Thread: Sizing die trouble

Originally Posted by 30.06king

Maybe, but if so I would think he would not be decapping cases either if it was that high. So, if successfully decapping the expander is probably positioned OK. But, if the expander is set too high within the die it might cause an issue ... ??

If the decapping pin isn’t pushed fully in you can lock them in place screwing on the expander so it is possible to deprime and have the expander too high up in the die still. Might be more likely in a smaller cartridge. I did this with one of mine, can’t remember what cal but it was a Redding die.

What brass is it? Have you loaded these cases before?

Originally Posted by kayneb

The Expander/decapping assembly wasn't in it initially as ill use a separate Expander die to set my neck tension afterwards.

I'm not sure what the die is supposed to size the neck down to before the Expander ball widens it but the ID of the case mouth was below .210" without the Expander, Just measured with the calipers

I'm not sure either what that measurement should be. It needs to be small enough that the expander will open it up again, enough to allow bullet seating with some tension.
So now I'm guessing here but if you ran into the stuck case problem after the decapping rod / expander plug had been removed from the die then I think it was just insufficient lube applied to the case. You said you tried both less and more but the important area is the lower case as I mentioned. If you have covered all the case body with enough Imperial Wax you shouldn't get any stuck cases. Imperial Wax is very good in preventing that.

Brass is from sako factory ammo, first time loading it

I had a redding flsd and I could only use it with imperial wax, and a good coating of it. Moved it on now just use the cheap / cheerful Lee flrd.
Think the chamber of my rifle is way bigger so asking a lot of the brass to resize in the redding. Having said that I do have a redding body die that doesn't touch the neck, but even so requires a good lube.

Yea I'll try a ton of wax and leave the decapping/expander assembly out again so if the bugger gets stuck I can bang it out once more

Originally Posted by kayneb

I'm not sure what the die is supposed to size the neck down to before the Expander ball widens it but the ID of the case mouth was below .210" without the Expander, Just measured with the calipers

Not that you can accurately measure case neck ID with calipers, but Something is definitely not right then. With a 0.224 projectile and 0.002-0.003 interference fit in the case neck, the neck ID should be circa 0.221.

A better way to compare would be by measuring the OD of a loaded round. It should be about 0.252-0.253 depending on case neck thickness. Deduct 0.003-0.004” for neck tension and that should be your target OD of the case neck after FL sizing. If you’re not within a few thousandths of those figures, then your die is well out of spec.

Yea after getting another case stuck, excessive wax is working! Leaving alot of marking on the body but it works

Ran into a new problem now, the Expander mandrel die in supposed to size the neck for .001" neck tension is over sizing by about .003" soneck ID is .226 and projectiles can be pushed in easily by hand

Overworking the neck probably. Something isn't right, your brass life will not be great with that much working of it going on.

Greetings,
The Sako brass is pretty heavy for .222 brass so the neck is likely quite thick which could be part of your problem. It also sounds like you have the wrong mandrel ie too big.
GPM.

Wilson expander die mandrels just come in the 1 size for some reason and designed to provide 1 thou neck tension. It reads .223 with the calipers, plus with some spring back I'd expect to not get an ID of .225"-.226"

Resized some with the FL sizer and expander ball installed and it's giving consistent neck tension of .0025

In saying that it feels like the case is pulling the mandrel off center, when the case mouth comes free of the end of the mandrel it's like the mandrel springs back slightly. I can't see any obvious reason why it wouldn't be lining up.

There isbugger all wiggle room in 222 case the expander ball is close to neck when it's fully in case I bought a new expander for my Lee set and it's 204 on one end and tapers out to the other. Not too hard to shorten the fat section to give more wiggle room. After loading 223 for twenty plus years I really was scratching head with 222 to start with as couldn't work out what was wrong.

Originally Posted by kayneb

In saying that it feels like the case is pulling the mandrel off center, when the case mouth comes free of the end of the mandrel it's like the mandrel springs back slightly. I can't see any obvious reason why it wouldn't be lining up.

Take the die, complete with expander, out of the press and look up into the interior. Check if the stem is centred. Sometimes they're not but can be untightened, turned slightly until centred and tightened down again.
If you continue getting a hard time with the Redding expander an option is to try a Hornady Eliptical Expander. You can buy just the Expander with Stem as a part and they do screw into Redding Dies. They are a little easier to pull back through the neck, expand a little more progressively and more gently on the brass. It might help with your tension issue.