Hey guys just bought the hornady iron single stage press. And when resizing, the ram goes up smooth but almost locks up when the ram is coming back down. I've cleaned brass and lubed as well. Just feels rough coming down. Is this normal? And how tight does the bullet need to be when seated in case? I could pull the bullet out with pliers. Is that too loose or is that fine? I'm new to reloading to so no experience under my belt. Any help will be helpful. Thanks guys.
Feels rough resizing 300 win mag?
- Thread starter Contractor000
- Start date
I bet you need lube on the inside of your necks. Goes in smoothly with the outside lubed which sizes the body and neck down, then when you drag the expander ball through the now-too-small neck its rough and full of friction.
Whats your lube process? I used to dump them in a plastic bag and spray in but I had a similar rough expanding issue, now I stand them up in a cardboard box so I can ensure that my first few sprays get into the neck before I tump them over and spray the outside and shuffle. Fixed my expander ball friction.
Whats your lube process? I used to dump them in a plastic bag and spray in but I had a similar rough expanding issue, now I stand them up in a cardboard box so I can ensure that my first few sprays get into the neck before I tump them over and spray the outside and shuffle. Fixed my expander ball friction.
I lube the inside of neck with hornady hot shot and I have tried the grease. Could you please tell me how you set up your die from beginning to end
I measure my shoulder length of a fired case with the hornady/sinclair headspace comparators. Measure 5 or so and find out the average shoulder length and your longest shoulder lengths. Ideally they will all be the same, new brass thats having to grow a lot can vary a bit in their blow lengths (fired expanded size).
Once you know your average and your longest youre going to need to compare them a bit. If the longest is only .001 or so longer than the average then thats great.
If the longest is .003-.004 longer than the average then you know that most of your cases arent up to their full chamber size and you dont want to size all of those short ones even shorter still so only size them to where the long ones just get touched back. For a bolt we are going to be looking for .001-.002 of shoulder set back (.003-.004 for semi autos and levers). Those short ones will still get their bases squeezed down a bit to allow easy chambering, you just dont want to go all the way down and set the shoulders back.
So now you know your fired dimensions we can get to actually sizing them.
I screw the die in until touch and then go a couple tuns back out. Its easy to size it smaller by screwing the die in a bit deeper, its tough (impossible) to unsize it without firing or to uncrunch a way oversized stuck case.
Measure a case until you find a long one and insert it all the way up into the die, did it set the shoulder back, if so how much?
If not then I screw the die down a bit, being that you were a couple turns out you can probably go a half turn or so in and then size it again and see what the sholder measures. Keep doing this until you get the shoulder to move down.
(At this point since the neck is smaller I will usually remove the expander ball on subsequent sizings of a sized case just to make inserting the case easier, no point opening and closing the neck repeatedly)
You should be able to tell when you go from not moving the shoulder to moving it by feel through the press handle, it will get a bit more firm once the brass eventually hits.
The reloading dies have threads of 7/8x14 so thats 14 threads per inch. 1 inch divided by 14 equals .071" of movement per rotation so once you get close you can see how just a little movement can make a big difference when we are only looking for .002" of movement.
If it gets too short thread the die out, if it doesnt get shorter move the die in.
Cases that are way shorter than the longest can actually have their shoulder moved forward a thousandth when sized and have the base material moves forward, thats alright, just so long as the sholders dont grow longer than your longest case's.
Thank you Nacho, I will try this later on tonight. Let me know if there are any videos out there on this process for the 300 Win Mag. Thanks again!
