Starline brass in 32 acp . . . help!

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Prof Young

New member
Loaders:

With a dearth of 32 acp on the store shelves, I ordered some Starline 32 acp brass and set out to make my own.

The brass goes up in to the sizer die with a click and takes super power strength to pull them back out leaving a line around the brass.

I readjusted the die etc.

No change.

See pic below.

What the heck is going on?

Life is good.
Prof Young
 

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Those are 32ACP? Maybe it ia the angle and lighting, but they look too long. Assuming it is just my old eyes, are you using 32acp dies and not trying to use one of those 32 dies that cover a range of brass?
Are they carbide dies?
Decapping/resizer should just slightly kiss the shellplate. RCBS instructions are great and tend to work with other brands as well
 
agree, they look too long in the picture...

What does the case headstamp say?

How long is the brass???

.32ACP case max length is 0.680, according to my old Lyman manual.

Are you using a .32acp sizer die? Who's?? Carbide?? regular steel? Lube??

a little more info would help rule out some possibilities..
 
Agreed. That doesn't look right.
How are the dies marked?

Is the ring concentric? Some of those cases look like they got bent by the die -- from, say, the wrong shell holder or one that the rims don't fit well.


Some thoughts, while we wait on a response:
The 'click' may just be a bur on the case mouth. I've seen this several times with Starline brass. It could also be a loose carbide insert, if using a carbide die.

Hornady dies tend to leave weird sizing marks, since the internal finish is often worse that most other brands.

Lee .32 Auto and .32 S&W die sets are piecemeal affairs. They don't actually have all ".32 Auto" or all ".32 S&W" dies; and they seem to change up what is in the sets based on what is in stock.
Lee also shipped some sets recently with .30 SC sizing dies, which won't resize the case properly - but in the opposite direction from what you're getting.
 
Hmmm . . .

Head stamp says 32 Auto. Is that not the same as 32 ACP?

I'll get the calipers out, measure one and get back to you all.

Thanks.

Life is good.
Prof Young
 
.32 Auto, .32 ACP and 7.65mm (Kal 7.65mm or 7.65mm Browning) are the same cartridge.

There are other .32s and even other 7.65mm cartridges (the 7.65mm Luger is known in the US as the .30 Luger, and there is an obsolete French round the 7.65mm MAS) that are much different cases than the .32ACP.

Please measure the cases you have, so we know if they are actually out of spec, or if it is just the perspective and camera angle of the picture that makes them look "too long".

Also, please let us know exactly what sizer die you are using, (what brand, and how it is marked).

Starline has a reputation for making pretty good stuff. But mistakes are always possible. IF a batch of their brass is significantly too long, and it got past their QC, they need to know about it.

If the brass is ok, and you're using the wrong die, or your die is bad, you need to know about it. ;)

eagerly waiting for more information on this curious problem...
 
Hmmm...maybe it's lube thing . . .

Loaders:

First, thanks for all the help.

The brass is 0.673 inches so that can't be it.

I'm using a Lee carbide sizing die, so that's most likely not the problem.

I'll try some case lube. I've never had to lube pistol brass before, but there's always a first time. Will let you know how it goes.

Life is good.
Prof Young
 
I use carbide Lee dies for .32acp without lube and have never had this problem. Strange. My first guess after reading only the first post was the brass is .32 S&W. But I guess not.
 
When I got into 327 Fed reloading, I bought a big bag of Starline Brass and a set of Lee dies.

They were very hard to size and they were very hard to run through the expander.

Eventually I started getting a few case splits well before I should have. I realized I was wearing out my brass by sizing it down much more than needed.

My problem was that the Lee dies seemed to be set up to size down the thinnest wall 32 brass and still have a tight fit for a 0.308" bullet. Not a good thing as I load 0.314 cast bullets and my brass is probably thicker than some 32 brass.

Measure the ID of your all of the brass that you have run a least a little bit into the sizer. Pick the biggest measurement you found. The die is probably smaller than you need if it is more than say 0.004" smaller than the smallest bullet diameter you expect to load.

I have a Mini lathe. I chucked up my die, put a fine grit diamond burr in a dremel and removed a little material off of the surface of the carbide ring. I then did some lapping. I checked, and found I had not removed enough material. I repeated this process a few times until my sized brass would run through the expander with light effort. The finish on the ID of the die is not a smooth as I would like but it is working fine. It is easy to use now and it is and not scratching the brass or scraping the oxide off of the brass.

