Can anyone tell me what happened to this brass

W

Wendyj

New member
This is a picture which I hope you can see. These are 308 win cases full length sized on lee single stage press using Lee die. It is a mixture of Hornady and Nosler factory ammo I had fired from my rifle. The Hornady has been sized twice. The Nosler was just resized for the first time. Inserted die give a quarter of a turn as the previous loads I had done. No marks on them. Both are using Lee lube and Hornady one shot on different cases. Entire batch of 27 turned out this way. Had cleaned die and just reinserted. Die body and stem appear to be spotless. I have 2 questions. One, should I throw this brass away as I can feel the ring with my fingernail. Inside of brass appears to be ok. As I send this die back to Lee as it's only 2 weeks old and a sample of each bullet I purchased a set of RCBS dies for the meantime as I don't want to stop loading. LOL Hooked for life. Should I clean or treat the new dies with anything before using. New to reloading and I don't want faulty brass blowing me up or my old 700.
 
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Your post suggest that you fired these to obtain the rings but yet...your post
suggest that the brass came out of the sizing die that way. Which was it ?

If they looked that way after firing...your gun has a chamber issue, inspect it.
If they looked that way after sizing...your die has an issue, replace it.

Lastly, scrap the brass, it just isn't worth risking a separation.
 
I contacted Lee and they said to send the die back for inspection. Guess that's next step. Bout RCBS die today so I could continue. Now I need to get a neck sizing only die also.
 
No, I fired a factory round to see if my rifle was making these rings. No mark on the rings after factory load shot. Happened after resizing. Kind of gets my goat as dies are only two weeks old and 27 pieces of good brass gone.
 
Do clean any new die with mineral spirits or alcohol before you use them. Why do you want a neck sizer? You do one or the other.....neck size or full length size. Do you mean a seater? You can use Lee's seater unless you sent them both back.
 
I think I mean a collette die as it's supposed to extend the life of my brass after being fired from my rifle. Am I right or wrong. I did resize on RCBS die and rings are there but maybe not as bad. Loaded one with 40 grains of varget and 185 nosler bt. Shot it out to see if maybe rings might come out but they didn't. I'm going to load the ones with ring half way around the brass and discard the others. Used some simple orange I use to clean my semi shotguns with inside a case and it's all good inside best I can tell. I'm only loading 40 or so a week to go to the range and wanted to extend the use of my brass as long as possible. I didn't like the brass prices on the internet. Had no idea it was that expensive. I still have 30 rounds of factory to shoot up but I do like the re loads.
 
Re: post #5
Sounds like you are making things more complicated than they should be. Why a neck sizing die also? You are probably in for some additional non-helpful suggestions--here is mine. Make the full length RCBS die do the satisfactory job on range brass and those fired in your 700. First back off on the 1/4 turn you say you apply and then back another 1/2 turn or more. The only reason the additional quarter turn might have been needed in the first place would be if it became necessary to set the shoulder back some. Now size some miscellaneous cases and before doing anything else see if they will easily chamber in your rifle. If so you should be good to go with that die adjustment and forget the neck sizing die. Keep in mind that die dimensions can vary slightly and likewise chamber dimensions which affects the dimensions of fired brass.
 
Me personally, I love my Lee Collet Neck dies.

There's one big thing they do over others, there's no expander ball going through the neck to pull the neck off center even more.
 
If the Lee FL die is defective, the case shoulder could have been pushed back to far on sizing. To much case stretch on firing, may cause a separation in the case body. A bright shiny ring is the first clue.
 
I took the one I just shot with the ring on it. Flsized it on the RCBS die. Ring still there. Put it in drill to trim and just remembered I had some scotch Brite pads. While in drill held pad over brass gave it about 10 spins. No more ring. Is that natural? Don't know if it makes any difference but I'm checking the empty resized brass in my rifle and a headspace guage. If they are fresh fired they won't bottom out in my guage.
 
I did both full length and neck sizing. And now I only do full length. Too bad I don't have a neck die for 0.308, or I sell it to you cheap. There could be more accurate neck sizing, but it is unobservable in my case. But it is surely more hassle.

I routinely have 20 loads, or more, out of my brass. It is not that hard if you don't hot rod your loads.

-TL
 
I don't know what is making those marks, but I doubt it's any FL die. Marks left by a piece of hard debris in a die will be lengthways of the shell. A mark on the side of the brass would have to be put on there radially, by turning it against something. If you are rotating the shell while it's inside the die, then that mark could be caused by a defect in the die, a burr or machining mark, or some abrasive in the die that's imbedded in the steel.

Those shells should be fine to fire, that is a very shallow scratch. Only discard them if it can be felt inside the case. The fact that you could polish it out so easily shows it's not too deep.
 
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