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I have a set of Hornady new dimension dies for my 30-06. I am reloading both factory Remington and Winchester brass, along with HXP brass. The expander assembly comes out so hard on the up stroke of the loader that it pulls the assembly out of the die. I clean the case mouth with a case brush and I lube the cases. Am I missing something?. Thanks in advance. Tom
I wouldn't say so. Some advocate lube the case mouth to ease this process. I just use an undersize ball. (That statement should get some responses!) That way your case mouth gives max retention and never sticks or screeches as you withdraw. By the way, this process has NEVER given me grief. I've been doing this for over 200,000 rounds. Don't worry, you won't crumple your cases if you don't use a big expander ball.
When you talk about Assembly do you mean expander and rod pulls out from the die? If so you need to really tighen the rod in the die securely.
Skip; check the Hornady website and you see the pics. Then you understand his problem. The die is made the same as Lee. The nut at the top of the size die squeezes the decapping rod and that's what holds it in place. No threads.
If I change the expander, how does the case neck get sized?. I think that I might try lubing the inside of the case mouth and see what happens. You are correct, the expander is held in place with a locking collar. I tighten the collar with 2-10" crecent wrenches and it has still came loose!
The neck gets sized as it goes up into the die. The ball just pulls out any remaining dings and gets the inside to .308 or whatever exactly. Again, this won't present you with a problem. To inside case neck lube, there are small bristle brushes or just turn your case mouth down into the lube pad before outside lubing. That should give you enough lube to work with.
Thanks for the help. Tom
i lube the inside of each and every case, brush with some lubrication (lightly) have no idea how many rounds, but 30 years worth
period
no problems at all with expander ball, ever
I will use a carbide expander on brass that tends to be ornery. It greatly reduces the forces required and sometimes reduces case stretch! An undersized ball has the drama of increasing the case neck forces on the bullet- might not help accuracy- but it may not hurt too much either. Just gotta try it and see what happens.
Me either - don't use one.Quote:
Originally Posted by Pelago
Don
When I get an expander ball that acts this way I will remove the rod and ball and put it in the lathe, substitute hand drill or drill press and polish the ball with 800 to 1000 grit paper. As soon as it is polished to a mirror stop. You do not want it undersized just polished. This normally fixes the problem. Also note that as the case is used the neck will become work hardened. Some cases do this faster than others, 5.56 / .223 are the worst. If the ball is very hard to pull back through it is probably time to anneal the case necks. I do them in lots, every 4th to 5th loading for 06 class cases, every 3rd for 5.56 class cases.
If you aint got messed up case mouths, dont use an expander!! All of my dies I use on my bolt guns have had the decap rod/expander ball removed. Just one more thing to mess up my brass!
Neck tension comes from the sizing die NOT from the expander ball. How else do you think we could fire all these rounds without using one! :-)
John
The problem is that the die manufacturers don't know how thick the case necks will be (up to a point) , so they made the sizing die suitable for sizing the THINNEST possible neck thickess down to a size that will adequately hold the projectile. The expander ball's function is to size up the thicker case neck ID's to a point where the bullet won't be distorted upon seating.
If you want to minimize cold work on your cases get the Redding type "S" dies that have changable case neck sizing inserts. I still run a ball in conjuction w/ these just to round things up in case of dents and such, but the cases are worked less, stretch less, last longer, and produce most excellent accuracy (in those rifles that will achieve sub 2/3 MOA or so the difference is particularly noticable).
It just depends on what you're trying to achieve whether its worth the small expense and extra effort involved.
I've got the Redding Competition Die Set which uses the bushings. Best thing since sliced bread. With various size bushings, I am able to vary the amount of neck tension desired with different makes of brass. I handle the "roundness of neck" thing by inserting a knife sharpener (long cylindrical tapered rod) and giving it a tap to remove any dents in the case neck. Decapping is handled by a Lyman Universal Decapping Die.Quote:
Originally Posted by jmoore
Don