My die is "too big" for some 32 reloading now. I am ok with this given how much better it is for my application. Note that a replacement die is probably cheaper (should I ever want one) than another bag of 327 brass (that I would have likely needed soon if I had not fixed my sizer).
 
When I got into 327 Fed reloading, I bought a big bag of Starline Brass and a set of Lee dies.

They were very hard to size and they were very hard to run through the expander.

Eventually I started getting a few case splits well before I should have. I realized I was wearing out my brass by sizing it down much more than needed.

My problem was that the Lee dies seemed to be set up to size down the thinnest wall 32 brass and still have a tight fit for a 0.308" bullet. Not a good thing as I load 0.314 cast bullets and my brass is probably thicker than some 32 brass.

Measure the ID of your all of the brass that you have run a least a little bit into the sizer. Pick the biggest measurement you found. The die is probably smaller than you need if it is more than say 0.004" smaller than the smallest bullet diameter you expect to load.

I have a Mini lathe. I chucked up my die, put a fine grit diamond burr in a dremel and removed a little material off of the surface of the carbide ring. I then did some lapping. I checked, and found I had not removed enough material. I repeated this process a few times until my sized brass would run through the expander with light effort. The finish on the ID of the die is not a smooth as I would like but it is working fine. It is easy to use now and it is and not scratching the brass or scraping the oxide off of the brass.

My die is "too big" for some 32 reloading now. I am ok with this given how much better it is for my application. Note that a replacement die is probably cheaper (should I ever want one) than another bag of 327 brass (that I would have likely needed soon if I had not fixed my sizer).
 
I'm using a Lee carbide sizing die, so that's most likely not the problem.
Click to expand...

actually, I'd say that most likely is the problem. :rolleyes:

I will admit I don't like Lee dies. Its mostly a feature and finish thing, but I have noticed that in other pistol calibers the Lee sizers I've used size the brass smaller than my RCBS and Lyman dies do.

OK, so case length is good, you might also check an unsized case diameter but I suspect it will be within normal range, as well, so that kind of leaves the die as the likely culprit.

A carbide sizer die should not be super tough to use, nor require lube. That's the whole point of the carbide sizer. Lube doesn't HURT and makes things even easier, but it shouldn't be needed.

There is a possibility that the carbide sizer ring in your die is "loose" (maybe that's where the "click" is coming from? Might or might not be "loose" to finger pressure and only move during the pressure of resizing.

I'm guessing at this point...

I would recommend getting a set of RCBS carbide dies and see what kind of difference that makes. (and get the RCBS shellholder too, one less variable to worry about)

also, if you can get your hands on any .32acp brass that isn't starline, run some of that through your sizer and see if it acts any differently.

Good Luck!
 
I use the lee carbide die set and star-line brass with no lube, no issue. Die set 32 Auto - 765 browning, 3 die set with shell holder (can't find part #) just my 2 cents but sounds like your die might be out of spec? have you contacted Lee with this issue? I hear they have good customer service, haven't had to call them yet to find out.
 
I would call Starline, and ask them about it. My experience with Starline brass has been that I do not need to size it before loading. I drop it into a case guage and if it drops right in (always has), no need to size it. I do debur the case mouth, chamfering I believe that is called. I do like to then use an expander die (I like Redding and Lyman for this), and adjust just until a bullet will stay in the brass and support its weight and the brass's weight. Then when placing a bullet on that brass it goes into the seating die.
Starline may have heard of this from customers, and would know if it is getting reported to Starline. They may also have insight into how to remedy.
https://www.starlinebrass.com/contact/
 
I have seen that before when the rims of the cases were just a little too thick. They hang up not quite all the way into the shell holder then "click" all the way in as you start up into the die. The first part of the case ends up being slightly out of round so it won't come back out of the die easily and has to be sized again on the down stroke. Measure the rims, and maybe polish the shellholder slot to give the cases just a smidgeon more room to fit.
 
Scorch's explanation makes sense because it explains why the ring isn't in the same location on each case. Some went more fully into the shell holder than the others.

If you ever looked at a chart of shell holders and which cases they will accommodate, you will find there is no universal agreement among manufacturers as to which cases should share the same holder, which means some makes will be tighter than others. Lee should be a number 7, but assuming that is what you have, I would remove it from the press and insert a case manually to see it can be inserted completely. If it can't, look for where the hangup is. If you can't slide your caes fully up against the back of the holder cut and can't spot why, or if the holder looks uneven in any way, send it and a couple of sample cases to Lee (call them first) so they can correct it. If you don't want to wait and you have an LGS with reloading equipment, the universal shell holder by Lyman (#23) or RCBS (#17) will work.
 
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