base of brass not flat

i have a few pieces of federal brass for my 300 winmag that were resized and a little tough to get out of the resizer. I think I had to little lube on them. while having to put a little more muscle behind it to get them out the bases became slightly deformed from the case holder giving them a uneven lip on one side, about a 1/4 of the way around the base. it didn't actually tear the brass but now my bolt wont close with those pieces. I did file one piece to see if it would fix the problem, and it did. has anybody else experienced this and if so what was your remedy? Am I right in thinking the only real force that base ring gets is when it is in the resizer?
Thanks.

Remember this will be an explosion about 4 inches away from your face. It's a 300WM too, so although the brass may work... do you really want to risk a possible case head separation or another type of case failure due to possibly damaged brass. I would probably set those cases aside, maybe make some dummy rounds out of them or something. Odds are if you have a gut feeling making you uncomfortable with them, then it's probably wise to follow.

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Originally Posted by jammer300

Am I right in thinking the only real force that base ring gets is when it is in the resizer?
Thanks.

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No, when its being pull out. Going in the head contacts the floor of the shell holder. If you bent the rims you're lucky you're not asking how to remove a stuck case!

I can't tell you what's wrong but you should never bend a rim extracting a case from die. What lube are you using and what kind? Are they hard going in?

Bill

I'm using RCBS Case Lube-2 and no they were not hard going in which is why i'm surprised I had a little more resistance to remove them from the resizing die. Like LoneWolf said there is no sense in risking a case head separation so i'm going to just throw these pieces away. I should have mentioned in my original post that these pieces were range brass that I was running through my press for the first time. I ran a few of my Hornady brass through the press today and didn't have any problems. So maybe it is just those few pieces. Thanks for your replies guys.

If you pulled hard enough to have a visibly deformed rim, I wonder if the neck sizing button stretched the necks too? Rim brass is thick, neck brass is thin.

Clean your necks, take the die apart and clean the neck resizing button, and maybe polish the button where is first contacts the brass when pulling back through the neck.

Cleaning the inside of case necks for resizing is a challenging proposition.

toss those pieces...like LoneWolf said "is it worth the chance of a case failure"? imagine a jet engine igniting 4"s from your face.

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Originally Posted by Burr

Cleaning the inside of case necks for resizing is a challenging proposition.

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not if you stainless steel tumble before sizing.

I don't have a stainless steel tumbler. after each range session I do resize, deprime and trim my cases and then soak my cases in vinegar over night before I put them thru my vibratory tumbler with a 50/50 mix of corn cob and crushed walnut shells. it does a pretty good job cleaning them up.

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Originally Posted by jammer300

I'm using RCBS Case Lube-2 and no they were not hard going in which is why i'm surprised I had a little more resistance to remove them from the resizing die.

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Pull the expander ( button, shaft et al) then give it a go. If the brass went in the die normally I suspect the problem is the expander when its pulled back through the neck-shoulder junction.

Try two or so then let us know.

Bill

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Originally Posted by BillPa

Pull the expander ( button, shaft et al) then give it a go. If the brass went in the die normally I suspect the problem is the expander when its pulled back through the neck-shoulder junction.

Try two or so then let us know.

Bill

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I pulled the expander and ran 3 pieces of brass thru the press and didn't have a problem. I put the expander back in and ran 3 more pieces and could feel when the expander was going thru the neck both in and out but didn't have a problem with any deformed bases. everything went smoothly. the only difference between the brass now and the brass then is that it has been thru a tumbler and is now clean brass. so could it have been a tighter fit before when it was dirty? should I try lubing the expander button a little bit before resizing the brass?

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Originally Posted by jammer300

pulled the expander and ran 3 pieces of brass thru the press and didn't have a problem.
should I try lubing the expander button a little bit before resizing the brass?

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Lubing the inside of the necks does one thing, masks the cause(s )of problems. Dirty brass would most likely show up both ways, when the brass enters the die and when it pulled out.

Before you go any further give the die a good cleaning inside, a piece of paper towel with WD wrapped around a bush will be good enough. Make sure it goes all the way into the neck portion of the die.

Do me ( you?) a favor. Back the die off so it only partially sizes the neck , maybe 1/2-3/4 of it but before the neck-shoulder junction w/ the expander installed. If you paint the outside of the neck with a Sharpie you'll be able see how far its being sized.

Give that a go then get back with the results.

Bill

OK Bill, I cleaned the die and then I backed the die off so it only sized about half of the neck and one thing I noticed right away was that when I went to pull the casing back down out of the die it was really tight at the neck and was a little hard to get moving. I ran 8 pieces thru the die like that and 7 of them were tight. I did this with the expander installed. I'm a little unsure of what this means? Never had this problem before

[QUOTE=jammer300;317014]one thing I noticed right away was that when I went to pull the casing back down out of the die it was really tight at the neck and was a little hard to get moving. /QUOTE]

But not enough to bend the rims as before, correct? Some resistance pulling a expander back through a neck isn't out of the ordinary, it depends on the brass, it's temper(hard-soft), its neck wall thickness, the die and the expander dimensions to each other and etc.

Trying to nail down the problem long distance, next continue sizing the neck of a case a little at a time until it all the way the neck-shoulder junction. You can use the same stick of brass. I'm trying to determine when the neck is fully resized all the way if its creating a donut, an internal ring of brass at the junction of the shoulder and neck.
http://i43.tinypic.com/2nuq2jr.jpg

Maybe, maybe not. ?????

Bill

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Originally Posted by jammer300

I don't have a stainless steel tumbler. after each range session I do resize, deprime and trim my cases and then soak my cases in vinegar over night before I put them thru my vibratory tumbler with a 50/50 mix of corn cob and crushed walnut shells. it does a pretty good job cleaning them up.

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While the vinegar does a good job of cleaning those cases you should remember that it is an acid and is also weakening the brass. I'd rethink that overnight soak in it. Maybe 15 min max followed by a rinse in water with baking soda to neutralize the acid and stop the etching effect of the vinegar.
Just a thought.

correct Bill it was not enough to bend the rims. I continued to neck size the same piece of brass all the way to the shoulder junction a little at a time and it never did develop a " donut " on the inside of the neck.

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Originally Posted by jammer300

correct Bill it was not enough to bend the rims.

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So, are you saying you noticed increased resistance extracting a case from the die at that point? The dount in that pic was a really really bad one, but I'm still not 100% convinced for whatever reason the die isn't "crimping" the neck- shoulder junction to a lessor degree when FL resizing since we've pretty much run the gauntlet of the other possibilities.

Turn the die down about an 1/8 of turn rotation more and see what happens.

Bill

It has been my experience over the last 25 yrs or so that three things make what you describe happen. 1. dirty inside case necks have a smaller inside diameter. Take the time and run a brush in and out of them. 2. use Hornady one shot case lube and spray a bit directly inside the mouth. It won't contaminate the inside like oil will. 3 polish the expander ball. Chuck it in a drill and spin it on some 2,000 grit wet/dry sand paper followed by some polishing compound. If you do these three things I think your sticky expander ball issue will go away.

Thanks PaddyD and Bill for the help. As a guy who is still pretty new to reloading it is nice to be able to come on here and have people who are willing to help a guy out. I did clean the die again and run a few pieces thru it last night and it worked flawlessly. it didn't have any resistance like it had before and it didn't hurt the bases. when I get a chance to get to the store I will pick up some 2,000 grit sandpaper and compound and polish the expander. Hopefully now the problem is fixed.