Sticking expander/decap assembly

[Tom William]

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

Information

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[browningautorifle]

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.

[Skip]

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.

[browningautorifle]

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.

[Tom William]

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!

[browningautorifle]

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.

[Tom William]

Thanks for the help. Tom

[Pelago]

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

[USSR]

no problems at all with expander ball, ever

Me either - don't use one.

Don

[JBS]

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.