Lake City brass case head diam - larger?

[NativeCraft]

When priming previously-fired Lake City brass (.223) it seems that I'm constantly fighting to get the cases removed from my Lee Auto-Prime. Have to yank, snatch, twist sometimes (often) to get it out of the shellholder after I've primed it. Regular Winchester brass slips in and out with no problems at all.
Is L.C. brass typically larger than typical or is it possible that my "once-fired" L.C. brass....isn't once-fired?

 

[RebelRouser]

Re: Lake City brass case head diam - larger?

I have had the same trouble in the Lee shellholder. I ended up getting the RCBS equivelant hand primer as I know the brass works in their shellholder. Didn't bother me to much I just told myself it's good to have a back up hand primer!

 

[BillCominos]

Re: Lake City brass case head diam - larger?

Mil brass does have the tendency to be thicker than commericial....

 

[bohem]

Re: Lake City brass case head diam - larger?

Measure the case head on some of the sticky cases. I'm guessing that you have 1x fired brass that was swept off a military range and it came out of a sloppy headspaced machine gun. The sloppy headspace allowed the cases to stretch and slam into the bolt face during firing, and this caused the case heads to "mushroom" just a little bit.

If your lee shellholder is on the tight side, this is why some fit (commercial brass) and some dont.

 

[9H_Cracka]

Re: Lake City brass case head diam - larger?

the rim is a bit thicker on LC brass I have found. Had a Remmy 788 that would not extract about half of my LC 74 762 cases.

 

[former naval person]

Re: Lake City brass case head diam - larger?

A rubber wheel on a Dremel can modify the Lee shell holder the minute amount necessary to allow a sliding fit. Ran into the same problem with some Lapua cases. About 15 seconds with a polishing wheel and good fit.

 

[RebelRouser]

Re: Lake City brass case head diam - larger?

They are tight on the rim slot, not sure how to polish in there? No problems with the RCBS shellholders though.