SmallCaliberCentral

I'm getting kinda excited, I have my new rifle, scope will be in today, and all my reloading stuff is ready to go.
I have 1000 new Remington cases. I neck sized about 50 with the Redding neck sizer, nice and easy, no problem.
Thought I'd try and FL size a few with the RCBS FL die. I'm using Imperial sizing wax, and I did about 6 cases, even though they seemed to go in and out of the die pretty hard. Now I have a case stuck in the die, and waiting for a stuck case remover to arrive UPS. I don't need to FL size these cases do I?

Bitman: Sorry to hear about the stuck case. In all the time I've used Imperial Sizing Wax, I've never had the problem with a stuck case. Did you remember to lube the inside of the case neck?

"No", you only have to neck size new brass. To make sure this is the case, I always neck size a case, and see if it chambers easily in your rifles chamber. If so, no need to work the brass excessively by F/L sizing. For neck sizing only, I use their dry neck lube, essentially a moly or graphite based powder that wipes off easily after sizing.

Bitman-- Stick it in the freezer for an hour or so. The brass & steel shrink at different rates & you just might get it going before the UPS man gets there. HTH

....and google search for "Varmint Al" - read the info on how to polish dies and chambers. Well worth the minimal effort.

Did you degrease your new dies before using them?

After degreasing, polishing the dies with Flitz (or similar), I spray a light coat of Hornady One Shot inside the FL sizing die.

acloco wrote:....and google search for "Varmint Al" - read the info on how to polish dies and chambers. Well worth the minimal effort.

Did you degrease your new dies before using them?

After degreasing, polishing the dies with Flitz (or similar), I spray a light coat of Hornady One Shot inside the FL sizing die.

No, I didn't do any of these things. Live and learn.

We all live and learn brother. If you are not doing one or the other, well, then you are not breathing.

Living & Learning: Today after over 40 years of handloading, literally hundreds of thousands of rounds successfully loaded and sent down range, I bent and destroyed my decapping stem of my Redding bushing 204 neck die. No excuse, just blundered setting it up improperly....first time ever, and I felt like a complete idiot.

One call to Jay at Redding Customer Service explaining it was my fault, and a new decapping stem and their new retainer for same on the way, all at no charge. Excellent customer service.

Moral: Anybody can be a dolt at any time. I was today. Don't feel like the Lone Ranger, Bitman!

Wait until you are seating bullets....and more of your finger is seated then the bullet...because your right hand and left hand don't talk to each other, until there is a little blood letting.

acloco wrote:Wait until you are seating bullets....and more of your finger is seated then the bullet...because your right hand and left hand don't talk to each other, until there is a little blood letting.

ya got that right. especially bad with these little 204 pills!!!!!!!!

LOL! True. That is why, in the front of EVERY reloading manual, step #1 A should be, go pee before attempting to load ammo.

If you can get a bit of dry ice try:

Heat the die and stuck case with a blow drier until they are hot to the touch.

Then apply the dry ice to the bottom of the case, (try not to touch the die).

This will usually pop the case free.

I am getting these little pills to set on top of the case and getting my fingers out of the way before sending them into the seating die am I doing something wrong here or is that execptable????? with my Redding neck sizer and seating die the runout is very minnumal .002 average or can I get that better holding it with practice????

UM: If you spring for the Redding Competition Seater die, your TIR will almost disappear. Average runout using mine in 204R runs between zero and .0015". It helps if you're seating boat tail bullets, as they start in the case easier. Also using the Holland VLD chamfering tool helps start flat base bullets in the case much better, and about eliminates shaved copper bullet jacket material also.

Half the problem seating .17 and .20 caliber bullets is access under the die in the press, the other half is just getting used to the tiny slugs.

Is neck sizing virgin brass even necessary? I'm a day or two from getting my .204 dies, and I just assumed they'd be like my 6mm. Reloading winchester brass with my 6mm, I never resized the virgin brass in any way. The brass fits in the gun, and the bullets won't seat in the brass without the seating die, so even neck-resizing is an unnecessary step, right? Or am I missing something?

venison_burger wrote:Is neck sizing virgin brass even necessary? Or am I missing something?

VB: Yes sir, you are. Virgin brass directly from the bag has necks that are dented, out of round, out of diameter tolerance (for proper neck tension), are usually not uniform in terms of length, and have manufacturing burrs inside and outside the mouth of the neck. The factory tumbles thousands of cases in large lots, all of them banging and crashing into one another, causing dents, goons, gouges, and other nasty things that would not qualify as a "precision operation". You don't want to start one of the most important steps in precison handloading with a case in that condition; that step being bullet seating.

Even though many don't trim virgin brass at the first loading because it will/does lengthen and sometimes even shrink a bit after the first firing, it is imperative that all virgin brass is sized. The caveat here is that full length sizing is really not necessary if the brass fits the chamber, as doing so will unnecessarily work brand new brass for no reason. Best to just neck size to uniform the case mouth and create proper bullet tension. You'll also want to chamfer the inside of the new case neck, and also deburr the outside of the neck prior to loading.

If you look at virgin brass straight out of the bag with your loupe or magnifyer, you'll be amazed at the extremely poor case neck/mouth condition of the brass, and will wonder how you even got bullets to seat properly in the past. Of course what you were actually doing was using the bullet as a mandrel to "size" the mouth of the case by press-fitting it into the case......not condusive to accuracy, and by shaving all that bullet jacket material off the slug with the burrs on the case mouth, that material went directly into copper vapor inside your barrel when you torched her off, lining your bore with copper fouling.

When I open a new bag of brass, I start out by neck sizing, then uniform the primer pocket, then deburr the flash hole. Using neck sized brass then ensures that the case mouth is perfectly round, and the flash hole deburring tool has a completely uniform surface to work from. Even if you don't uniform your brass (you should for peak accuracy), the neck sizing step is quite important prior to seating any bullets.

All the above assumes you're not weight-sorting the brass.....another topic altogether.