First outing Ruger American Ranch 7.62x39

It is just me. I don't want to get close to Hornady one shot lube. I still have 2 cans of it and I am happy to give them to you for free if you pay the shipping.

Down stroke of the handle or the ram?

-TL
Click to expand...
I'm pretty much of the same mind--I think they use a petroleum distillate to keep in solvent. I do, however, like their wax which comes in a tub and is much less expensive than imperial.
 
I'm a 6.5 Loony, so I went with the American Predator in Grendel and put it in a Boyd's Spike Camp stock. Look forward to the chrony results.
 
Well, I did use some Unique case lube over the one shot and things got easier, but you still need some lube on the inside of the case mouth, so that’s where the spray one shot has an advantage. The hard to size problem was mostly at the bottom of the down stroke. I never got that kind of drag when reloading 6.5 Grendel on the same press.
Also had a problem with the Lee bullet seating die. At max depth setting, the bullet was about 0.010 short of minimum COAL. Added a small washer between the seating stem and the adjusting screw to get more seating depth. That fixed that issue, but I’ve ordered a set of Hornady dies. Not very happy with the Lee die set so far.
P.S. did I ever say I really don’t care much for flat bottom bullets? The Nosler Varmageddon and the Hornady SSTs are hard to get started into the case mouth.
I also noticed a considerable amount of case neck stretching on resizing. Sometimes up to 0.010 inch stretch on once fired brass.
 
You never clarified whether it was down stroke of the handle or the ram. Based on your description it sounds like the it was the handle or the he upstroke of the ram.

I had that happened to me on a arisaka t38. The rifle has loose chamber while the Lee die is tight. The resizing was trying to iron out the slightly bulging brass. I could make it work with a bit more imperial wax smeared near the brass head. But it was still hard going. It is actually counter productive as the brass is being over worked for no benefit.

I started looking for other resizing die. I bought a bunch of old Hollywood dies. One of them was just right.

It may be the cause of your resizing problem.

-TL

P.S. for a small fee, you can ask Lee to hone the die to your specs. I believe you need to send in a few fired brass with the die.

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It was not on the upstroke. Most resistance was on the downstroke near the bottom. Chamber checker of resized case showed some overtravel was needed to squeeze the case to the correct dim in order to pass the plunk test
 
Ok it is near the lowest point of the ram travel. That's when the expander ball trays to expand the neck. First I would make sure the expander ball is low enough, away from the neck of the die. Or the brass will get caught between the expander ball and neck of the die. Next is to make sure you have adequate lube inside the brass. The critical area is under the shoulder and inside the neck. If necessary I apply imperial wax there with Q tip.

Hope this helps.

-TL

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The expander ball is about as low as it can go in the die, but the drag is on the handle downstroke. The expander ball doesn’t do its job until being extracted from the case. I am not impressed with the 7.62x39 Lee die set.
 
Now it is the down stroke of the handle, or the upstroke of the ram. It is when the brass is going in the die. Please see my previous posts.

-TL

Sent from my SM-N960U using Tapatalk
 
Unless the expander ball is too low and is hitting the bottom of the case before the ram is bottomed out. Try running a case that’s been deprimed up far enough for the expander to clear the neck. Then loosen the expander, run the case the rest of the way up, then move the expander down until it bottoms out, then move it up far enough to comfortably clear the bottom of the case and tighten it down. I know this is basic stuff and you’ve most likely done this given your experience, but sometimes I miss basic things even after thirty years of loading myself and need to be reminded.
 
I bought one of these little Rugers back in 2018. My hunting load is the Sierra125 grain Pro Hunter. It has not failed me on coyotes, deer or hogs. Accuracy is fairly good, under two inches at 100 yards. Usually about 1.5 inches.
Accuracy with commie steel case ammo can be all over, but never as good as my handloads. I started with Hornady factory steel case with their tipped bullets. Good stuff, but spendy.
 
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