SOME cases seem to stick in the expander/priming stage.

L

Lavan

New member
This is weird.
SOME....not many....but SOME of the cases extract hard (not real hard) from the expander/priming die of my Lee loader.

What makes it seem so strange is that I am working with BRAND NEW unprimed cases from Hornady.

Can't figure out why a FEW would tend to stick and come out with a "CLACK" as there is no visible difference from case to case.

:confused:
 
Fixed it.

Gave the shell holder a quarter turn and it stopped acting up.

Why that would be is still a mystery. If the shell holder was cocked or off center, it SEEMS it should have affected ALL the cases.

But...... :confused::confused::cool::eek::D
 
I don't know why turning the shell holder would help, but if it does, it does.

I've seen the same sticking on my Dillon Square Deal press loading new 45 Auto brass. New, shiny brass doesn't have the carbon traces inside the case mouth that most fired brass does, and that actually provides some slip. You can pull out the expander from your die and clean it with a good copper solvent bore cleaner to get brass traces off of it. Then clean and degrease it and buff a little graphite powder into its surface with a patch. Alternately, you can dip your case mouths in graphite.
 
It's running fine now. :confused:

I'd make a joke of using OIL, but I'd be scared of the flames. :D

Makes absolutely no logical sense. And to only affect SOME of the cases.

Oh well, turn shell holder and it stops.

:cool:
 
The Lee expander/ through die is supposed to "stick".
This according to Lee. Helps make sure all the powder drops into the case.
 
I'm having the same problem but with practically every case. I've only reloaded 200 so far, so all have been new cases. At first I thought it was the "abrupt stop to make sure all the powder falls" that the manual mentions, but this is ridiculous. It came to the point where things were falling off my shelves from the loading bench rocking as I forced the press lever back up.

I'm going to try cleaning and polishing the plug, then if that doesn't work, I'll dry-lube the inside of case mouths.

There's a video on YouTube showing a Dillon press with brass buildup on the expander plug. He says cleaning and polishing the plug fixes the problem, and also said it's mostly on new brass.
 
New brass is surprisingly inconsistent. I find a few show this when I flare the case.
I don't "work" brass very much because I don't like split mouths.
My flare is bare minimum to start bullet and I can feel almost no flare on a very few cases.
This can only mean that the length of the new cases has a bit of variance.
It could also mean a short stroke but I repeated on the ones I noticed.
A few are shorter.
 
Also try trimming all the cases to one consistent length. A little longer case goes farther up on the expander , the farther up it goes the more the case gets expanded thus the extra resistance . On a progressive this extra expanding/resistance shows up easily.
Brand new brass is a lot more inconsistent than you would think. I trim and resize all new brass rifle and handgun. The case mouths get all beat up and out of round during manufacture and shipping.
Gary
 
Another thought, if your using Lee powder through dies, it helps a lot to polish the expander and if possible for you, coat it with some graphite. Of course this only applies to pistol cartridges which I assume you are talking about.
 
Oops, at least if I was going to repeat something previously posted I feel pretty good that my experience coincides with yours Uncle Nick.
 
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