Thread: Why does pulling case out of FL resizing die require so much force?

Originally Posted by Micky Duck

its weird..my oldest set of dies are hornady in poohseventy..they work great...new set in 308 are a pig on up stroke and Ive tried all the tricks....that theory they squish it too much to begin with sounds like could be the reason...the also dont squash base of body much...50% wouldnt chamber in BLR....but run them back through old old old lyman 30/06 with guts removed and most would....figure the body MUST be skinnier at base.

Greeting Micky and All,
The die makers are between a rock and a hard place when it comes to die dimensions. There is considerable variation in chambers and case wall and neck thickness. Dies need to size the case down enough to fit in the smallest chamber meaning oversizing the case for roomier chambers. My 6.5 x 55 neck and FL dies just size the necks enough for my Norma and Lapua cases and nowhere near enough for Winchester cases. The dies were made before the US started making 6.5 cases. If I bought a new set of 6.5 dies today they would oversize the necks. Chambers for later rifles often are tighter, sometimes chambering older factory rounds hard. Recent factory cases can be smaller in dia of the base creating even more slop in older chambers. Additionally resized cases from other rifles will often not chamber in lever action rifles with limited camming power. Die manufacturers offer small base dies to fix this problem. Redding also offer die sets that include a bushing type neck die and a body die for sizing the case body only but they are pricey especially the competition types. I have some S dies for my 7mm SAUM but have barely used them. Non cartridge specific neck dies are often worse. I have a 6.5 Hornady neck die that is worthless.
Regards Grandpamac.