.223 Brass not fitting in the Shell Plate

B

Bravo1

New member
Hi All.

I just started to reload .223 after a successful reloading run on 9mm and 45ACP.

I picked up my brass after shooting about 200 rounds of factory ammo looking forward to reloading however, I ran across an odd problem.

After hand depriming followed by the first round of tumbling before resizing, I've noticed that about 50 of them won't fit into my Lee 4s shell plate. It seems the extractor groove is just a hair too big to fit without forcing it, which I don't want to do. The headstamps are mixed from PMC, Wolf and American Eagle since they are older ammo I wanted to cycle out.

Is there something I'm missing or should I get another 4s shell plate?

I'd hate to waste perfectly good brass! :D
 
Never happened to me. Is the base straight ? How did they fire, any problem ejecting.? You are using the right shell holder, could there be something stuck in the holder? Would like to know myself, what's going on. Sorry I couldn't help. I'll be following this one. Chris
 
I would be checking those cartridge bases. Look for flatness and any burrs as you have the correct shell holder, a Lee #4.

Ron
 
I have the same thing with my Lee shell plate for .357. It is mostly with Winchester nickel brass. I got out my caliper and the Win brass measures a couple thousandths wider at the base. I did some Googling and found out that Lee shell plates are noted for being a little tight. Those coupled together means that about half of those Win nickel plated shells won't go into the Lee plate. I just toss them. Others solved the problems by going to an RCBS plate.
 
Very strange indeed. The rounds fired and ejected just fine.

I pulled the shell plate off the press, cleaned each slot, and started measuring the brass in different slots of the plate to see if it was a bad slot. The bad brass wouldn't fit in any of the slots so I set them aside.

According to the Lyman Reloading manual, the measurement of the extractor groove should be .332.
I took measurements and compared them with the good ones and they are not the same.
The good ones are coming in at .330 and the ones that don't fit are .332.

So this making me think the shell plate may be off, which I find surprising.

I may just pick up another one up at Cabela's and see if that fixes it.
 
If you get a chance to pick up a new shell plate, you might want to try a brand other than Lee. Like I said earlier, others on reported Lee tends to be a tad tight.
 
As far as I know, shell plates are interchangeable. There may be some oddball brands out there but Lee, Hornady, and RCBS interchange.
 
Same experience

Bravo1:
I had the same experience as you. Been reloading .45 and .38/.357 for decades. Just started reloading .223. Picked up a few thousand range brass, a new RCBS FL die set and RCBS shell holder for my Rock Chucker. Some brass are REALLY tight, some won't go into the shell holder and some go in and out like butter. With my collection of very mixed brass, I believe Wolf has the thinnest extractor groove and therefore I have the most difficulty trying to get it into the shell holder. I also found the Wolf cases have a higher percentage of cases which need to be trimmed. Since I am far ahead of the game with a few thousand free brass, if anything sticks or looks questionable, I just throw it away. I don't think it is your shell holder. I haven't tried or found any American Eagle, but from many other posts, I know others do not reload it - at least the handgun cases.
 
Thanks for the info. I may just set these odd ones aside and and use the rest of my remaining factory and go from there. I also may invest in some range brass or bulk brass so I have a decent supply available.
 
Ive found some brass will have dents in the base that push towards the shoulder, makes my lee shell plates not like them. As stated the plates do seen a little tighter than others.


Where I Issaquah are ya? South of town a few miles my self.
 
Not all that unusual, to me anyway. Out of every 1000 rounds, there are probably 10-15 I find that either are really tight going into my LNL plate, or simply won't fit. Most of the time it's range pickup brass, can't recall any new brass having issue.

I'd guess that of the ones that don't fit, 95% of them won't because of a bur or other physical issue on the rim/groove of the .223. The remaining 5% just don't fit, could be from a loose chamber, overpressure, simply a smidge oversized brass, etc. I don't sweat it - if they don't go in easy, they get tossed in the recycle bin.

It's just brass, there is plenty more of it out there. Don't force a $.10 replaceable part into something that could cost you significantly more later down the road.
 
Try lining the difficult cases up against a straight edge on a flat surface. Then sight down the case mouths and see if they line up along with the heads. If not, they are tipping. AR extraction can bend the rim a little and sometimes too much to fit in a shell holder.

BTW, shell plates are part of a progressive press. Is that what you have, or are you talking about a conventional shell holder? If it's the latter, all brands are interchangeable AFAIK. The don't use the same numbering, though. This table will help you find the number for the other brands.
 
Thanks for all the great info everyone. I'll just keep the oversided ones in a separate bin and figure out what to do with them later.

Chainsaw.

I'm actually on the Plateau which is now Sammamish but the post office still says Issaquah. :confused: I usually shoot at the Factoria West Coast Armory indoor range or the Issaquah Sportsman Club if it's nice out.
 
The bad brass from Wolf? Some Russian brass can be a tick different than SAAMI standard. You can measure 'em and weed 'em out with your calipres. It's really not worth worrying too much about.
You can deprime live primers with no fuss too. You just slowly and gently run 'em though the decapper.
 
I occasionally get a casing that won't fit my shell holder. Sometimes I can spot the deformity, sometimes I can't. I chuck it in the scrap bag, not worth the fuss.
 
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