

Seat a bullet in the case. Measure the outside diameter of the neck. Subtract .002". That will give you a good place.

What brass is it? Is your Redding die the FL or just neck die? Also are you using the larger expander ball on the die stem or the smaller one that doesn't touch the neck?

Also don't use too much lube as it will dimple the case.

I trim/chamfer/deburr after sizing as sizing can change the OAL of the brass.
 
Re: Can such brass be resized?

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: Rob01</div><div class="ubbcode-body">Seat a bullet in the case. Measure the outside diameter of the neck. Subtract .002". That will give you a good place.

What brass is it? Is your Redding die the FL or just neck die? Also are you using the larger expander ball on the die stem or the smaller one that doesn't touch the neck?

Also don't use too much lube as it will dimple the case.

I trim/chamfer/deburr after sizing as sizing can change the OAL of the brass. </div></div>
The brass are LC 64 with NATO stamp. I was using the FL sizing redding die with larger expander ball.
 
Re: Can such brass be resized?

LC usually has some pretty thick necks. Measure them like I said above and see what you get.
 
Re: Can such brass be resized?

I've occasionally run across brass with the fat 'bump' on the mouth of the neck, even new brass. The bump definitely needs to go but it's a pain to mess with. Theoretically, if you trim first, your expander (being the last tool that works on the neck) should push all the bump to the outside of the neck leaving the inside in perfect shape. But in actual practice I'm rarely that lucky.

If you trim first, you can usually get rid of it. But trimming is something that needs to be done after sizing, and there's the rub. You can do a partial trim first, then resize, then do a final trim. Or you can size, do a full trim, then see if you can detect any remnants of the bump. If the case is long enough, you might get lucky and trim away any trouble areas. I had some new brass once with this kind of bump. I couldn't get rid of it by trimming without getting the necks way shorter than I wanted. I ended up pushing it all to the outside using an expander mandrel and then used a deburring tool to shave away the outside till the bump was all gone. It was a PITA.