Problems sizing .223AI Brass

[ACLakey]

I am having one heck of a time resizing my .223AI brass and need a little advice.

I currently have a Lee neck sizing die and a set of Lee FL .223AI dies. When running the brass through the neck sizing die I find it hard to chamber. Just above the head the case is slightly bulged. After finding this out I went back to the full length dies but am sticking every other case in the flipping die. The brass has been tumbled and I have tried three different lubes with the same results. My questions are why are the cases bulged just above the head and how can I size these brass withoug loosing half of them? Thanks ahead of time, I have never ran into this issue before.

[acloco]

AC - can you post a pre and post sizing picture or two?

[ACLakey]

I will post them in the morning.

[Rick in Oregon]

Andrew... About the only reason you could have a slight bulge just ahead of the case head, is if your chamber is cut a bit oversize.

Brass is filling up the sloppy chamber, and not springing back all the way, hence the bulge. I've had it appear on some "gunshow" rifles I've brought home. The only fix is to set the barrel back a couple of turns and re-cut the chamber to proper tolerances.

I shoot a 223AI, and my primary batch of cases has been fired 8 times without ever seeing a F/L die. Of course now they're all ready to be annealed so they'll keep on truckin'; they'll also be neck sized again after annealing. My chamber was cut with a custom reamer from PT&G, and was chambered by the master himself, Darrell Holland, so it's about spot-on dimension-wise.

[ACLakey]

Sorry, camera is not working at the moment. What I am seeing is the area just above the head(1/8" to1/4") is very shiny on a side after FL resizing. Just neck sizing makes it difficult to close the bolt.

Rick, I found a site for Darrel and see from his phone number he is in Oregon, where is he located? I have a Savage heavy barrel that I would like cut down a little and rechambered to .223AI.

[Rick in Oregon]

Andrew: Darrell Holland's outfit is located in Powers, Oregon, northwest of you, south of Coos Bay. Save the call though, as he won't work on Savages. His mainstay is Remingtons, Winchesters, Sakos, and sometimes he'll work on Rugers. He has an entire line of his own Remington M700 accuracy items available.

I'd suggest having either Siskiyou Gunworks in Grants Pass or Pac-Nor do that work for you. Chic Donnelly was the aprintice of Parker O. Ackley, and purchased all Ackley's barrel making equipment when he retired.....Chic ran Siskiyou Gunworks for eons (made the barrel on my .338-06 Ackley) and now his son runs the shop. They could easily do that work for you and come higly recommended. They probably have a 223AI reamer too, in case you want to set that barrel back and rechamber properly.